[Torit, South Sudan] The Committee for National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation (CNHPR) has started the training of 55 Peace Mobilizers in Torit in efforts to commence grassroots consultations in 75 payams of Eastern Equatoria State. In a press release obtained by the TCT, the Torit based training comes three months after the completion of training of a separate badge of 55 Peace Mobilizers in Warrap State.
Speaking in Torit, during the opening Ceremony of the training held on 17th August 2015, the Chairperson of CNHPR, Archbishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan Daniel Deng Bul told the participants that “CNHPR’s proposed process for South Sudan is home-grown... the role of peace mobilizers will be to help facilitate CNHPR’s strategy of going down to the grassroots.” said Deng
Archbishop Deng emphasized that after the training, the peace mobilisers will go to the communities “ to document people’s unaddressed past grievances, contemporary issues, in order to rebuild relationships between communities and individuals, and to draw on traditional mechanisms in which to facilitate dialogue and reconciliation" said Deng.
The Chairperson for CNHPR Sub-Committee in Eastern Equatoria Rev. Peter Leiwat Oduha appealed to all churches and other religions in South Sudan to support the faith-led process.
The CNHPR led an in-depth training and reconciliation journey in October 2014 in Yei for four weeks with 76 participants drawn from all the ten States and Abyei Administrative Area. Each State and Abyei was requested to send approximately five members to the training, in which they graduated as Leading Peace Mobilizers within their respective states.
The current ongoing training, the CNHPR is now working together with Eastern Equatoria delegation of six Leading Peace Mobilizers who participated at Yei training to train the 55 Peace Mobilizers. The mobilisers were selected from all the counties and administrative areas of Eastern Equatoria. They will help coordinate and document during the consultation process.
The participants include spiritual and traditional leaders, youths and women representatives. According to the press release, the peace mobilizers will be trained for two weeks, thereafter, they will be send in to the payams in teams of three to four individuals to facilitate grassroots consultations in which they will document issues voiced out by the communities.
Eastern Equatoria is the second State after Warrap in which consultations will be conducted as part of CNHPR’s three-year vision of collecting narratives from the communities of South Sudan. This is to ensure that South Sudan’s reconciliation journey is driven and shaped by its citizens’ rich experiences, knowledge, and needs.
As per CNHPR’s plan, payam consultations in each state will be followed by County conferences that will bring together delegates from different Payams to discuss and consolidate issues raised at Payam Consultations, said report. Each County will present its issues at a state general conference organized at each State’s Capital. Following the completion of consultations in all ten states and Abyei, CNHPR will organize a national healing, peace and reconciliation conference in Juba, after which it will present this people-driven reconciliation agenda in 2016.
BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS
