CMS-Africa’s Women training in Wau, South Sudan
The Women training programme made its debut in South Sudan in Wau Diocese. Under the coordination of the new Country Coordinator, Joseph Noel, the programme that was first introduced in a church setting has now been adopted by the local Government and is being offered to all the women in Wau most of them affected by the 3 year long internal political crises in South Sudan.
The women who are mostly in camps and whose economic livelihood has been shattered by the raging conflicts in Sudan are eager to adopt the concepts of wholistic transformation as delivered by the CMS-Africa trainings including the women training for vulnerable women.
South Sudan was hit by civil strife since 2016 and because of this most households lost their livelihoods and life support systems. Families lost their bread winners in the war and some whole families were pushed into destitution. Wau town was mostly affected by the chaos and till today there are so many people who are still held up in camps and are being supported by well-wishers. Christians played a vital role in offered assistance and help to people in this situation because some of them were taken in by the churches and are still leaving in tents within church compounds
There were a number of topics that were offered to help these women be empowered, feel motivated and have confidence in what they were planning to do to uplift themselves from their condition of hopelessness.
They included Discovering oneself, hindrances to discovery, Preparing to know God’s will, creating wealth through Self-employment, Record keeping, Effective parenting, planning and then TOT session for the 13 trainers Identified.
The training process went very well because our coordinator in Wau made the announcement well and had women from all the denomination in Wau , the venue was good and accessible either by transports or footing , many walked to the venue because they live not far and most of the areas have no transports . The attendance was on time. The participation was excellent. and also the translation was very good.
The comments it was an excitement from many of the women because they are able to understand what is hindering them to discover themselves. A young mother who had an early marriage and her husband was killed during the crises in June 2016 and left her with three children was able to see and understand how God love her and she is created in his image and she able to do business to meet the needs of her family.
Most of the comment was we know now that we can do something, like starting business to meet our needs in the context of difficulties of the country.
CMS-Africa trainer Meshach Oduke from Nairobi was the lead facilitator supported by Joseph Noel and Michael Aban who are helping with the translation of the Training materials into Arabic.