Sometimes you need to speak as many languages as possible to put your message across. The ongoing “Too young to be Married” media campaign has captured the attention of the youth especially those who listen to radio stations or are actively engaged on various social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter.

This being a campaign that’s intended to raise awareness and empower both girls and boys with correct information, skills and networks to enable them recognize child marriage and early pregnancy as a gross violation of their rights and take mitigating action is key in championing Child marriage in South Sudan, we understand that music is one way we can easily pass the message to this category of people.

The song titled “Child Marriage” was composed and produced by Dj Cent, a prominent South Sudanese artists who has been at the frontline of advocacy against GBV using his voice/music to raise awareness on issues of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in South Sudan. Dj Cent is famously known in South Sudan for his song “In-law why are you beating my sister”. A song that dominates radio playlists and programs/events in South Sudan especially during 16 Days of Activism.

Dj Cent at Radio One during a talk-show about His new song on ending Child Marriage in South Sudan

He did it again with this new song he produced for the “Too Young to be Married” media campaign. In this song, he highlights the effects of child marriage child at an individual, family and community level. In the video he illustrates the difference between a young girl who is married off at an early age and the other who is sent to school and marries at a later age.

CREW Staffs together with the artist had four (4) radio talk shows on Miraya FM, Eye Radio, City FM and 87.9 Radio One-South Sudan. These talk shows focused on the new song and the song is already becoming a hit on these radio stations. During the talk show while premiering the song, a number of listeners called in to appreciate the initiative taken by Crown the Woman, UNFPA and DJ Cent to end child marriage. Here is the audio link to the song:

http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/30228390 and the video is also being played on various. you can check it out on youtube as well!

In South Sudan, people often use “culture” as a justification for most forms of violence against women especially when it comes to issues to do with marriage. Child marriage is literally accepted as part of cultural practices and traditions in customary laws in South Sudan, the same customary laws whose customs and traditions are used as a source of legislation. Despite the fact that the government of South Sudan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which have been localized, the parliament as well passed the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children, which prohibits child marriage. The legal framework in South Sudan that governs child marriage consists of the Interim Constitution of 2011, the Child Act of 2008, the Penal Code of 2008, the Criminal Procedures Act of 2008, the Local Government Act of 2009, and the Peace Agreement, which is supreme over Customary Laws and by-laws practiced by chiefs in all states. But all these efforts are strongly hindered by culture backed by customary laws that run the show in South Sudan when it comes to Child Marriage.

To bring this discussion to the attention of the public, CREW had the opportunity to engage with the Executive Director of Steward Women, a women’s organization that provides legal services through its established mobile community based legal aid centers /courts. Mrs. Josephine Chandiru shared her experience fighting for justice for women in South Sudan. “Access to justice for women and girls is just on paper, it’s not in reality” she said. Even a few victims who take legal action come back and beg the organization to drop the case due to lack of support from their family, pressure and to some extend victims are threatened and for fear of their lives choose to drop the case and be silent, she added. Rule of Law must prevail for effects such as the one Steward Women has in place to move smoothly and be impactful, and that right there is our biggest challenge in South Sudan.

We were also joined by Mr. Philips Anyang Ngong, a human rights lawyer who through his organization, “Advocates Without Borders” has been strongly advocating for that “marriageable age” to be defined in the constitution. His organization filed a petition in 2017 at the supreme court of South Sudan that is being looked at now at the second opinion to clarify and constitutionalize marriageable age. “Besides the use of customs and the unclear legal age of marriage, South Sudan has the Child Act 2018 that has not yet been operationalized” says Mr. Philips. During the radio talk-show, Mr. Anyang was able to share in depth the gabs in the constitution and challenges they face in this field and gave recommendations and what needs to be done constitutionally to end Child Marriage in South Sudan. The talk show was a very insightful show as he interacted with listeners who called in to ask him several questions as well as those that appreciated the topic and also shared their opinions regarding the weak legal framework in South Sudan.

There are various provisions from the different laws that are contradictory and full of loopholes that make it difficult to win child marriage cases in courts so as to establish a legal precedent.

