A three-day training at YSAT's Innovation Centre in Pibor equipping 58 community members, mostly women, with the knowledge and confidence to address conflict peacefully and assert their rights within the household and community.
Gender-based violence remains one of the most significant barriers to women's safety, agency, and participation in community life across the Pibor Administrative Area. In many cases, women lack both the language to describe what constitutes GBV and the confidence to challenge it when it occurs — particularly within domestic settings where harmful norms are often treated as simply 'how things are.'
YSAT's GBV training, held from 5 to 7 April 2023 at its Innovation Centre in Pibor, was designed to directly address this gap. The training reached 58 participants — 36 women and 22 men — combining awareness-raising on what constitutes GBV with practical skills for resolving conflict peacefully and respectfully, rather than through violence.
Deliberately including men in the training alongside women reflected an understanding that changing norms around GBV requires engagement from the whole community, not just those most directly affected. By building shared understanding among both women and men, the training aimed to shift how conflicts within families and communities are handled, replacing violent responses with dialogue and mutual respect.
The impact of the training was reflected directly in participant feedback. One participant said: "Now I can be able to speak up of my right as a woman and be respected. I will not be taken as a property." This shift — from silence to a clear sense of personal rights — is precisely the change in mindset the training set out to achieve.
Facilitators introduced participants to what constitutes gender-based violence in its various forms, helping participants recognise behaviours and patterns that might previously have gone unnamed or been accepted as normal within the community.
Participants were equipped with practical approaches to resolving disputes within the household and community without resorting to violence, building skills in communication, negotiation, and de-escalation that directly counter the conditions that allow GBV to persist.
The training deliberately brought together 36 women and 22 men in the same sessions, recognising that shifting norms around GBV requires shared understanding across the whole community rather than separate messaging delivered only to those most affected.
Beyond technical knowledge, the training built participants' confidence to assert their rights. As one participant reflected, the training gave her the confidence to speak up for her rights as a woman and to expect to be respected, rather than treated as property.
Participants reached through GBV training — 36 women and 22 men
Days of training delivered at the YSAT Innovation Centre, Pibor
Women equipped with knowledge to resolve conflict peacefully
Innovation Centre in Pibor used as the training venue