The Shabab Peace and Environment Action Group (SPEAG) best known as SPEAK is a refugee-led non- profitable, humanitarian and youth oriented, Peace building organization aimed at improving peaceful co-existence through innovative local engagement, livelihood, peace educations Development and preservation of natural resources among the refugee and host communities.
South Sudan is a home to 64 unique tribes. Most of these tribes have a long history of animosity. When the civil war broke out in December 2013 these people who have negative stereotypes against each other, were forced to live in shared refugee camps in northern Uganda. In recent years there have been deadly inter-tribe and inter-clan attacks, torching and killings, which again added another layer of conflict as the host communities were also caught in between. In 2018 there were over a dozen homes burnt down in Ayilo I and Nyumanzi Refugee Settlements in clashes that involved both refugees and host communities.
We at SPEAK understood that the best sustainable way to peaceful co-existence is by connecting people from different tribes clans and communities to talk and unlearn the historical negative assumptions against each other. Through our Peace Caravans we brought people together to talk. It was often the first time they had ever spoken to each other, and we have seen decreases in clashes after we ran these sessions. We further support the shared groups through livelihood activities to promote the spirit of working together to provide for their families while building trust.
As opposed to the way many peace building programs are designed, we focus on the dynamic down-Up approach in which the process is co-designed with the local actors and the community. We also engage and train the youth in skills that help them reduce dependency and poverty which are some of identified factors that leads to conflicts.
As one of the factors hindering progress and of course affecting the achievement of peace in our communities, SPEAK is leading the girl empowerment by advocating and contributing to the girl-child education. communities through the power of media, education and technology to facilitate an equitable, informed and resilient refugees societies through supporting them with tools, training opportunities (capacity building) and access to pool of knowledge and knowledge resources in a bid to battle illiteracy an mitigate poverty.
Subsequent to war, successive drought and famine in South Sudan which has led to the displacement of millions of south Sudanese, SPEAK was started with a long-term purpose of engaging sustainable interventions opportunities to support the trauma-prone and vulnerable community of South Sudanese Refugees.
Since Formation, SPEAK has been committed to building strong peace & resilience for both host community and South Sudanese Refugees by facilitating grassroots dialogues, youth activities like sports and awareness campaigns . Our activities are aimed at creating opportunities for the host and refugee communities to find a common ground on which the can share skills and innovations which encourages peaceful co-existence. We use interventions that are locally possible and sustainable in the context we are living.
SPEAK seeks to work with both local and international stakeholders to support grassroots solutions and innovative approaches to sustainable peace.