SOUTH SUDAN’S GRASSROOTS CHURCH LEADERS TRAINED TO ESTABLISH ‘PARISH JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMITTEES’

13 March 2017 – A group of 45 grassroots church leaders from 14 Catholic parishes of the Archdiocese of Juba has attended a three days training workshop on Justice and Peace. The activity was held at the Good Shepherd Peace Centre in Kit, outskirt of Juba, from 09-11 March 2017.

The participants, which included 11 priests and 11 women, have been trained on the use of a Justice and Peace Manual, a tool for Justice and Peace Parish Committees, which has been produced by the Justice and Peace Office. They have also been guided on the formation of ‘Parish Justice and Peace Committees’.

Justice and Peace Workshop in Kit, March 2017

This training workshop is an activity under the Justice and Peace Office’s peacebuilding programme ‘Strengthening Peacebuilding in South Sudan’. It aims at training peacebuilding actors, or peacemakers, and at establishing Justice and Peace parish circles to promote justice, peace and reconciliation at the grass root level.

This activity is a continuation of a programme set to re-establish Justice and Peace Committees in all parishes of the Archdiocese of Juba that was initiated in 2015 by the Archdiocesan Justice and Peace Office with the collaboration of the Justice and Peace Office of the Comboni Missionaries.

JPIC working group at Kit

‘Strengthening Peacebuilding in South Sudan’ is an initiative of the Justice and Peace Office of the Comboni Missionaries with the support of Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund – SCIAF.

The expectations are that the trained participants may motivate and mobilise other individuals and communities across the Archdiocese of Juba to promote justice, peace and reconciliation at the grassroots.

Each participant has received a copy of a Justice and Peace Manual in Bari language. Some were also given an English version of the same handbook. This Justice and Peace Manual is a tool for formation, reflection and action and an attempt to provide some guidelines and training for individuals, Justice and Peace Committees and communities that have been engaged or wanting to get involved in Justice and Peace activities.

JPIC workshop in Kit

The 45 grassroots attendants were guided through the contents and use of this Justice and Peace resource and were tasked to establish a Justice and Peace Committee or to strengthen an existing one in their own parishes.

At the end of the training the participants of each parish met together and made an action plan. They are expected to be assisted by the Justice and Peace Office as they move on with the implementation of their proposed Justice and Peace activities.

The participants of a JPIC workshop, Kit

The Justice and Peace Office of the Comboni Missionaries intends to carry out the same programme in all seven Dioceses of South Sudan.