By Baraka John
South Sudan’s fragile peace and social fabric are often disrupted by harmful information spread through word of mouth, social media, and other platforms. Recognizing these risks, Digital Rights Frontlines (DRF), with support from Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), are building resilience and encouraging responsible communication through the training of community members in Western Equatoria State, specifically Yambio.
On Tuesday, fifty community members, mostly the youth and civil society actors in Yambio, participated in a one-day training on media literacy and hate speech.
The participants were impacted with essential skills to identify and counter misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech within their communities. It is part of a broader initiative being implemented across four states in South Sudan, with Yambio being one of the key areas of focus.
According to Angelin Sani, DRF’s focal person in Yambio, the training was part of an ongoing project aimed at fostering informed communities and promoting peaceful coexistence through responsible media use.
“Today we managed to conduct a one-day training to a civil society organisation, community-based, community-led as women group. And during this training we registered over 40 participants. Our target was 50, that we managed to reach 50 participants from different community areas within Yambio. During this training we had very active participation from the community leaders and the community members alike, and they were able to share their views on the misinformation, disinformation, and also hate speech from their various communities.” Sani said.
During the session, participants engaged in discussions on how media messages influence community dynamics, particularly in fragile contexts. The training included role-play scenarios, where participants analyzed real-life examples of hate speech and developed counter-narratives focused on peace, unity, and shared identity.
One participant, Anihiri Jenty, a local youth, shared how the training changed his perception of online messages.
“Before I could not know, like, I could not know when the message is being forwarded to me. I have just to forward it to everyone without knowing who shared the message, where is it coming from, and what is the message saying, when was it shared. I could not know. But as I’ve attended the training, I am now full aware of the scammers. No one can scam me, and I am very sure I am going to educate others outside there about what is misinformation, what is disinformation, what is malinformation.”he said.
Another attendee, Stephen Angelo Kazi, expressed gratitude for the opportunity.
“I personally can testify that this is for the first time of its kind that I’m able to attend such kind of training and I am so happy that I have been filled with a lot of information knowledge today on regarding information which I am very sure that from now on I’m going to take the same information and I’m able to go and deliver it back to the other communities. As youth of this community it is important for us to understand the importance of information and information sharing so that we are able to understand and evaluate what information is and I will urge all the partners that are stood so much strong for this so that they can continue with such kind of initiative not only to us but also to other counties and other farmers in the state.” he added.
The project not only focuses on individual awareness but also on building the capacity of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to respond to media-related conflicts. Through scenario-based learning, participants developed action plans to respond to incidents of hate speech in their communities.
Digital Rights Front (DRF) works to promote digital literacy and safeguard online freedoms, while Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) is a Canada-based organization that trains journalists and communities to cover human rights issues effectively. Together, they aim to empower local voices and strengthen media environments in fragile contexts like South Sudan.