July 17, 2023 – WPDI has recently renewed our collaboration with the South Sudan Football Association to implement the “Peace Through Sports” project in the three states of the Equatoria Region. The renewed partnership was signaled by the signing of a two-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) providing a framework for WPDI and SSFA to advance their common goal of empowering the youth through the practice of sports and of developing a culture of peace and non-violence among the youth of the Equatoria Region. SSFA and WPDI will jointly train coaches, referees and administrators at the three Community Learning Centers that WPDI operates in Eastern Equatoria, at Maridi, in Western Equatoria, at Torit, and in Central Equatoria, at Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, where we also maintain a program in a camp for internally displaced persons, POC III, which will also be covered by the partnership. The MoU further states that both partners shall jointly organize peace tournaments in the target locations and ensure that the trained referees, coaches, administrators and players are exposed for further opportunities, with the expectation that some of the participants will be able to eventually generate revenue for themselves in the area of sports.
For young people affected by war, poverty or gang violence, a well-designed and -implemented sport program has many positive outcomes in terms of constructive entertainment, health and wellbeing, personal and psychosocial development as well as learning civic values, all of which can be instrumental for preventing them to engage in criminal or violent activities. Under this renewed partnership, WPDI, the SSFA in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports, will be able to mobilize and engage sixty teams in the Juba Protection of Civilians (PoC) and Juba neighborhoods of Central Equatoria State, Torit and Budi of Eastern Equatoria State (EES) and Maridi of Western Equatoria State reaching over 1000 direct participants (500 male and 500 female) and over 50,000 indirect participants.
The collaboration will strengthen our capacity to pursue our two main objectives under the Peace Through Sports program: to use sporting activities as a positive catalyst for empowering young people from the most disadvantaged communities and promote social cohesion and peace values by creating a safe space that will promote development of football talents, responsible citizenship, communication skills, self-discipline, personal development, self-confidence, and motivation to lead positive lifestyles.
The first tournament under the theme “Promoting Peace through Sports” was officially launched in Juba on the May 29, 2023, and opened by Forest Whitaker, the deputy governor of CES, the president of South Sudan Football Association, the Country Representative of UNESCO, the President of South Sudan Youth Union, Civil Society Activists, players and other government and civil society members.
“WPDI has the best intervention which is sports to unite people and destroy tribalism. Sport is the best sector that can make South Sudan prosper if the donor community can inject more funding into sports programs. Gang violence and cases of cattle raiding will be reduced if more funds are allocated on sports activities,” said Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization and a prominent civil society activist in South Sudan.
For participants, access to such activities can be transformational, notably for women and girls, as was stressed by Esther Kide, a footballer, student and women’s coach, who declared: “I would like to encourage you girls that through sports you can learn and get a lot of experiences from different places. Our body is healthy and flexible. There are challenges that we face because most of our parents believe that football is for men not for women. That’s why most of the talented girls have been forced into marriage, others have dropped out of school because of school fees and many people think that girls who play football won’t be able to reproduce. Our request as female footballers is that we need support and exposure to the world view and other football teams outside there because when they see me and others traveling; our parents begin to understand that what we are doing has associated benefits. It also will give the rest of the girls encouragement to work hard and an inspiration that through sports we can promote peace and make ends meet. Stand strong always!” These very inspiring words perfectly capture the spirit in which we have designed our sports program, which also covers the needs and aspirations of women and girls in a country where they are too often prevented from realizing their potential. Indeed, sports have the power to foster inclusion and empowerment for everyone.
The Peace Through Sports program was significantly expanded in South Sudan thanks to the financial support of Postcode Foundation.
In partnership with
