Radio Miraya
2692: Working Together: World Vision's Fortifying Equality and Economic Diversification for Resilience Project
Hello and welcome to the program "Walking Together" on Radio Miraya. "Walking Together" a program that comes to you every Wednesday and we focus on the work of partners in the development sector and in the program we shall focus on the work of partners. We also want to understand their work and how the partners with the local communities or with the local NGOs work together to provide relevant services to the people of South Sudan. And coming up with me in the studio, we shall be looking at the response to the need of communities in important for realizing social and economic development of the people of South Sudan. You can follow us in this program on Radio Miraya. You can follow us on air or online, find us on Twitter or on Facebook, such on Radio Miraya or follow us on X. Our Twitter handle is, or our X handle is at Radio Miraya. I'm Titio Beatty, today taking you through this program and we shall be going from now up to 3pm. Welcome. [Music] On this edition of the program, "Walking Together" we have guests from the World Vision and World Vision South Sudan recently celebrated the graduation of four young people in Rajev Payam of Central Equatoria State. The four graduates are from vocational training and this was done under the fortifying, equality and economic diversification for a resilient project. And our guests are in the studio to make us understand what the project was all about. And with me in the studio, we have Dominic Batikayo. He is the project coordinator for Fit2Project, that is the fortified equality and economic diversification, which is Fit2Project. He is the project coordinator for Central Equatoria State. And also we have a graduate who also benefited from this project. We have Victoria Samuel, who is an automatic planning graduate and also she will be with us in the studio. We are supposed to have another graduate, but we could not have, she will not be able to make it due to other circumstances, but we shall be hearing from Dominic and Victoria to tell us more about the project and the benefit of the project to the girls or the women of South Sudan. Both will be talking to us and later on in the program, we shall be opening our lines and you will be able to also share with them what you have in mind or what you want to ask to them, or you want to understand something about the project that we shall be talking about. You will later on call on the numbers that I will later give and you will be able to share with us in the studio. So for now I would like to say welcome to my guest in the studio, Dominic and Victoria. All of you are welcome to Radio Maria's studio. Thank you. Thank you. Well, to start with, let me come to Dominic. Can you briefly tell us about the project, what are the aims of this project fit to? Thank you, TDO. First of all, I would like to introduce myself once again. I am Dominic Batikayo. I work for World Vision as you have already mentioned, as the project coordinator, Central responsibility for having given us this chance to talk to our community. What we are doing is advocacy in one way or the other, which we have been doing today. I would like you also to thank all the listeners outside there who will be listening to us. I thank them so much for having taken the time to listen to us as we shall be mentioning some few things. Once again, I would like you to thank World Vision, South Sudan. Communication and advocacy department as well as the leadership of World Vision for having given us this responsibility and opportunity to come and speak on the Maria radio, which is a country world in South Sudan. One of the most vulnerable radio that people listen to almost all the time. So we thank them. So that's the brief introduction I can give about myself. If the listeners want to refer to me, they can also say if they are quick, they can say Batikayo, or they can say Dominic, it is well with me. Dominic, so after introducing yourself, can you tell us briefly about the aims of the fortifying equality and economic diversification resilience project that has been going on? Thank you. These fortifying equality and economic diversification project, this is a phase two. That's why we are calling it in short, Feed 2. It is a second phase. There was the first phase since that ended in 2018-2019. And then the second phase came that is that in 2020, and this is the fifth year that we have entered into in these months of April. So it is a five years project. This project is a women's empowerment initiative. That is used for security and the livelihood platforms to uplift the women. So the main aim about it is to allow women to support women and girls so that they are able to have access and control over assets because it is on a basis of the site that was conducted in South Sudan on polygamous families. And it was discovered that women are doing a lot of unpaid labor at the house levels and then they don't have access to resources. And for the women who could work in so many parts of the country, if they work, they receive the money, they take the money at the end of the day and give to the husband. And the husband is the one to control, to say, "What do you need, women? I give you what you need." And this is one of the inequality that we are talking about. World Vision being a Christian-based organization, it looks at the dignity of every human being. So all men and women are all equal before God, and they have to have access to resources. So Canada, in one way, using the Canadian feminist, international, assistant police against women about the capacity of women came up and then to support this initiative in the public of South Sudan. So in which areas do you operate in South Sudan? Thank you, Titio. We work in South Sudan in seven states. First of all, this project is a consultant. It is a manager that has a consultant. So the lead partner is World Vision International, South Sudan. And then we have KIA International, South Sudan. Then we have World Child Canada, South Sudan. So these are the international engines in South Sudan. In the country, that is implementing. And in the seven states that we are operating to start with, Central Equatoria, which I will be talking about, the impact today, Central Equatoria State, is World Vision. Western Equatoria State is fully implemented by World Vision. In Kojok, that is over up the state, by World Vision. And then Northern Baragasala will, by World Vision. Western Baragasala, by World Child Canada. And then KIA in Janguly, Greta Janguly, as well as Eastern Equatoria State. So that is seven states in which FITI-2 is being implemented. Okay, so meaning that World Vision is the one implementing in these areas, in these locations that you have mentioned, or you also partner with other local NGOs there? Well, World Vision is purely implementing, like in Central Equatoria. The way the project was designed, we collaborate with the government institutions, especially the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Gender and the China Social Welfare, the Minister of Youth and Sports, as well as the Minister of humanitarian, and then including the Minister of Environment. So that is the side of the government. And then in the side of other local-based organizations, it is designed that we have to cooperate and collaborate with women-led organizations only so far. So we have some women-led organizations that we are operating with. For example, we have the Women Advancement Organization, we have the Sublime South Sudan, we have the African Girl Child, we have the support aid women, those are the few that we are cooperating with. And we also give training to those women-led organizations in different areas, in finance, if they wish. Okay, so coming to Victoria, as we know, we have that you are about four young people who have graduated recently from this project, who are direct beneficiaries of this project. Tell us briefly, how did you become part of this project, first of all? Thank you so much. Once again, I'm Victoria Summer, one of the beneficiaries. Out of four, one of them I did driving and mechanics and the world vision, of course, under the two feet to project. So how I became part of it was mainly through a friend of mine who, one of the beneficiaries from the Centre, the Education Centre, MTC, called me and they asked me, "Would you love to be part of this project?" I said, "Yes." I asked what it is about. Then they told me they were giving chance to young girls and women to be empowered, to get something for themselves through education. I said, "Wow, this is so wonderful. How can I ever miss a chance like this?" Me, who is seated at home, doing nothing, just seated there. And while I was really mesmerized by the time I was called, and immediately the next day I had to respond to the school, so I did mainly driving and mechanics. It was my passion and I really loved being part of it. So that is how I became part of the project. Okay. So it's really exciting that you are an auto mechanic. A girl who is working in auto mechanic, I think. Many people outside there will be saying, "Wow, a girl, working on auto mechanic. That's really great." So this is exciting, of course, profession. Tell us more about this profession that you have just joined. Why did you want to become so? Yes. One of the reasons as to why, you know, okay, let me first start like this. When I joined the campus that day, the first day, I went to school, I went to the classroom. Then I thought we were actually many in the class. Only to realize that I was actually alone. You know, it's kind of scary at the first day, it's always very scary. So when I saw that I was alone, I told myself, "You know, Victoria, this is what you love. You can do it." So I said, "It's okay." So they brought for me my lecture, my teacher. He introduced himself, I'm sorry, so I'm going to take you through this course. I'm like, "Wow, thank you so much. I'm very glad to have you." So, you know, they took me like orientation on the campus. This is why we are going to be doing this. This is why we are going to be doing this. I said, "Okay." So the second day we went, you know, I was in my first month. Those guys were being six months, two years, who already died at the campus. So I was there, they're like, "What is this girl doing here? What is this girl going to do? What is this girl going to do?" I said, "It's okay, Victor. It's okay, Victor. You can do it." So at the end of the course, I convinced myself, and I also managed to convince the other students. When they saw me, you know, going under the car, bringing this spanner, bringing that spanner. You know, doing this, they're like, "Wow, the second month, that month, they're like, "Wow, please, can