Healing and peace building continue in South Sudan

In 2022, PWRDF began supporting a project with the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) to help people returning home after the civil war to rebuild their lives. Based on its success and continued need, the project was renewed in 2024.

The work is being done in Northern Bahr el Ghazal Internal Province (NBGIP), one of the eight ECSS internal provinces. The province is located in northwestern South Sudan and includes three states, Western Bahr el Ghazal (capital city Wau), Northern Bahr el Ghazal (Aweil) and Warrap (Kuajok). It includes the ECSS Dioceses of Wau, Aweil, Abyei, Gogrial, Tonj, Nyamlel and Wanyjok, most of border on Sudan to the north.

NBGIP is addressing high trauma, which impedes peace-building efforts and affects human behaviour and negative thinking. NBGIP Internal Provincial Secretary/JPR Officer is bringing peace building and providing trauma healing to many people. However, NBGIP covers a large area and much more is needed. NBGIP will engage with community leaders and armed youth in peace conferences so voluntary peace prevails in their communities and they live in a peaceful co-existence.

The objectives in the second year of the project include:

• To enable NBGIP to maintain and expand its justice, peace and reconciliation work and its trauma awareness over a period of one year.
• To build the capacity of community and religious leaders, youth and women to enable them to undertake peace building activities in the region.
• To promote women participation in peace building processes.
• To enhance the skills and knowledge in key peace building concepts of local authorities, chiefs, religious leaders, women and youth.

To achieve the objectives, NBGIP will organize four five-day peace conferences/workshops and consultations for 40 men and women from the community, including people from religious background and youth leaders. These workshops will include tracing the source of hatred/ethnic animosity, causes of the conflict (land grabbing, seasonal cattle movement, discrimination, tribalism/ethnicity, interethnic cooperation, small arms and light weapons in the hands of civilians, unknown gunmen, unemployment), possible ways of addressing them (such as reporting land grabbing to chiefs and land commission, forging agreements between cattle keepers and farmers, good governance, service provision and reduction in bride price, lessons learned and recommendations) and trauma awareness and response. These include defining types, causes and symptoms of trauma, and learning to heal the wounds of the heart.