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The Independence and Resilience of Tong’s Women Protection Team Amidst Flooding Challenges

Date: April 1, 2023
A groups of people are sitting in a circle chairs in the center of a village in South Sudan.
NP Beyond Bentiu Response team meeting with community and WPTs in Tong Boma, Pakor Payam, Rubkona County, 26th June 2022. Tong Boma is situated west of Bentiu Town.

Just Getting Started

In 2019, NP formed a Women’s Protection Team (WPT) in Tong. At the time, Tong was experiencing a rise in conflict resulting in cases of child protection and gender-based violence. The WPT took part in capacity-building training by NP and were subsequently engaged in advocacy efforts to address, challenge, and respond to child protection and gender-based violence issues within their communities.

The women additionally supported volunteers with running the child safe space by mobilizing children and organizing playful activities. They did this by offering protective accompaniment and raising awareness about the existence of Care International’s mobile health clinics in their community. They also coordinated with the local health service provider to ensure that people had access to relevant care and medication as they faced many water-borne diseases and malaria. The team, led by their chairwoman, was able to identify cases of gender-based violence, child protection, and security-related concerns and refer them to NP through regular visits and communication.

The visits from the NP team reduced drastically with heavy flooding in mid-2021 resulting in limited transportation to Tong. This, however, changed in June of 2022 when the NP team had the opportunity to return to Tong and reconnect with the WPT. After a nearly 2-hour journey on a canoe, the team reached Tong and were welcomed by the WPT who awaited their return. 

Independent Community Action

The team was elated to learn that despite the increase in challenges due to flooding and the absence of NP, the WPT had independently made efforts to continue their activities on topics such as gender-based violence awareness and prevention, as well as child protection awareness. They also continually held regular meetings to seek information on the challenges faced by their community, including but not limited to cases of children drowning and occurrences of gender-based violence when women collect firewood, and worked together in resolving them. 

The importance of these child protection awareness sessions was essential given the increase of floods in Tong and the risk of children drowning and water-borne diseases in areas previously crowded by children for leisure. As a result of the previous child protection training that was provided by NP in mid-2021, the WPT was instrumental in conducting child protection awareness sessions with the community to ensure that children are supervised at all times and that they are aware of the risks they face when playing in flooded areas. Additionally, because of the frequency of the floods, community members were forcefully displaced and had to relocate to higher grounds within Tong and areas of Bentiu and Rubkona. This displacement of families from the community meant that there have been many cases of sexual and gender-based violence, reported in the community, as women were susceptible to sexual and gender-based violence given that they had to travel long distances to collect firewood and access waterlilies.

The WPT has continued to engage with its community to raise awareness of sexual and gender-based violence and ensure the community is aware of the referral pathways in nearby Rubkona and Bentiu. As a result of the WPT’s interventions, women now travel in groups to collect firewood or waterlilies which helps them feel safer and better supported when faced with challenges on route. A WPT member is quoted as saying,

“Since the formation of the WPT in our place (Tong), we the members become closer to each other and started working together in doing awareness on protection and dissemination of peace messages in our community. Our commitment was further strengthened when we participated in the WPT conference. This gave us the chance to share stories with our fellow WPTs from different areas.”

The WPT in Tong has demonstrated that the women in their community have the power, capacity, and knowledge to support their community despite the challenges they encounter. The WPT will continue to undertake trainings in their communities and engage men in addressing the prevalence of gender-based violence. Moving forward, the women requested more regular meetings with NP given that the team is now able to visit and travel by using canoes. They hope to strengthen their skills and continue their efforts. Thanks to the work that NP does within this community many more women can take part in the development of the community, and peacebuilding process and take part in strengthening the capacity of other women within their communities.

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