we join you?" Even if it's just for like 30 minutes, can we join your class, please?" Well, it was really an amazing opportunity for me to become part of this project. It has really, really, really helped me a lot, and it has really opened up myself. You know, having that self-confidence to do something has a goal. Among the men, among people who are doing two years, and they're begging to join your class, it is really amazing. So looking at your experience, you know, feeling like you're not in the right place, but convincing yourself that, "No, I think I can do it." So how did you feel being part of such kind of group or people who are not encouraging you? It's called passion, having passion to do something. Once you have passion and the love for something, trust me, you'll go against all odds to do it. Yeah. Well, that's good to hear from you, Victoria. Coming back to your Dominic, I don't know if you also do something on food security. Of course, when you talk about empowering women, we also think about food security. So how, what do you, you know, what do you do in this project in terms of food security? Thank you, Tideo. Before I say that, you know, just speaking from what Vic had said, you know, in this project, there is what we call, it has a trade training, trade training, this is to give technology and skills that can make me empower you economically. So that's what we offered. And this is going to use not only in Juba, but all over. That was how it was designed. So when we talk about food security, as I said earlier, we said we are using food security as the interrogate. So there is what we call, Fama Field-based School. So this Fama-based School, it is a platform where we have all the categories. We have people who are doing savings, we have people who are doing business, we have people who are producers and all sorts of that. So it is the food security that we are doing. Like in Central Victoria, we distribute seeds. Since it is started, we distribute seeds, we distribute tools. And then looking at the setup of Juba as a capital city. So we designed a way to identify an irrigation system. And looking at the demand of vegetable in Juba, everything is coming outside. So we have also put a much effort in vegetable production. We do a lot of vegetable production along Rivanai in Rajaf. So we gave out water pumps. We trained them on best agronomic practices. When we say best agronomic practices is land preparation, how to plant and run, how to clean, timely, storage and all that. We also do a part of nutrition aspect of it. We do cooking demonstration, and then we also do a taking care of environment. So all that sort of stuff we do it. And then our farmers, and then they go on and produce the crops that they are willing to do. Like I am speaking now, we just did a germination test. We found on Monday that it was almost 100% germination test. Next week we shall be distributing over 60,000 kg of grown-ups and to benefit in Rajaf, Piam, and Loori Piam. Because this is the two Piams that we are operating in Central Gotoria. And then with the small village, it is like corrugic, like local east, local west. Document east, we go to areas of Rajaf west in Loori. So that is where we are operating. So we are doing agriculture in a sense. We are taking it because that is the top of Juba. Okay, well, Dominic, when we look at most of the communities in South Sudan here, like when the women are in power, they will start saying that, you know, you say, "I don't want to be scared." "I don't want to be scared." You know, they are saying like that. So why do you think that it is important to build the resilience of the women? Thank you, Titio. Thank you, Tido. [ Speaking in foreign language ] [ Speaking in foreign language ] Social analysis. Social analysis, [ Speaking in foreign language ] The things that we do against women, social norms, we challenge those norms. Like now women will say, "I cannot cook." Why can't you cook? We train both men and women. We ask them the question, "At the end of the day, they come and they agree." They say, "Okay, I think I thought it was wrong." So we have also, when we are also bringing that to train the communities so that they know the role of women. In everything, in economic development, in farming, all that, and we are registering positive feedback. Like if today we came to talk about advocacy, we have an officer who is a gender and protection officer. If you talk about protection, you will hear the stories and the channel that we are using. That is representing the community. There is what we call channel of hope, which is called chats. We have eaten the lorry group there. The day role is to talk to the community every day also. Now even we have good stories there, but I cannot go to that because today we are focusing on this young lady and how she is going to change herself and how she can change the society. But all in all, that is what the project is doing. Okay, thank you Dominic. Now let's come to Victoria. Victoria, sometimes people look at this profession of mechanic and they have misconception about it. And they say it is men's job or not supposed to be for women, not for girls like you. Also looking at you as much as you are, they may start teasing you. So what do you have to say? What's your advice? What I have to say is you are not being a girl or a woman, you are going to face a lot of challenges when it