At least 100 community members in Yei River County on Friday completed a five-day training on community resilience and climate change aimed at equipping locals with practical knowledge to protect the environment and respond to climate-related challenges.
The training, supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), brought together representatives from partner organizations, community-based groups, women’s groups, youth groups, elders, persons with disabilities, and traditional chiefs.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj after the training, IOM Community Engagement Advisor Imad Ahmed emphasized that the training equipped participants with practical approaches to strengthen resilience and support sustainable community development.
“This workshop was to empower the community to find solutions that can help protect the community and also protect the community’s development and other communities as well,” he said. “We need to build individual resilience and then look at how communities can build community resilience, and we look at how that can also be looked at in the climate lines.”
“So, how can we build climate resilience in the community especially to most vulnerable people which are farmers, agriculturalists, people that bring food security to the country and make sure that they are empowered to understand the challenge that are brought on by climate changes and how its going to impact them with solutions to make sure that communities can continuously prosper and be able to provide food for themselves in the communities and become more resilient,” Ahmed added.
Speaking on behalf of the women’s coalition, Goro Grace described the training as an important initiative that builds capacity for individuals to become problem-solvers.
“We have been trained on issues of resilience and how we can be able to accept what we have. At times as NGOs, or as communities, we tend to imagine things from the surface of what the problem is and approach it without really going deep and asking what is really in the person’s mind and also how we can help others,” she said. “We should not only be helped but also be able to help. Let every member be part of problem-solving because there are certain problems that we cannot solve as individuals but as a community.”
Gaga Frank, the Chairperson of the Yei River County Youth Association, said the training provided practical skills for young people to respond to climate challenges. He called on youth to embrace climate-smart agricultural practices as a key step toward resilient communities.
“It has been a great training that provided the youth with practical skills, generated positive solutions that can help the youth support climate resilience projects in the community,” he said. “I want to appeal to the young people that practising smart agriculture, planting trees, maintaining our environment, and protecting our environment is key. We have to take this training very seriously and practice all the things that we have learned.”
Meanwhile, Alice Siama, the chairlady of the Yei Women Association, lauded IOM for organizing the training and urged participants to put the skills into practice to promote environmental protection and peaceful coexistence.
“Thank you, IOM. This workshop brings changes in our lives, and we must practice what we have learned,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of chiefs, Paramount Chief Joseph Brown Lomose challenged traditional leaders to lead by example by applying the lessons and encouraging communities to take an active role in protecting the environment.
“This year, let us work by example because you lead and others follow; if you don’t lead by example, there is nothing that can go ahead,” he said.
and then