22 August 2014 – Amman, Jordan: To date, at least 10,000 people have been killed and more than 1.1 million displaced during nearly eight months of conflict in South Sudan. It is estimated that 50,000 children under-five are at risk of dying of malnutrition in the coming months.
Generations For Peace, the only peace-through-sport organisation officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee, established a satellite office in Juba soon after South Sudan’s independence was ratified by the United Nations in 2011, and has been working hard ever since to equip local Delegates with the skills they need to create lasting positive change in the world’s youngest nation.
Paul Well, Secretary General at Generations For Peace’s Satellite Office in South Sudan said: "Generations For Peace HQ staff, who were joined by Summer Field Researchers from the University of Oxford, recently conducted a visit to the refugee camps in Juba to examine the level of engagement between Generations For Peace and the Dinka and Nuer communities. It is an honour to have the support of our Generations For Peace team who provide expert knowledge and theory to analyse the conflict, ensuring that our programmes continue to grow from strength to strength."
Following the continuous strides made by the organisation’s local volunteers, the world’s youngest nation has something to smile about as local community heroine and South Sudanese athlete, Margret Rumat Hassan, is in Nanjing to compete on the global stage in the Women’s 400m race at the second Summer Youth Olympic Games. Margret, who is running under the banner of Independent Olympic Athlete, believes in the power of the Olympic Movement to bring people together.
"I am very excited to be here in Nanjing, competing to the best of my ability and bringing the world’s attention to what is going on back home in South Sudan. I truly believe that sport has the power to bring about lasting positive change in South Sudan."
UN estimates that children make up 60% of South Sudan's 11 million people, demonstrating the importance of long-term Generations For Peace programmes and the need to foster tolerance and acceptance amongst youth on all sides of the conflict.
About Generations For Peace:
Generations For Peace (GFP) is a Jordan-based global non-profit organisation founded by HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein and Sarah Kabbani, dedicated to sustainable peace building and conflict transformation through sport, arts, advocacy, dialogue and empowerment.
By providing unique training and continuous support and mentoring to volunteer leaders of youth, GFP empowers them to lead and cascade change in their communities, promoting active tolerance and responsible citizenship and working at the grass roots to address local issues of conflict and violence.
Different contexts include inter-tribal, inter-ethnic, and inter-religious violence; gender inequality; post-conflict trauma response, reconciliation and reintegration; exclusion of minorities including IDPs, refugees and people with a disability; and challenges of integration in multi-cultural societies. Conflict sensitivity, and the full participation and empowerment of girls and women, are integrated into GFP’s approach.
GFP uses sport as an entry point to engage with children and youth, and our carefully-facilitated sport-based games provide a vehicle for integrated education and behaviour change. In addition to our sport-based approaches, GFP has also developed arts, advocacy, dialogue, and empowerment activities to support conflict transformation with children, youth and adults in different contexts.
In the last six years, we have trained and mentored more than 8,500 volunteer leaders of youth in 50 countries and territories in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. With our support, their ongoing programmes address local issues of conflict and violence, and have touched the lives of more than 216,000 children, youth and adults.
GFP is listed in the “Top 100 NGOs in the World” for 2013 by The Global Journal. The ranking assesses non-governmental organisations according to innovation, impact, and sustainability.
GFP is also the only peace-through-sport organisation officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee.
Generations For Peace Media Team
Tel: +962 6 569 1248
Fax: +962 6 568 2954