comes to work that is done manually or work that is done with your hands. Where you have to apply your hands in order to pick something and do this for yourself, it will always be a challenge because there are some things which the society mainly, they have that aspect that this work is for a man and the lady cannot do this. But with change today in the society, we realize that there are some things that even women can do better than a man. If I have this basic training that I got, I have the skills, I have the knowledge, I have the ability and the capability to do this, even better than a man sometimes, yes. You may find that I have even a shop driving a mechanic shop and I am employing people, even men. So sometimes it is not always good on the look of gender or on the look of someone just because you have looked at that person and you have this aspect that this is a woman. Today, my trainer even calls me like, "Hello Victoria, where are you?" Please, there is this job here in maybe a bar or in a corner that we have to go and do, please, can you come? So that is a really big opportunity because he has a variety of people he can inform or he can call to come and help him, they work together, they partner with, but he gets that chance to call me because I am okay, I am good at what I do, and I love what I do. So please, the society out there, let's not under look women, let's not under look the strength of women, let's try to build them up and power them, give them the opportunities to also show what they have inside of them and not always diminishing them. Well Victoria, one other thing is that this work of mechanic, it requires practical work, you really need to be there to do this, touch this, get this, and did you feel that you were given enough opportunity during your training to participate with all the rest who were there equally with every person who was there? Yes, I was given enough opportunity to participate with everyone because even it reaches an extent whereby people who in second year or in six months, I could even join them. You know, it gives you that space, that freedom to also be who you are, to also show them that you got this, you know, you have this at hand and you can also do as they are doing. So yeah, it gave me a lot of opportunities and it helped me a lot to open up. Okay, coming back to you Dominic, well we know it's really sometimes challenging for women or younger to take part in some of these opportunities. So what do you see as some of the barriers that are hindering women in getting involved into some of these projects or some of these benefits? Thank you, as a political data and as well as doing project management, the women in my country, which is also done, they have a lot of challenges in participating in other activities. First of all, still our women, majority of them are still, especially the rural women, many of them are illiterate. So they are still staying at home, doing care of the children and the men are going out and that's what we have experienced. Even our women, they tell us when we are in the farm, we ask them where their husband to help to help them. They tell us that the women, men have gone to the town, others are widows. So they have really seen a lot, our women still have a lot of work that they are doing. Home care, looking for food, looking for money and all that stuff, sometimes they have a little time to be fully engaged. So that's the experience that we are having. And also we still have that traditional way of thinking. Some men think the women should not go out and take a lot. If they go out and take a lot, probably they have gone a different way. They are deceiving that we are going here and they are not going there. So even some of them spy us, they come over and try to see whether the women are there or not. But we have discovered that in the area where we are operating, people are getting to understand the role of women and how women should be, the capacity to build and grow up. Yes, I am seeing Victoria wanting to say something. Yeah, just to add on what Dominic is saying. Even in the society, some girls have really low self-esteem towards some things. And they call them, "Hey, can you do driving and mechanics? Oh, me? To do driving, mechanics? I cannot money. Okay, driving, I can try, but not mechanics." So today in my society, they look at me. They are like, "Well, if Victoria can do it, we can also do it better." So it has kind of created that open mindset towards auto mechanics for the girls. Okay, that's nice to hear. Let's go for a musical break and we shall be right back. Yes, welcome back from that musical break and you are still listening to the program "Wacking Together." I'm Titio Beatty and this week we are focusing on the fortifying equality and economic diversification for resilience project and a project that is run by world views on South Sudan. And we are joined by the project coordinator, Dominic Batikayo, and we also have Victoria Samuel, who is a beneficiary of this project with us in the studio. And soon I'll be opening the lines for you to have a comment or the question to the guests who are with me in the studio. And of course you will be able to share with us in this discussion. So coming back to Dominic, how did you select the beneficiaries for this project? Yes, thank you. The selection of the beneficiary for the project is not the job completed done by World