Mr. Philips Anyang, A human rights lawyer during a radio talkshow on understanding the legal framework with regard to protecting of girls from Child Marriage in South Sudan

Marriageable age is undefined, the customary laws that govern child marriages are recognized in the constitution, the Penal Code criminalizes the would-be husband who marries an under-age child but not those who make decisions or preside over it. There is no provision that protects a minor boy who impregnates a girl even if she is of the same age, so boys are not equally protected. Abduction of girls for marriages, giving out girls as blood money for crimes committed by males of the family, and inheritance of girls after the death of their sisters are all happening at a time when they are not legally able to give consent as a child. The rewarding of rapists with marriage
of the rape victim as a way to overcome stigma
and or bring compensation to the girls’ families
has been characterized by stakeholders as an appalling miscarriage of justice and recommended that criminal acts such as rape should not be amenable to arbitration through the customary laws but addressed through the statuary courts with stiff penalties.

All these contradictions between and within the pieces of legislations frustrate efforts in place to end Child Marriage in South Sudan.

To end Child Marriage, a functioning legal framework is vital, the Ministry of Justice has a lot to do here. It’s heartbreaking to see constitutional post holders engage in acts of child marriage and they go unpunished.

For the past two months, CREW has been conducting mentorships in six (6) secondary schools namely; Juba Day, Promised Land, Don Bosco, Nile Model, Juba Diocesan and Juba Commercial secondary school). This program was intended to enhance the students’ understanding of School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV), the various forms of SRGBV, its effects or consequences on students and, Prevention and Response mechanisms.

Nancy, One of CREW mentors engaging with her group of students

CREW with support from the trained volunteer mentors were able to reach out to 1,470 students, (862 girls and 608 boys). This mentorship was very effective because of the students overwhelming participation, remarkable knowledge on GBV especially  SRGBV, and their willingness to spearhead prevention and response both in schools and at their community levels. Their knowledge on SRGBV confirmed how impactful CREW’s last year’s engagement with these students during the establishment of the GBV Prevention Clubs in their schools were.

The students emphasised the need to engage teachers and parents in this process. Other students had a moment of awakening and acknowledged how they had unknowingly either been inflicting some of the SRGBV forms on other students or have unknowingly been violated by their peers. This mentorship program gives these young boys and girls, especially the young girls who in most cases are the most vulnerable an opportunity to build and increase their social assets and safety nets to protect themselves from violence and respond to threats and incidents of violence.

Confidence: A student giving her opinions while the mentor looks on.

All this would not have been possible without the unwavering support from our well informed volunteer mentors who availed themselves despite their busy schedules from the start of the mentorship program to the end. They mentored the students in a much easier and practical way by giving examples from their real life experiences as a reference to school related gender based violence. By showing vulnerability they made it easy for the students to relate and also share openly. The mentorship did not only enhance the student’s capacity on SRGBV but also built a bond between students and the mentors.

On the other hand, being end of the academic year (final term), it was not easy to have these schools give us the dates and hours we needed to effectively engage with the students. Some schools could only give us 3hours of their time which limited our ability to fully exhaust the discussions with the students. A few mentorship programs in some schools were postponed from their initial dates to other dates due to unforeseen changes in school programs. In most schools, the mentorships didn’t involve candidate classes (Senior four Students) because schools wanted them less engaged in any extra-curricular activities and focus their preparations on the upcoming National Examinations.

A student during a discussion on SRGBV

However, with this experience, we have learnt to be more strategic when designing programs in schools. To ensure inclusivity of all classes and students including candidates and have ample time, it’s important to plan such extensive programs/activities during the first two terms.

This intensive process also made us realize that team-work is the absolute recipe for getting any work done with the utmost success. We were able to achieve all this within a short period of time because of the combined efforts of volunteer mentors, CREW staffs, volunteers from respective schools that did the coordination on ground and extra support from various service providers.

Some up-close beautiful mentor-students moments

Children giving birth to children in South Sudan is one of the leading causes of the higher rates of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. Early pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for girls age 15- 19 in South Sudan. A 15-year-old girl in this country has greater chance of dying in childbirth than of finishing school. Given the limited and poor health facilities and services, majority of these young girls who are married off early and get pregnant at an early age have limited access to decent health services during pregnancy. This is an emotionally difficult and transitioning time for these young girls who happen to be children themselves exposing them to diseases such as obstetric fistula. These young girls are also at higher risks of intimate partner violence and other forms of violence, some find themselves in multiple partnership networks in polygamous and inter-generational marriages, further exposing them to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. In some communities, inter-generational marriages lead to practice of wife-sharing by men, their sons, brothers and relatives for reproduction and kinship maintenance.

To enlighten South Sudanese on this issue, throughout the month of October, the campaign focused on making the public understand the negative health consequences of Child Marriage and Early Child Bearing.

