Active Citizen equips young people with non-violent skills
In a bid to achieve societal stability and build peaceful coexistence, Active Citizen South Sudan, a youth led organization operating in the country is helping the young people to promote peace and unity among the communities.
Earlier this month, the organization trained about 50 youth on energizing nonviolent action and peace-building (SNAP). It sensitized the participants about dialogues and approaches necessary to tackle violent and conflict in the localities.
Gai Makiew Gai, the project officer for the organization said that the group embarked on such capacity building for the youth so that they play peace ambassadors’ role in the society.
“This initiative is to create awareness among the youth on important of peace among the communities. It also builds their skills on how the young people can contribute towards the nation building,” he said during the opening remark in Juba.
According to the activist, it was the high time for the country to achieve durable peace and stability.
Such training enhances the potentiality for the youth to contribute to the bigger peace in the country. These include supporting the revitalized peace accord.
“From the experience, prosperity, development technologies and all the good things happen when there is peace. For us to prosper and develop, we need to have peace. Having platforms that bring young people together create an opportunity for everyone individuals to exploit their skills in nation building,” Gai stated.
The training was attended by both males and females as the participants were drawn from diverse backgrounds across Juba with an overall aim of building their capacities to be become agents of peacebuilding.
“Peacebuilding is important tool for community harmony. If there is no peace, there is harmony in the society,” said Michael Biphal, the Executive Director of ACSS.
“This kind of youth gathering makes them to interact, network and engage. They can realize that they are one people and this enables them to work for the welfare of the society,” he stressed.
Biphal called on the stakeholders to invest in youth empowerment so that they contribute towards the development of the country.
“There is a need to build their capacities of the youth in different areas so that they can contribute towards the development of the people and communities,” he reiterated.
According to Biphal, once the youth were capacitated, they would transform the society to a better place.
For his part, Jacob Mangar Mayom, one of the participants who is a second-year student of Computer Science, Information and Technology at the University of Juba said he was ready to give back to the society after he received the skills.
“My major takeaway is to embark on awareness about peacebuilding, and how I can engage the communities to resolve future rising conflicts without violent. The communities need to be sensitized and this is the only way we can achieve complete stability,” he narrated.
Mayom revealed that he would be spreading the messages of peace and reconciliation to the school going children, church leadership and social gatherings at their convenience.
“The message I can give to the people is to maintain and live in harmony without violent because the violent is harmful to human lives,” he noted.
According to the youngster, such engagement would help the society to advance messages of peace and reconciliation.
Sarah Martin Madiar, another participant said that she was eager to transfer the skills on conflict transformation and mitigation.
“I have been given ideas on how to solve the conflict and I will transfer the same knowledge to the community. These includes dialogues and non-violent negotiations whenever there is a conflict in the society’
“So, I wish to advance these skills on conflict mitigation and transformation.”
The event themed “Promoting peace for prosperous South Sudan” is also helping the citizens to build sense of peaceful coexistence, said Madiar.
The training was conducted in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). It offers non-violent skills to build peaceful societies.