Vision or World Vision staff. The criteria that we use in doing our work is we go to the community. And then we get in touch with the leadership of the community that mainly the chiefs. And then the chief, if we have an activity to do, we give the information to the chief and the chief passes it in the community. Like for those which are self-motivated, then the chief will find the avenue and announce. So thereafter, and then those who are willing, then the chiefs will collect their names and submit to us according to the number that we want. So and we normally make sure that this should not be on our tribal line or community line. It must be something which is universal or trasect. So like in this particular one, we were very happy to find that we had all these four students were all from different tribes. So that's how it was and it was so nice that we are taking the whole of South Sudan to benefit from. So that's what we do. We don't do it by ourselves. We correlate with the community leaders. So as we know, the project, as you mentioned from the beginning, it runs from 2020 to 2025 and it's almost concluding. So far, what have been the major success of this project? Oh, thank you. When you look at the project, the whole project for seven states, our target already, what we are achieving is already 76882 people that we have already reached. And when you look at the women, we have already for 9,000 women and girls that we have already reached with our activities. So you can see how we are moving. And then that's how we are moving. And then when it comes to farmer business schools, we have reached to 63,541. So if you add 63,000 to 76,000 plus, that's already over 100,000 or close to, we have reached in South Sudan with the activity. That is the whole. So for Juba alone, because which is only one county, our target is always very small. Like in India, we have only, we are supposed to reach about 2,000 individuals with the information that all we have, different sectors. Because as I told you earlier, we have a different sector, we have for peace meeting, we have for savings, for transformation, we have for security production, we have for businesses. So if you sum all this up, so it is a huge number that we already reached. So that's how far we are going. And one thing which I wanted to remark on, which Victor had said, she said something that talking about auto shop. When you asked her that how will people look at her as a lady? It does not mean that she can always be under the vehicle. She can even own her auto shop as a woman and she has a office. She can recruit anybody to work there. And if the person is defeated, she can come and show by hustle. That would be one of the best leaders to be skilled, management skill to show by showing, to do by showing. So for us, what we do is this kind of trade, when we are finishing it, we empower them. So we give her a full compact old toolbox. So how I wish she had the credit today with her. Since we are not on our visual TV, she has a complete set of the toolbox. Yes. Okay. Well, that's good to hear. And then coming back to Victoria, you've already got this training. Have you started doing some work? What I mainly do for now is small, small jobs for people. And I'm always accompanied by my lecture, the one who trained me, my trainer. So we always move together to do some works here and there. But there are still other future plans. You know, you do this, you collect some savings, you do this as your saving, you do this as your saving for other future use. So later on in the nearby future months, if you get us here again, once again, it will be an opportunity to show you what I've got and how far I've gone. Now that you have the skills, you can now do the job. How would you think these important skills will be able to change your lab? How can you make it as a life-changing, you know, activity? Like I said, from the start, I was seated at home doing nothing completely. But now I have the skills, I have the knowledge, I am doing something here and there. Every day. And I'm getting some profits from what I did and thanks to World Vision so much. So because of this, I can support myself. I don't have to ask my father for money anymore. I don't have to ask my mother for money to support me with my small, small things. I can actually now get off myself in one way or the other with the money that I get from servicing people's cars. Okay, now let's take some few collars and get their questions before I come to my guest in the studio. Hello, good morning. Sorry that we missed that collar and of course it's just about 10 minutes to end this program. So if you want to take part in the discussion, you can call on 0-929-68-6297. Hello, good afternoon. Yes, hello. Yes, who is on the line and where are you calling from? Yes, I am connecting to peace boy from Ezo Count, what's in the tutorial? Okay, peace boy, go ahead. What's your question? Yes, I have, I have only one question to ask. Yes, it is going to that, that's already there in the studio. Go ahead. You know, what you can see tell the women who are not going to work in a mechanic's center. What you can see tell them those who are just, who want just to go and marry instead of going to do a vocational training. But it is difficult for women to go for vocational training, what you can see tell them to continue going to fall. Alright, peace boy, thank you for your question. It's already noted, she'll be able to answer you shortly. So if you want to call or you want to have a question to the project coordinator or the beneficiary of the project, you can call on the line 0-929-68-6297. Hello, good afternoon. Hello. Yes, you're welcome. