October 20th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – A South Sudanese civil society organization, the Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ)has launched a two monothing long peace initiative for refugees in Northern Uganda’so Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement.
The Peace initiative known as ‘Hate no One’ is aiming at bringing South Sudan refugees from different ethnic groups together as a way of peace building between them.
It also aim at creating a community free from violence, dangerous acavities and hate speech. The project will run from 17th, October – 31st, November, 2018. The main theme of the pilot project is “Working towards community free from hate speech and violence”.
The launch of the project brought together twenty three (23) refugee leaders from different from different ethnic groups of South Sudan which is not limited to (Dinka, Nuer, Shullik, Kakuwa, Pujulu, Acholi, Madi Azande and Bari but also it involves other refugees leaders from different nationalities such as Kenyan refugee, Rwandan Refugees and Congolese refugees that are living in Kiryandongo refugee settlement.
Speaking during the launch, Moro Stephen Brown, CPJ’s Field Officer says the aim of the initiative is to create a peacefull atmosphere for all South Sudanese tribes to dialogue in.
“To establish peaceful co-existence is to appreciate the diverse cultures and tribes by all community members as well as understanding and identification of the different forms of dangerous and hate speeches that could escalate violence in the refugee camp and that can’t be without us working together you the community leaders and us the organization,” he said.
Philip Mathiang a Dinka Community Representative urges representative to define their identity as South Sudanese and as an ambassador of peace.
The Chairperson of Nuer community, Kuany Deng, urged South Sudanese leaders to talk about peace not only in theory but in practice
“Leaders should not talk about peace in theory but instead we need to go down to the communities to make that peace practical and we have now the opportunity with Centre for Peace and Justice to reach to the people,” Kuany said.
In a closing remark, the CPJ Programme Associate, Peter Makun, said peace must be realistic saying the intention of the organization is to create a atmosphere of dialogue between communities.
“Peace has to be realistic and our intention as an organization is to create a Platform where the communities dialogue and identify issues relate to dangerous and hate speeches that may lead to violence escalation and at the same time to find a way on how to handle those issues affecting the communities so that they live in peace and harmony,” he said.
