National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation Committee intensive for chairpersons and representatives from all ten states and Abyei Area that started on October 1 running through 28 is in its second week in Juba.
The training, titled ‘A Step Together: Shared Journeys of Listening and Dialogue’ is equipping 76 participants with skills to train 50 persons in their states so that next year approximately 550 ‘peace mobilisers’ will travel to payams to document reconciliation narratives and needs of communities.
The Committee’s Secretary General Reverend Bernard Suwa said the participants including 24 women represent more than half of the 64 tribes of South Sudan.
He expressed the Committee’s commitment to realize peace, adding that they are ready to learn together.
Reverend Suwa said he saw some of the participants crying together after hearing horrendous testimonies about the recent conflicts.
He said ‘even if the conflict were to end tomorrow, true healing and reconciliation cannot come in a suitcase from Addis Ababa; it starts with all of us here in South Sudan.’
The Secretary-General explained that in the next two years, the Committee would continue to facilitate a nation-wide consultation process at the grassroots to ensure that South Sudan’s future reconciliation journey is driven and shaped by its’ citizens’ rich experiences, knowledge, and needs.