South Sudanese Women Intellectuals Forum Bringing Women together to build a better South Sudan
The forum drives change and participation through linking the members and brings together professional South Sudanese women with diverse background and points of view.
Asha Anihiri, a South Sudanese from the Zande community who is currently based in Canada where she works as a senior policy adviser with the government there started a program in 2020 that links South Sudanese professionals globally through an online dialogue and participation to resolve some of the challenging challenges facing South Sudanese women not only in South Sudan but also round the globe.
The South Sudanese Women Intellectuals Forum is a registered Non Global Organization with over 3500 members and is committed to realizing a free, just and equitable society. The forum drives change and participation through linking the members and brings together professional South Sudanese women with diverse background and points of view.
“The forum cultivates in support value base and is purpose driven as it tries to turn ideas into actions that would eventually impact positively the communities of South Sudanese around the globe,” explains Asha Anihiri, the Executive Director and also the Administrator for online activity for the forum.
Ms. Anihiri who has worked in South Sudan for close to 10 years and has been able to develop different policies for South Sudan like the national gender policy, the affirmative action policy for female teachers and the action plan further explained that the South Sudanese Women Intellectuals Forum objectives includes promoting nationalism and mutual understanding, uniting South Sudanese women intellectuals globally, creatively engaging all the women in various fields such as national building, development, women empowerment and share technical expertise as well as building a database for all South Sudanese women around the world.
“The forum is also meant to share information on scholarship, research, publication any way that can bring all our women together to work for the common good of our country,” she explained adding that the mission of the South Sudanese Women Intellectuals Forum is to strive to provide opportunities for women to connect with and support each other.
“We facilitate meaningful approaches to networking, embrace new ways of enriching our connection and raising awareness for our members. We also embrace South Sudanese women professionals of all ages, culture, industries and professions. In addition, we mentor, share ideas, challenges, wisdom, and collaborate within the network and ultimately the South Sudanese community.”
The vision of the forum is to shape the future of South Sudanese intellectual women by providing opportunities for development, fostering valuable connections and facilitating member success through dialogue and career growth.
“South Sudanese Women Intellectuals Forum values include to cherish and recognize one another, pursue growth and learning, link members with agencies hiring through our database experts, support, educate and create awareness to our members globally,” Anihiri explained adding that it is a forum where they bring the ordinary South Sudanese women to discuss issues that are impacting them and through such discussions, they are to bring the policy makers, people who are in charge of the relevant ministries to come and do accountability and address issues that are being raised by the women.
The South Sudanese Women Intellectual Forum unlike other organizations brings women from various profession together, not just a specific profession, which is usually the case with many organizations and this makes the forum holistic. Anihiri explained the advantage of this is to make information accessibility regarding various fields easy, be it medical, engineering, education etc.
“Recently I wanted to have a discussion with the engineers so I sent a message to the forum and within 5 minutes they were able to identify 115 engineers who are women from South Sudan, same thing with doctors we have over 300 medical doctors, economist same thing. Right now we are showing the world and government that we do have the capacity; we do have people who can do the work and we do not need to consult foreign expatriates to come and do the work in South Sudan, the country is well endowed with professionals,” she expressed adding that it is high time South Sudan gave opportunities to its citizens who are capable of implementing projects directly towards their own people.
Owing to the fact that this forum is an umbrella body which is currently connected to all the ten states in South Sudan and membership is drawn from the various NGOs, CBOs, civil society organizations, activists among others, it is easy to connect to any state and know what is happening there.
“When an idea is fronted, we are able to discuss and get solutions from within the network. For instance, if you have somebody in RiiYubu who is sick and you need an expert opinion based on the symptoms, you only need to let us know so that we can connect you with our doctors on the forum and relevant advice given. Similarly, if somebody is writing a proposal to get funding, we have experts in the forum who can help,” Anihiri explained adding that for the youth who have completed school, the Forum is connecting them with mentors who can help, while for youths who are coming from high school, the Forum is connecting them with people to give them career counselling.
Ruru Gene Team