CREW reached out to the Director General of Ministry of Health, Dr. Alexander Dimiti, Women Reproductive Health Advocate and Former Miss World-South Sudan, Manuela Modong and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Gender Analyst, Viola Riak. All views which were later shared on various social media platforms.

In the conversation with Dr Alexander, he clearly highlighted the consequences of early child bearing and strongly condemned the negative cultural practices where a girl child is considered a “woman” the minute she gets her first period. Starting one’s menstrual cycle does not mean one is now a woman and ready for marriage and to bear children.

UNFPA Gender Analyst, Viola Riak during a radio talkshow

Manuela Modong being someone who engages with adolescent girls and boys in her field of work, she was able to share some of the devastating experiences she has had dealing with these young girls, pointing out the high level of exposure these young girls have to Sexually Transmitted Diseases. In addition, the fact that these pregnant young girls are not able to take care of themselves for example, sleeping under mosquito nets, eating balanced diet, going for antenatal visits, they risk getting pregnancy complications such as premature birth and death of the child or both mother and her baby among others.

On the last talk show, CREW hosted the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Gender Analyst Viola Riak who extensively discussed the role that UNFPA played in developing the Strategic National Action Plan to End Child Marriage in South Sudan by 2030. She also talked about the services provided by UNFPA to girls affected by child marriage and early child bearing in South Sudan; such as strengthening the midwifery in South Sudan to support young mothers, training mid-wives both national and international in 14 centres in the whole of South Sudan to ensure that no mother dies during birth, provision of family planning services among many others.

Poor and limited health facilities and services nationwide, illiteracy that hinders sharing and acceptance of information on sexual and reproductive health specially prevention of unwanted early teenage pregnancy are some of the main reasons South Sudan has the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity as compared to other parts of the world.

Women Reproductive Health Advocate and Former Miss World-South Sudan, Manuela Modong Sharing her experiences working on reproductive health especially with adolescent girls

• Massive awareness raising programs and campaigns nation-wide on the negative health consequences of child marriage and early child bearing. Designing appropriate programs that provide families and communities with information/education and reproductive health services spearheaded by the Ministry of Health
• The government needs to prioritize the health sector in South Sudan and allocate enough funding to ensure health facilities are improved and services offered to citizens especially maternal health care.
• Sex education should be mandatory and incorporated in the education curriculum of South Sudan.

Early this year CREW trained 10 mentors on trauma healing skills, the mentors in return conducted a two-day workshop for 242 adolescent girls from three (3) secondary schools namely; Promised Land, Juba Day and Don Bosco Senior Secondary school. The mentors for the two days while engaging with the girls in smaller groups were able to help the girls understand Trauma and Trauma overview, Symptoms and triggers of trauma, wounded-ness and psychosocial well-being, Mindfulness and the phases of healing, how to respond to trauma with self and how to help others, Emotional regulation, Mentoring and support system, Safety and relationships, IASC guidelines on mental health and Communication and Self-care. These mentors further encouraged those who didn’t feel ready and comfortable enough to share their issues before the group to write on paper and had private one-on-one sessions with each of them over tea and lunch breaks. An approach that gave the girls the confidence to participate and speak up.

students helping the mentors distribute sanitary pads and soap to their fellow students after at the end of the session

As a result of this out of school intimate engagement, the girls’ academic performance immensely improved in their next term. Don Bosco Secondary school had a total number of 21 girls (best performers) leading in all the classes. The school had to organize a celebration to recognize the girls and invited CREW to celebrate with them. “We owe this improvement of these girls’ performance to CREW, this is the fruit of your talking to these girls” says the Principle. They did it, our little angels broke the school record and made us so proud. Sometimes all you need is someone to just talk to, someone who can help you lift some of the baggage you are carrying.

In October, we organized another 3 days’ half day workshops but this time within the school premises and brought the mentors to engage with the girls again. The half day workshops were organized per school. This was simply;

1. To ensure the numbers per mentor were really smaller to give each mentor ample time to engage with each girl, and
2. To instead use the money that would have otherwise been spent on hiring a venue, transportation costs, snacks and refreshments…etc. to procure sanitary towels and washing soap for the girls. Lack of proper menstrual hygiene management products is one of the main challenges that’s is affecting these young girls’ school attendance on monthly basis. Being the final term of the year, and knowing that some of these girls are preparing for their National Examinations, we knew what keeping them in school during these days for those few remaining months would mean to them.

