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Catholic Entity in South Sudan Reaches out to Young Female Inmates

CODEP members hand over items to young female inmates. Credit: CDTY ANISA TV/Facebook

The Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CODEP), the Social Wing of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio (CDTY), has reached out to teenage girls in prison with food and non-food items.

In a Tuesday, June 14 report, CODEP leadership says the donated items, which included mats,  mats, blankets, maize flour, beans, and cooking oil, “will help the little girls to sustain their living while in detention.”

“The donation will help these little girls to help themselves as police carry on with more detailed investigation on them and their families,” CODEP officials say, and add, “The donated items will help the little girls sustain living while in detention as police carry on more details about them and their parents”.

On June 14, Police in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State Yambio County arrested dozens of teenagers for alleged drug abuse, Eye Radio reported.

Lieutenant Eunice Hipai Enoka the Head of Special Protection Unit at Yambio County Police Headquarters has been quoted as saying, “Those girls are now with us at the protection Unit of Yambio County Police, they are 19 in number.”

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In an interview with ACI Africa June 8, an official of Shalom Christian Organization, a Catholic entity in the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio said the organization is using sports to address trauma among young people in South Sudan.

Making reference to the youth, Josephine Joseph who is the Directress of Shalom Christian Organization said, “We gather them together and organize games such as football and volleyball tournaments for them to be around the church, which will help them, especially those who are traumatized from the conflict to be healed.”

“We are also dealing with the vulnerable youth by giving them training in different fields such as leadership and health,” Mrs. Josephine told ACI Africa during the June 8 interview.

In a 12 June report, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala directed CODEP to help the unprivileged members who are in great need of humanitarian support.

Bishop Hiboro said he had witnessed “many, expectant and breast-feeding mothers struggling to survive on a meal, a situation which he termed as unworthy.”

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“You, the staff working in Curia should be the first to dirt your hand in the soil to produce food for your family members and sell to others quality products for income and remain self-supportive,” the Bishop was quoted as saying in the report.

He added, “There is no reason whereby members of the community in the Diocese should go hungry because the land is so fertile that can produce all types of crops and yield sufficiently.”

Patrick Juma Wani is a South Sudanese journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. Patrick holds a Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Makerere Institute for Social Development (MISD) in Uganda. He has over 7 years of extensive experience in leading the development and implementation of media, advocacy, communication and multimedia strategy and operations, with an excellent track record of editorial leadership, budget management, and stakeholder outreach. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.