Africa Life Aid (ALA), in partnership with the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) on Monday, conducted a one-day workshop centered on gender-based violence and dialoguing with local leaders to influence local laws and policies affecting women’s rights in Central Equatoria State’s Terekaka County.
The workshop brought together women leaders, church leaders, chiefs, youth, and teachers among other stakeholders.
Ocieng Stephen, a project officer with Africa Life Aid and the organizer of the workshop said the workshop aimed at enhancing women’s rights and protecting them from harmful practices by empowering women and sensitizing them on gender-based violence prevention.
“Women’s rights have been violated, especially their rights to education, right of expression and they are forced into early marriages and excluded from participation in politics and decision making in the society,” he said. “My message to the leaders is that we should always strengthen women’s rights in the community because these rights do exist but women do not know about them.”
For her part, Asunta Paul, the chairlady of the women in Terekeka County, said this is the first workshop in the county to tackle women’s rights and enhance their leadership skills.
“For women to get their rights in South Sudan, we need to tell every society that we should send our girls to school so that they can make decisions in the future and get their rights in society,” she said. “Here in Terekeka, women do not know about their rights so we need this kind of awareness to reach the grassroots so that the society is aware.”
A teacher who attended the workshop said it is their work to carry the burden of society when it comes to school-going girls who are faced with early and forced marriage which are being practiced by the local communities.
“As a teacher, this is my biggest problem because girls do not know about their rights and that is the main reason why I came to attend this workshop because it is important to find solutions to such problems in our society,” he said.
Established by South Sudanese in 2016, ALA supports communities in partnership with NPA and works in the areas of women empowerment, prevention of, and response to gender-based violence in Terekeka County in Central Equatoria State and Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria State.