Hellen Hivita, One of CREW mentors during her session with girls at Promised Land Secondary School

These mentors were able to reach out to 455 girls as compared to the 242 girls during the first joint two- day workshop that was held outside the school premises. And each girl got three (3) packets of sanitary pads and two (2) bars of soap at the end of each day.

The girls where excited to have received the sanitary pads because due to poverty many of them lack the basic support from their parents, and if they got it’s never enough.

The girls acknowledged and really appreciated the fact that their mentors are in touch with them. This workshops gave these girls an opportunity to speak up

However, not all of them were able to open up/speak up. Especially the girls who missed the previous two-day workshop and were meeting some of these mentors for the first time. Some really have a lot of stress and trauma from the violence they have experienced and just didn’t feel ready enough to share.

The girls wish to have more trauma healing sessions as the previous ones were very helpful to them and they hope these kinds of engagements will be frequent because building relationships and trust is a process and they need that with their mentors. They also shared how the sessions are helping them build their confidence as they start to feel better after speaking up about some of the things they have never shared with anyone in their lives. The fact that most of their mentors are young women makes them feel comfortable enough and trust that this really is a safe space for them.

CREW mentors distributing sanitary pads and soap after the sessions at Don Bosco Secondary School

Some of their key recommendations included;

• Need for sex education. At family level sex is not a conversation parents/guardians have with their children. On the other hand, the South Sudan education curriculum has not really embedded this aspect in the curriculum. These adolescent girls lack information about sexual and reproductive health in general, unwanted teenage pregnancy is one of the main reasons most of these young girls drop out of school and married off at an early age
• They need to have more trauma healing sessions not in their schools but wish this could be extended to other schools if possible to initiate the idea of ‘speaking up’ among the girls.
• There is need to advocate for reduction of the prices of sanitary towels because many girls across the country can’t afford to buy enough pads because it is too expensive.
• They also suggested that the sessions be in really smaller numbers and a little longer to give each and every one ample time to engage with the mentors

Without proper education system that is benefiting even the poorest households, parents/guardians will continue to convince their young girls that marriage is the biggest achievement they can ever accomplish. Unintended teenage Pregnancy and Child Marriage are two of the main reasons adolescent girls and boys drop out of school in South Sudan. However, the reverse is also true, the poor education system in South Sudan is also a contributing factor to these unintended teenage pregnancy and child marriage in South Sudan. The average number of years in school by a South Sudanese is only 5.4 years and the national literacy rate is 27%. About 37 % of girls enroll in primary schools but only 7% are able to complete and only 2% go to secondary school. Most of the existing schools are public schools where teachers are rarely paid on time, lack descent facilities and scholastic materials. There are some payams and Bomas that barely have well-functioning primary schools that can accommodate half of the children in that area leave alone secondary level of education. School has become a mere waiting ground for marriage especially for young girls whose families see no value in the kind of education they are receiving.

Mr. Elijah Umia, a secondary school teacher sharing how Child Marriage affects education, especially girls’ education

The #TooYoungtobeMarried campaign for the previous 5 weeks has been focusing on highlighting the effects of Child Marriage and Unintended Pregnancy on Education. The weekly Radio Talk-shows hosted students (adolescent girls and boys), teachers, parents and an Advisor of Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) program.

What clearly came out of these engagements both on radio and social media platforms is the fact that majority of South Sudanese communities have not yet understood the value of education, especially when it comes to girls and the unpromising existing education facilities and system continue to affirm this. Harmful yet highly treasured cultural norms continue to dominate and frustrate efforts in place intend to promote Girl Child Education and end Child Marriage in South Sudan. The cultural assumptions that term any girl-child who hits puberty/gets her period a “woman” even if she’s 12 years old comes with the pressure of the next expected step being marriage.

“The government should enact laws that will protect girls to go to school and also protect them from being married off at a tender age” Says Yolanda Felix, The Education Advisor of Girls Education South Sudan Program.

“We parents are the main cause of Child Marriage in South Sudan because we continue to look at our daughters as sources of wealth. We forget to even provide them with the basic needs to keep them in school” Mr. Morris

Prohibition of sexuality education for adolescent girls and boys is also a contributing factor to the high unintended teenage pregnancy that leads to school dropouts and Child Marriage. Although the Ministry of General Education and Instruction allows re-entry of married or pregnant girls to school, these young girls are already burdened with new responsibilities and in most cases their new marital families are not usually very supportive of their education.“The government should enact laws that will protect girls to go to school and also protect them from being married off at a tender age” Says Yolanda Felix, The Education Advisor of Girls Education South Sudan. Ending Child Marriage will help keep more girls in school and expand opportunities for girls, their children, community and country as a whole.

