Unity State Diasporas to hold conference on peace and development
By Bonifacio Taban Kuich
May 21, 2012 (BENTIU) – People from South Sudan’s Unity State living in North America are due to hold a three-day conference from 6-8 July in Omaha, Nebraska, at the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation Activities Hall, under the theme “we are united and committed to promote peace, national healing and reconciliation and prosperity among Unity State citizens”.
The conference is going to be organised by a group of volunteers from the US and Canada, with all Unity State citizens from anywhere in the world invited to attend to discuss post-independence challenges.
Volunteer groups organising the conference hope to give the Diaspora a chance to
genuinely discuss how they can help ordinary people back home.
One of the organisers Margaret Mead said, “We can achieve the positive change and wishing to see Unity State, believe in strength and power of togetherness as citizens with shared interests and destiny”.
“We can build a prosperous state by engaging in civil discourse and initiating concrete plans that will serve as blueprints for building a better society”, Mead explained.
She further added that many of them have accomplished individually in their respective host nations. but had not contributed collectively back to South Sudan.
“This conference will provide a platform on which all of our individual accomplishments can be coordinated together to harness the power of togetherness for greater purposes such as achieving peace, unity, social and economic development in order to build a vibrant society”, said Mead.
She called on Unity State’s sons and daughters to join the conference and also to afford them an opportunity to talk about their shared objectives as Unity State citizens in the Diaspora.
Mead told Sudan Tribune on Monday in a phone interview that, “Achieving
peace and promoting harmonious relations among communities in Unity State and other neighbouring states and finding ways of coordinating our efforts to enable us to work together with peace builders back home”.
The skills and diverse resources of the Diaspora could become instrumental in creating better living conditions for Unity State’s people.
The conference will also provide a platform to come together and talk about bringing economic development to Unity State by wooing foreign investors to invest in the state’s numerous human and natural resources.
“Each one of us has a duty and responsibility to contribute in building Unity State, whether in big or small ways”, Mead said.
She added that we can bridge our petty differences by eliminating our doubts and all that divides us, embracing the strength of the thread that binds us together.
“We hope to come out from this conference united by the common vision of building and promote peace and harmony among Unity state citizens from all 9 counties and the neighboring states such as Warrap, Lakes, and Jonglei”, Mead explained.
Goals of the conference
- Foster reconciliation and forgiveness among Unity State’s people through initiating a healing process through which people will be encouraged to aspire for a better future.
- Form a think-tank or consultant group, whose responsibility will be to consult with the different sectors of Unity State’s leaderships on matters critical to good governance and nation building.
- Focus on economic development by encouraging foreign and local investors to invest in agriculture, including husbandry and livestock to create employment opportunities for people with little educational skills that will enable them to compete ably in the job market.
- Discuss way of eliminating all forms of bad governance (corruption, cronyism, nepotism, tribalism) which cause distrust and conflicts between public officials and the constituencies they represent.
- Promote respect for the rule of law so that nobody feels he/she is below or above the law, but all citizens are entitled to equal rights and privileges.
- Discuss the provision of basic services (health clinic, education, and food) to the most needy in the state.
- Discuss land disputes between and among different counties.
(ST)