By Matia Samuel Timatio
Women for Change South Sudan and the Turkey Cooperation Agency have launched an initiative to empower women on self-sustaining economic activities for livelihood.
The project which was launched on Wednesday in Juba targets the disadvantaged women by empowering them with trainings on soap making, tailoring and business management skills.
Speaking at the launching of the project, Director of Women for Change, Anna Tazita said five hundred women from one batch to another will benefit from the project that is going to train women on soap making and tailoring to help them improve on their economic status.
She added that they received the donations of tailoring machines and soap making materials from Turkey Cooperation Agency.
“This training will strengthen our course and it has given new hope to continue with our journey until the mission of eradicating and promoting resilience among women is achieved and again I want to say to overcome poverty is not an act of charity it’s an act of justice, therefore time has come to do justice to the disadvantaged women”, Anna further explained.
Turkey’s Ambassador to South Sudan, Erdem Mutaf, lamented that women empowerment is one of their priorities in the country and “we believe if we support a woman, we support the society”, citing that with the provision of the tailoring machines, women will be generating money for themselves and their families.
He stated that the Embassy will be doing micro projects for the vulnerable communities in South Sudan and will continue to support women.
The national Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, Ayaa Benjamin Warile, said many women are very strong when they are empowered and they can be able to care for their children to end suffering.
Ayaa urged the women to take the project seriously and work in groups to succeed in life and should hunt for work with the skills that they got in the training, adding that, both women and men have equal opportunities to realize their dreams in this country.
The Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare is mandated to promote gender equality, social justice, and safe guard the rights and welfare of women, children, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. And the mandate of the ministry also covers gender and women’s empowerment, child and social welfare functions in the Republic of South Sudan.