“Boys too are victims of Child Marriage says” Ladu Elpidio, President of Don Bosco Secondary School GBV Prevention Club.

It was also evident that all the efforts in place to end Child Marriage and promote education especially girls’ education are heavily donor dependent. GESS is funded by the UK government, the current Strategic National Action Plan to end Child Marriage in South Sudan by 2030 is mostly financially supported by international organizations led currently with UNFPA at the forefront, UNICEF continues to be the backborn of primary education needs in South Sudan to mention but a few. Such processes require utmost National Budgetary  Prioritization and commitment for massive and measurable success to be realized.

Some of the key recommendations from the 5-weeks engagement included:

• Commitment from National line ministries of Education, Health, Justice and Gender, Child and Social Welfare.
• Accessible, affordable and well-functioning primary and secondary schools across South Sudan especially in the remote areas.
• Provision of menstrual hygiene management kits to school going girls.
• There is need to review the existing laws and policies in place to protect children from child marriage, especially girls.
• Implementation of the existing laws and policies to ensure perpetrators are held accountable.
• Sexuality education through extracurricular activities.

South Sudan has a national commitment to end Child Marriage by 2030, this can only be realized if the strategic National Action Plan is strongly spearheaded by the line ministries of; General Education and Instructions, Health, Justice and Gender Child and Social welfare. Indeed, there has to be something accessible and affordable keeping children engaged and that something is none other than school. Girls who have a secondary education are six times less likely to marry as children.

A well-functioning and effective education system in South Sudan will systemically and automatically reduce Child Marriage prevalence in South Sudan.

The first National Conference of its kind in South Sudan. The International Day of the Girl Child National Conference brought together over 250 participants from diverse backgrounds including schools, Development partners, Chiefs, Diplomatic missions, Civil Society groups, Donor agencies, community representatives, executive leaderships of Parents-Teachers’ Associations (PTAs), the media to mention but a few.

Daresalam sharing her aspirations: “She wants to be an electric engineer because Juba operates on Generator and its dangerous and costly” she says

11^th October is annually celebrated globally as the Day of the Girl Child. The main aims of the day are to promote girl’s empowerment and fulfilment of their human rights while also highlighting the challenges that girls all over the world face. This year the international theme is “Empower girls: Before, during and after conflict”. However, CREW in partnership and with support from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) celebrated the day under the theme: Protect our girls from Child Marriage during and after conflict”

Hon. Deng Deng Hoc, Minister of General Education and Instruction giving opening remarks at the conference

The One-Day conference is one of the activities under CREW ongoing media campaign “Too Young to be Married” supported by UNFPA to raise awareness on the issue of Child Marriage in South Sudan.

Child marriage is one of the most widespread violation of children’s rights with girls being the most victims. Over 40% of girls in South Sudan are married off before their 18^th birthday. To promote girls’ empowerment and fulfilment of their human rights in South Sudan begins with eradication of Child Marriage. Young girls in South Sudan are hungry for education and can only be empowered through their increased enrolment, retention and completion of all levels of education.

The objectives of the conference were to:

• Give young girls a platform to share their challenges and aspirations
• Generate solutions in form of actions points by both government institutions and donor agencies on how to address the challenges young girls face in South Sudan

young girls listening to the Child Bride sharing her life experience and how she got her life back together after

The presentation of Child Marriage Situational analysis based on the rapid assessment of drivers and consequences of Child Marriage in South Sudan, 2017 at the beginning of the conference gave a clear contextual analysis overview that guided the conversation throughout the day. 

The One-Day Conference entailed: Two extensive panel discussions with moderated sessions of engagement between panellists and audience through question/answer sessions.

The first panel had panellists from the ministries of Health, Education and Gender, Child & Social Welfare. The ministerial representatives made presentations on their commitments towards the implementation of the Strategic National Action Plan to end Child Marriage in South Sudan by 2030.

The second Panel Discussion had donor representatives from Girls Education South Sudan, UNICEF and UNFPA-South Sudan and a representative from the council of chiefs. The donor representatives shared their commitments for South Sudanese girls.

