A one-day community peace dialogue for women and youth in Maridi county over the weekend ended with a call for equal participation of women in peacebuilding and leadership in South Sudan.
The peace dialogue, organized by the National Women Empowerment and Rehabilitation Organization (NWERO) with support from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, under the theme ‘Youth and women, united against barriers to women participation in peacebuilding processes in South Sudan’ was attended by over 30 women and girls.
Speaking during the dialogue, NWERO program coordinator, Mokili Elias Justin, said the peace dialogue aimed at promoting peace by addressing socio-cultural factors that affect women's participation in local and national peace processes and strengthen women emancipation and development in the county.
“This dialogue is one of the activities to break the barriers of the common social and cultural practices that affect the contribution of women in community work. Our goal is to empower, to bring up these young women so that they can be engaged in local and national initiatives such as the peace process. We have identified that there is a gap between young women and older women. When these women get out of the office, who will replace them,” Mokili said.
For her part, the former peace and reconciliation advisor in the now-defunct Maridi State, Sadia Bullen, urged the women in South Sudan to be united and push for peace like women in Rwanda and Iraq.
“We need to strengthen our young girls starting from the Boma level up to the national level. Today, if you go to Rwanda, 80 percent of the offices are headed by women, not like ours here,” Sadia explained.
The participants’ representative, Alice Mandulu, appreciated NWERO for the initiative to educate them on the importance of their participation as women in peacebuilding.
NWERO was established 11 years ago in 2010 to champion the rights and welfare of women and children in South Sudan.