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. Who is on the line? Yeah, I am King Kalisto from now. Yes, King Kalisto, go ahead. What's your question? Hello. Sorry, we missed that school last, so maybe I can give the chance to Victoria, that peace boy is saying, what can you tell other girls who are outside there? Thank you so much, peace boy. What I can tell the other girls out there is this is a diversifying project, okay? So we should not only look at marriage as an opportunity or as a way of confining ourselves or holding ourselves trying to hide our capabilities. Let us try to open up what we have inside of us, try to open your mind, have that self-confidence, try to open yourself to other opportunities. Once you get it, you can have your knowledge, you have the skills, and you get, you know, it will help you a lot later on when you have your own money. You can run, this man will run for you if you have your own money. It's not always them to give us money, you'll get married, yes, but who will give you the food he'll always give you food, he'll always give you clothes, he'll always give you everything that you want. Yes, but it will never be enough. What you earn for yourself is very sweet, spending your own money is very sweet. So once you have the knowledge and the ability, the capability, do something, trust me. You always do it even better and you love it and you have peace of mind. You don't always have to beg for something, you can provide for your own self, yeah. Okay, now we are just left with some few minutes coming back to Dominic. Looking at this project, it's going to end in 2025, which is just at the doorstep we are almost there. So what should we expect to see in terms of women empowerment by the end of this project? Yeah, thank you. At the end of this project, what we need to see in the life of the women is that at least out of the 10 women, if we can have two women who are doing small business and they are doing a post to change their life to contribute to their family upkeeping. If we can find that, that would be our pleasure. Secondly, we are also looking because we are also doing the advocacy in terms of gender-based violence, awareness and all that. We shall be happy to hear from our chiefs that the level of gender-based violence issues that they used to solve in a month has reduced from 10 to 7 or to 6, which have been very happy. We shall also be very happy to see that when it comes to consumption, the level of consumption or food consumption at the family, people are able to produce their own food and they are able to eat at least twice in a day. We shall be very happy to hear that out of the 10 people, if we do kind of evaluation and we see at least 8 or 7 people are able to eat their own food. So all when we find all these kind of changes, then that would give us a kind of pride and we say that the project has changed the people. If we also move within the community and see people are planting using the modern agronomic practices and they are going to the level of value addition. Like now, when you look at places like Western Victoria, where they are planting a lot of rice and they have already saw milk and they are able to package. Even here in Central Victoria, because we are also in power in memory with this peanut and other things and we see that they are able to implement this, then that would be the success. Okay, well Dominique, we just left with two minutes to end this program. Now, what's your final word on what are the importance of supporting women in South Sudan, like what is your final word to the people? Thank you. The importance of this, as I said earlier, is to see which that women have access to control or access and control over assets as well as men. Women are able to have their own shops, women are able to own their own businesses and take care of their children. Once this is the taking place, I bet you, people will be happy, families will be enjoying themselves and that's what the way that we need to go. Thank you, Dominique. Now, Victoria, what does the future hold for you as we end this program? Where do you see yourself from here? Okay, that is more like a vision. What I see myself from here is my dream is to have my own shop, my own store, mechanic store, where I can be able to serve these people's cars and also manage my shop and also get money, and better money for myself as a living. And on top of that, I would really, really love to thank so much World Vision for recognizing the dignity of girls through this empowerment project and also building our capacity. In one way or the other, we thank you so much. May God bless you. Okay, thank you so much, Dominique and Victoria for your time to come to our studio in Radio Maria to talk about the fortifying equality and economic diversification resilience project, where you have been one of the beneficiaries and also we have Dominique, who is the coordinator for this program. Thank you so much for being with us and also for the listeners outside there. Thank you for following us. Hope to see you again in the upcoming program and the new summary coming to you next. Keep tuned.