A panelist: Regina Osso, Director General of Gender, Child & Social Welfare making a presenation on the ministry’s commitments on ending Child Marriage in South Sudan

The testimony from a Child Bride visually brought out the magnitude of the horrific realities of early unwanted teenage pregnancy/child marriage and the effects on young girls in South Sudan. Poni Hellen had the audience in tears of sorrow and joy at the same time. However, a 14-year-old Daresalam lightened up the day with her aspirations that strongly reminded each and every one of their role in ensuring that children grow up in a peaceful country with functional institutions that support children to realize their dreams.

The interludes inform of extremely insightful & educative drama plays and poems from students highlighting not just Child Marriage but the various forms of gender based violence ranging from family to institutional levels, including a closing performance a newly produced song one who produced a song on ending Child Marriage by a local artist all contributed to the success of the day.

participants listening to a survivor sharing her testimony

This National Conference was the first of its kind in South Sudan to bring together adolescent girls and boys, local chiefs, donor agents, government and community representatives, parents, teachers, diplomatic missions, development partners, civil society groups and various individuals together to discuss challenges young girls face with focus on Child Marriage and commitments from all stakeholders on how to realize full and effective implementation of the National Action Plan to end Child Marriage in South Sudan as the first step towards empowering girls.

Gender Based Violence (GBV) acts mostly affects vulnerable groups of people in our communities especially girls and women. All forms of School Related Gender Based Violence, Sexual and Gender Based violences…. rob girls and women off their dignities and rights. In the South Sudan context, culture, not forgetting the stigma associated with speaking up and the weak legal framework continue to mute women.

On 26^th September 2018, CREW established hotlines system in schools to enhance the communication channels of the GBV Prevention Clubs in the six (6) secondary schools (Don Bosco, Promised Land, Juba Day, Nile Model, Juba Commercial and Juba Diocesan Secondary School) CREW engages with. This was accompanied by sharing and leaving copies of the Updated Urban Juba Referral pathway with the school administrations. 

One of the main challenges the clubs were facing was lack of cellphones and the unclear reporting mechanisms.

A teacher receiving the phone for his school from CREW Logistics & Procurement Officer

This was an opportunity to raise awareness among the students and teachers of the existing referral pathway and how they can access the services in place meant to benefit them. The club leaders and GBV prevention mentors/teachers in these respective schools were tasked to ensure the phones are accessible to students, always charged and have credit at all time

The establishment of the hotlines system in these schools will ease the reporting mechanism of cases of GBV not only at the schools’ levels but the communities around these schools will get to benefit from this system. The landlines or phones are meant to be accessible and used by over 5,000 students to reach out to CREW GBV department or referral pathways.

It’s important that such cases are reported and attended to urgently and survivors provided with the rightful medical, psychosocial and legal assistance in the most confidential and dignified manner.

“We can never find peace in the outer world until we find peace with ourselves” – Dalai Lama
We often focus on implementing activities, beating deadlines to achieve the organization’s set goals and forget to take time off to just reflect and reconnect with each other. Working in a group is not always a smooth ride but how we handle the humps is what determines how far we can go as a team.

To commemorate International Peace Day 2018, CREW team members spent the day trying to understand where they are and how they think they are progressing as a family guided by a facilitator at Juba Oasis Camp. The one-day Team-Building exercise targeted three (3) main capacity areas: Social, Mental and Physical abilities.

Could it be hidden in the pool?: looking for the missing piece of information

The focus was on how CREW Staffs can in future mitigate internal issues by putting the three capacities in to appropriate use to avoid organizational mistrust and encourage the spirit of working as a team (CREW).
The methodology used was tailored to allow the staffs have first-hand approach to their own problems, and how to practically employ lessons learnt to ensure a conducive working environment for all. The exercise employed games that aimed at literally understanding challenges that come with working in a complex environment and how best they can overcome them.

The objective of the Team-Building was to re-establish a friendlier, effective and understanding working team with an enabling environment to carry ahead with realization of the organization’s mission and vision.

Racing to the finish line with your partner on your back

The day had activities that aimed at improving the staffs team work; The team started the day with an hour and a half scavenger hunt game, where they underwent a series of stages to complete the puzzle of finding the facilitator’s location.
In the course of the day, they were involved in various games, puzzles and activities to try and bring them to the task of realizing that indeed life is never as easy as they think.
The exercise had brain, muscle and social teasing games. This was intended to improve on their communication skills and get to know their strengths and weaknesses both personally and as an organization.

