SMARD_ORGANIZATIOn

On 25th January,2024, Embassy of Canada to South Sudan visited SMARD's Wau office.

John Kuzee from the Embassy of Canada met with SMARD's field staff and two-group of beneficiaries (advocacy team and beneficiaries) at Episcopal church of South Sudan compound.

The purpose of the visit was to evaluate Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) project entitled "Enhancing community engagement in local governance and Peace in Western Bahr El Ghazal, South Sudan". Positive outcomes, challenges, lessons learned and way forward were reviewed.

SMARD_ORGANIZATIOn is thankful to the people and government of Canada for such support.
The engagement has huge impact on the people of South Sudan.

On December 21, 2023, Solidarity Ministries Africa for Reconciliation & Development (SMARD) and USAID-Funded Shejeh Salam launched "Resilience Building to Mitigate Relapse Among IDPs" project at Rose Hotel, Wau. The meeting was attended by 10 participants; including SMARD's Wau staff, invited key partners, representatives from IDPs Leadership and staff from USAID-Funded Shejeh Salam Program office in Wau.

The purpose of the project launch was to create awareness to the key partners on the project, it objectives, target beneficiaries, target areas and to forge collaboration among the key players in the project and trauma awareness areas.
Secondly, the meeting aim at outlining and clarifying roles of SMARD and USAID-Funded Shejeh Salam and provide SMARD with opportunity to ask questions prior to project implementation process.

At the end of the meeting, project's objectives were understood by the partners in Wau. They expressed their happiness and readiness to support the project's implementation. State authorities pledged their cooperation and support to SMARD and Shejeh Salam as they plan to embark on the implementation process.

On separate note, SMARD also conducted radio talk show at the evening hours on the same date at Voice of Hope Studio in Wau.
This public outreach aim at creating trauma awareness to the public so as they understand trauma and its effects.

Following months of engaging the grassroots communities particularly those in Wau & Jur River in Western Bahr El Ghazal on issues of governance, peace and community issues. SMARD has been able to organize at least two community advocacy campaigns; Advancing Women Leadership in Local Governance and Peace, and 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Today we have held a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders in peacebuilding including members of CSOs and government leaders in Wau.
We are thrilled to report we have receive important feedbacks that will inform our next course of action in peacebuilding and Women Empowerment. We are grateful to Embassy of Canada to South Sudan for the support through .