Women Foundation for Humanity on Tuesday commenced training on land rights for some 25 women paralegals who will be assisting sensitize and record land cases in Juba, Torit, Yambio and other places.
Doroth Drabuga, Executive Director for Women Foundation for Humanity which partners the Greater Equatoria Land Alliance (GELA), said the training supported by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) will go a long way in informing vulnerable women on their land rights and also on means of pursuing justice.
In this country, women land rights are not respected, women don’t enjoy their full rights to land. The reason why we are doing this training is to train women who will be recording down issues of land that women are facing in their various communities because a lot is happening, but it is not being recorded and nobody knows about it,” Drabuga said during opening of the training in Juba.
She disclosed that they have already established women land rights groups in eight locations including Juba, Yambio, Torit and Nimule and other places.
Drabuga said that trainee will record down the land cases and also guide women affected by land disputes on where to report their grievances.
In addition, the women paralegals will offer necessary support to protect the rights of women on land ownership.
“One of the things we are doing with these women groups is to sensitize them on the legal frameworks in this country that protect their rights, and also we support them economically, we give them some start-up capital,” Drabuga said.
“Of course, you can raise awareness but if you don’t support them economically they will still remain vulnerable. We want to avoid that and we want them to be independent and also being independent can help avoid issues of gender-based and sexual-related violence,” she added.
Drabuga said that in most communities women are vulnerable to exploitation because of poverty.
She said that their program to empower women economically is aimed to enable them to register land cases within court of law.