Scavenger Hunt

It is worth noting that, despite challenges and short comings here and there, the overall exercise was very beneficial to the team as they seemed to have enjoyed all the sessions. The knowledge gained was of great significance and had an immediate compensation to their time consumed. The team members were able to identify some of their personal strengths and weakness but above all deeply connected with each other emotionally as everyone shared something personal about themselves they had never told anyone about.

locate your partner

In the last session where the facilitator requested the team members to share their brief reflection of how they felt about the day, all appreciated the training and went ahead to request for more time among themselves to improve on their personal and professional images from time to time with or without a facilitator.
They committed to continue to work collaboratively together in ensuring, excellent work relationships and improve the rigid harmful behavior characters into characters with dignity and respect for humanity that can ensure a positive direction towards love and trust.
At the beginning, it was clear to see that some team members showed up for the team building exercise unwillingly just to fulfil the requirement of the day, but it was pleasing to see that, it turned out to be such a fruitful day as its reflected in the general direct feedback session and their improved inter-relations by the end of the day.

  Communication skills: Testing the staffs active listening skills

“What are you doing to contribute to a South Sudan where girls fully enjoy their childhood free from risks of Child Marriage and Early Child Bearing by 2030?”

In June 2018, South Sudan launched a Strategic National Action Plan (SNAP) to end Child Marriage in South Sudan by 2030. The initiative was headed by the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other development partners (CREW inclusive) committed to accelerate eradication of child marriage as part of the implementation of the Agenda 2030. SNAP aims to build a strong national level foundation for a programme to end child marriage by 2030 when the country will report on its progress on achievement of the SDGs including the Target 5.3 “Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations”.

 The Action Plan development was informed by regional and global level evidence on what works and what does not to end Child Marriage. It draws on lessons learned from the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage, the UNFPA and UNICEF-led Global Programme to End Child Marriage, and the work of Girls Not Brides’ (GNB) Africa Regional Coalition. The SNAP ultimately aims to guide all Child Marriage stakeholders to work in a coordinated manner and to design, implement and monitor effective interventions that progressively lead to the eradication of Child Marriage in South Sudan.

It’s based on this background that CREW with support from UNFPA-South Sudan designed the “Too Young to be Married” campaign. The media campaign is intended to target adolescent girls and boys with an aim of raising awareness on the issue of child marriage through multimedia. Over 70% of South Sudanese population are youths below the age of 30, this campaign is intended to engaged with youths both within and outside the country on social media platforms because this is a percentage of the population that can bring about change in their respective communities. The goal of the campaign being to contribute to ending Child Marriage in South Sudan.

In as much as the campaign is targeting adolescent girls and boys, the goal cannot be achieved without involvement of their gatekeepers. Parents, teachers, health providers and legal practitioners’ views will also be captured in short videos and shared to inform and empower both boys and girls and boys with correct information, skills and networks to enable them recognize child marriage and early pregnancy as a gross violation of their rights and take mitigating action is key in championing Child marriage in South Sudan.

Haha Rebecca, The Campaign Coordinator at 87.9 Radio One-South Sudan during a Radio Talk-Show

The five (5) months campaign (August to December) entails:

• weekly one-hour talk-shows on Radio One-South Sudan every Wednesday from 5:00-6:00pm
• Themed weekly video posts for discussions on CREW social media pages (Facebook and twitter)
• Production of a song on ending Child Marriage and
• A conference on ending Child Marriage in South Sudan

In August the campaign focused on the overview and drivers of Child marriage in South Sudan. From the Radio talk-shows and engagement on social media pages; The mostly repeated and stressed out drivers include but not limited to South Sudan’s weak legal framework, rampant early unwanted teenage pregnancy, social-cultural norms and poverty. The campaign will break down the effects of Child Marriage into three (3) categories. The effects of child marriage on Education, the Health Consequences of early childbearing and the Legal Aspect for the five months of the campaign. Follow and be part of the Campaign on social media by using the hashtag  #TooYoungToBeMarried and also tune into 87.9 Radio One-South Sudan every Wednesday  from 5:00-6:00pm.

As South Sudanese we have a national commitment to end Child Marriage in South Sudan by 2030. The question we’ll be asking throughout the campaign is; What are you doing to contribute to a South Sudan where girls fully enjoy their childhood free from risks of Child Marriage and Early Child Bearing by 2030?