ELGABAS.
ELGABAS implements projects in peacebuilding, education, and health.
ELGABAS’s objectives are:
- To disseminate peace culture and promote peaceful coexistence between tribes;
- To increase women’s awareness about food and children’s health;
- To help poor families to find other activities that increase their income; and
- To encourage communities to learn by showing the importance of education.
ELGABAS provides seminars on peace culture, run by a lecturer from Dilling University and its Centre for Peace Culture. They use simple language when educating people in villages about the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
ELGABAS runs a household course for women, providing training on hand-made things such as netting or carpets.
Peace Culture Initiative for NGOs
ELGABAS tries try to avoid giving lectures about conflict resolution. Instead, they find drama is a good way to send a message. A psychology teacher from Dilling University, volunteered with them and turned our lecture into a drama show. This show, called “Conflict Resolution”, was produced with people from conflicting tribes, using actors who were already active in community drama activities. Invites were then sent to organisations working in peacebuilding and community building, plus many others involved in community participation.
The aim of this initiative is to have a broad understanding of conflict resolution, in order to affect the situation in the Nuba Mountains. Every now and then the different tribes of Arab and Nuba here restart dormant conflicts. Heightened awareness makes the local population more able to remedy these conflicts when they arise.
Each part of the three-part drama contains a message. The first part teaches the importance of living in peace and what we are going to gain from this. The second part is based on the role of local NGOs and communities in conflict resolution; connecting this with the history of Sudan. The third part contains the message that there are many examples of solving conflicts in the customs and tradition of our community.
