By Philip Buda Ladu
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) in collaboration with the National Ministry of Peace Building with support from the Chinese Embassy in Juba on Thursday launched a peace program for dissemination of positive peace messages dabbed as “My Peace Program.”
The “My Peace Program” initiative launched at the Chinese Embassy in Juba on Thursday is being spearheaded by the Union of Journalists of South Sudan in close association with the National Ministry of Peace Building supported by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.
Patrick Oyet Charles, the Chairperson of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan speaking at the launch of the program asked fellow journalists to set an agenda as journalists in the country on the implementation of the Revitalized Peace deal on the dissemination of the agreement and look at all aspects of it since it’s one of the things which is expected of them.
“There are positive things happening and it is our duty to set an agenda and I will be happy to see every media house having a program designed specifically on the peace deal dissemination and this is what we as UJOSS are advocating. We are asking members that please, whether it is a newspaper, TV that let us design programs on the dissemination of the peace deal implementation on the positive effects that are there, our people are getting as a result of the peace implementation.” Oyet said.
He underscored that the peace dissemination initiative will help the South Sudanese understand the peace process and also appreciate and the little positive that is happening and people will pick from there and the effect will definitely multiply across the country.
“As UJOSS, we thank the Chinese Embassy for the support they are giving us, we thank the Ministry of Peace Building for standing with us, for supporting this program. This program aims at producing positive stories on the peace implementation. These stories are going to be on the UJOSS website, on JUBA ECHO website and then we are also going to produce audios, radio programs in other words for the same purpose it will also be offloaded in form of a podcast on those websites.” Oyet told journalists, on Thursday.
He said that any radio station that is willing to take the produced programs can take and any newspaper that wants to republish the program can do it for free.
Stephen Par Kuol, the National Minister of Peace Building speaking at the same occasion of the “My Peace Program” launch said he was impressed by the presentation of the initiative idea by the UJOSS President Patrick Oyet.
Minister Par said that it is a progressive start in the right direction that the media will not only be reporting crisis in South Sudan, war and conflict but also positive developments.
“We would like to see the media walking the talk with us as we disseminate peace. We have passed a resolution to the Council of Ministers to disseminate peace in South Sudan and we will be depending on the media to do so,” said Minister Par.
The Council of Ministers in their last Friday’s Meeting No.4/2022 approved and passed peace work plan worth over 2.7 billion South Sudanese Pounds for the dissemination of the Revitalized Agreement to the citizens across the country and in the diaspora.
Meanwhile, Hua Ning the Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan in his remarks at the launch of the program said as a supporter, participant and a contributor to the South Sudan peace process, the Chinese Embassy hopes that the “My Peace Program” project could enhance the South Sudanese people’s confidence and to believe in peace, encourage them to better participate in the country’s economic and social development to realize the country’s long term stability while improving their own livelihood through hard work.
Ambassador Ning said that they would also want to support the project to contribute to the hard working brave people of South Sudan, saying that he has seen the gradual recovery of the South Sudan economy and the improvement of people’s lives for three and a half years now although there are still many problems and challenges.
“We all share the ideas that it is necessary to improve the way we produce the reports so as to make more people realize the significances of peace for ordinary people and encourage them to participate in the course of peace building with more diligence and passion.” Amb. Ning noted.