Peace and Safety: How we are making a difference in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Hereford

AN EAGLE SPREADING HARMONY

A ground-breaking peace project is using Bible studies to inspire

In 2018, five Mothers’ Union Ethiopia representatives travelled to Uganda to understand how the Eagle process works in different dioceses, and how it could be adapted for the Gambella region.

A year later, Canon Alice Adukuru, Provincial Chaplain to Mothers’ Union Uganda, began training Mothers’ Union leaders of the Anuak and Nuer tribes to deliver the Eagle process in Gambella.

In February 2019, on a leadership retreat in Arua, Northern Uganda - Canon Alice’s diocese – 160 MU South Sudan leaders visited seven Eagle parishes and came away full of excitement and energy to replicate all they had seen in Uganda back in their dioceses in South Sudan. Both countries aim to: l Reduce poverty by increasing self-sufficiency through income generating projects l Increase positive attitudes l Use participatory Bible studies to grow theological understanding l Build peaceful intertribal relationships.

In Ethiopia since December 2019, both the Anuak and Nuer MU have begun crop cultivation to generate income. The MU groups were convinced by the Eagle process Bible study from 2 Kings 4: 1-7 on Elisha and the Widow’s Oil, which focuses on the identification and mobilisation of under-used local resources. MU members have acted on this by identifying those resources, while

New leaf: the tribes are working together to cement their fellowship

considering how they can make them fruitful through prayer.

Both the Anuak and Nuer MU groups will request land from the government to be used for joint cultivation. All applicants will need a savings balance in a local bank account. Both MU groups will use some of their maize harvest profits to create enough savings to be eligible.

This is the first time that the Anuak and Nuer MU have planned a joint activity (especially requiring investment of time and resources) that goes beyond a prayer or fellowship day. This is a marked and exciting change in their relations.

One participant said this is part of ‘bringing peace to Gambella’, and that they want their fellowship to ‘bring peace in the community’ and to reach further than the Church.

For MU South Sudan, their Arua retreat helped them to plant seeds, which they have been nurturing, and growing in peace. In the Diocese of Akoba, tribal fighting among the

My heart is very happy

“because I am there with my people

Dinka, Nuer and Murle was longstanding. Elizabeth, the bishop’s wife, reports that since sharing what they had learned: ‘We are now free to use our Dinka language in the community. Before there would be fighting and trouble if we used it… The Murle used to take the women and children, but this has stopped. They also took the cattle, but this has stopped too. God has given us peace. Before we didn’t know people outside of MU. We now know each other. Before they thought the Dinka caused trouble and fighting. People know us now and this is bringing peace and unity. My heart is very happy because I’m there with my people.’

Adua in the Diocese of Twic East shared similar experiences. They mobilised all the women in the community and spread the word about Eagle in a three-day workshop. This has resulted in restarting their tailoring centre, which had been empty for a long time. They have helped 100 women graduate.

‘Now all the tribes are meeting, the Nuer, Shulluk, all are one. Women bring peace together. We have been taught to come together and do good things in our community,’ she added.

Despite low levels of women’s empowerment in Ethiopia and South Sudan, securing their livelihoods and addressing illiteracy are important ways women can create peaceful communities. Through their adult literacy programmes and with the Eagle process, Mothers’ Union are helping to restore peace, and helping tribal collaboration.

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Eagle has created unity and built strong relationships between the once disparate tribes. In December 2020, both Mothers’ Union groups met to mutually encourage one another. They greeted each other warmly, shared the seating rather than sitting separately and had a very congenial discussion — sharing the opportunities unlocked through the Eagle process, as well as their ongoing challenges.

BUILDING AN ESSENTIAL SERVICE

The Mothers’ Union in the Diocese of Hereford has provided support for more than a 100 people through their Crisis Intervention Fund and Store project this year. In that time, 27 women, 64 men and 28 children have been provided with essential household items, including women and children who have been in the refuge escaping domestic violence.

Referrals are made to the Mothers’ Union diocesan council funding and there office, and grants are then are plans in progress awarded for the goods, or to provide longer-term they are donated. The social support, including for workers give feedback women and children who from the recipients to the use refuge services and Mothers’ Union members. need household goods to

Regular donations of start a new life. goods arrive weekly for distribution, ensuring the intervention store is well stocked most of the time. Prospects look good for the future too. The project has now been awarded “ Prospects look good for the future