South Sudan

Pita Women’s Association for Development (PWAD) CC is based in Juba-South Sudan in central Equatorial state, convening Christians, Muslims and ethnic communities of mainly the Dinka and Nuer tribe and we were found in 2005 after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) by women who had an idea to address the effects of the 21 years war in the country. Our major activities is to address the presenting problems within our communities which include peace building particularly trauma healing to address the recurrence of war; conflict resolution of land disputes through community dialogues mostly among the farmers and game rangers; human rights advocacy especially addressing oppressive cultural practices against young girls into forced early marriages coupled with youth and women empowerment through entrepreneurial skills building among others. Our work has been made possible by the UN Women, UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), UNHCR, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and others enabling us to reconcile communities after the war. We have offered women and youth hope of a better livelihood and protecting young girls in the face of forced early marriages to attain their freedom to choose a spouse at a desired age.