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successes. These include raising community members’
awareness and mobilizing action, and strengthening health,
education and justice systems to prevent and respond to GBV.
Communities Care in South Sudan
The setting
Since 2013, armed conflict between the Government and
opposition forces has ravaged large parts of South Sudan,
leaving tens of thousands dead. The United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that
more than 2.3 million people, or one in every five, have been
forced to flee their homes. Sexual violence has been found to
be a key feature of the ongoing conflict.
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The programme
To start the programme in South Sudan, UNICEF and
partners conducted a mapping exercise in the programme
communities to assess the presence and quality of services
related to GBV. This exercise identified gaps in facility-
based physical and basic psychological health care,
highlighting the need for community-based health care to
complement existing services to ensure quality care reaches
those who need it.
The mapping also found that most people in the commu-
nities turn to church, religious groups and women’s groups
when they seek some form of social service support, includ-
ing in cases of GBV. Therefore, participants recruited for the
programme’s service provider trainings included representa-
tives from these groups, alongside social workers from the
Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, the Ministry
of Education and the Ministry of Health. Also, because
the traditional justice system plays a critical role in law
enforcement, community chiefs and influential members of
customary courts were also invited to participate in trainings
alongside police officers, lawyers and judges.
Communities in action
Facilitated by a trained Community Discussion Leader, the
community dialogue component of the programme stimu-
lates reflection on shared community values, individual
rights – including the right to live free of violence – and
fosters debate about existing beliefs and norms that are
harmful for women and girls, which leads to discussion
about change and alternatives.
Community members then identify relevant and achievable
actions and strategies to change harmful social norms and
practices to create shifts in attitudes about violence against
women and girls. Such actions could include working with
fathers and husbands to better support daughters and wives
who have experienced sexual violence, encouraging religious
leaders to take public stances against sexual violence with their
congregants, and urging local officials to strengthen laws and
policies to reduce impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence.
After a round of dialogue sessions in one community in
South Sudan, for example, participants made individual
commitments to make sure their daughters completed primary
school and did not marry before age 18. Some men committed
to helping their wives with household work such as collecting
water, washing dishes and cooking. Collectively, community
members are working together through storytelling, drama
and songs to stop child marriage, change survivor-blaming
attitudes and include women in traditional courts.
UNICEF and partner staff have reported significant
changes in attitudes and behaviours in intervention
communities. In one community, male CC programme
participants now recognize that their wives have equal
rights; there was also greater recognition that husbands
are not entitled to abuse their spouses. In another commu-
nity, a man who had participated in group dialogues was
observed pumping water in an effort to better share the
burden of household chores with his wife. This behaviour
Members of the community show off their commitments at the launch of the CC programme in Gogrial West, South Sudan
Images: UNICEF/Adriane Ohanesian 2015
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