Support Peace Initiative Development Organization (SPIDO), in collaboration with the Greater Equatoria Land Alliance (GELA), with funding from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) over the weekend handed over land documents to 10 vulnerable people in Torit County’s Nyong Payam in Eastern Equatoria State.
SPIDO and GELA processed the land titles for the vulnerable persons who could not afford to pay for the process.
According to SPIDO, most of the land titles are for second and third-class plots in the suburbs of Addis Ababa, Morwari, and Ibalany with each title costing SSP 200,000.
Victoria Alex, one of the beneficiaries commended SPIDO and GELA for the “great initiative” and urged SPIDO to extend the support to the vulnerable population who do not have land titles.
“I thank SPIDO for what they have done for us and for their good initiative that provided us with these land titles,” she stated. “May God bless the organization to continue with their work and they should extend this to those who cannot afford titles.”
Another beneficiary, John Mario Abuwaraga, lauded SPIDO for the support, saying is the first of its kind in Eastern Equatoria State.
“In this world, if you have no land documents, your land will be grabbed. We have some citizens whose land has been grabbed from them and some are vulnerable and cannot process land documents. Also, those with power often photocopy documents to be sold to others.” He said. “SPIDO should continue with this exercise and now that we have our land document, we are going to make good use of them. This is the first initiative of its kind in Eastern Equatoria and we are very happy with SPIDO.”
Jacob Atari, the SPIDO legal advisor, said the project targets vulnerable community members and returnees. He thanked UNDP for its support.
“We are giving land documents to vulnerable people, those who cannot access land titles. So, SPIDO came to help vulnerable people, especially those who returned from neighboring countries such as Sudan and Uganda and have no money to acquire the documents from the municipality,” he explained. “We are so happy and appreciate UNDP for funding SPIDO to initiate such an exercise to support vulnerable groups. Each plot costs almost SSP 200,000 for the land lease and tokens for second and third-class plots.”
Meanwhile, Olibo George, the Town Clerk at Torit Municipal Council, acknowledged that most vulnerable people living in Torit have no land documents and thus need support.
“I appreciate SPIDO and GELA and hopefully next time you can support more vulnerable people to acquire land documents,” he stated. “You see our people shining on the road but financially they are suffering.”