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Youth in South Sudan Encouraged to Embrace Intermarriages for Peacebuilding

Young people in South Sudan during celebrations marking International Youth Day organized by the leadership of the seven-member South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC).

The Catholic Youth Coordinator in South Sudan’s Juba Archdiocese has urged young people belonging to different tribes in the country that have experienced protracted tribal conflicts to embrace intermarriages as a way to foster long-lasting peace in the East-Central African nation.

Speaking to ACI Africa on the sidelines of the International Youth Day celebrations in an event that was organized for the youth by the leadership of the seven-member South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC), Dr. Simon Gore Augustino said in reference to the young people, “We need to connect ourselves and unite as Christians first of all, then as South Sudanese because in the Christian life we don’t have boundaries.”

“By intermarrying among ourselves, we shall surely see the value of being together as youth and as the citizens of South Sudan,” the youth leaders said in an interview with ACI Africa on Wednesday, August 12.

The benefit of intermarriages, according to Dr. Gore, is that they enable individuals to create relationships with other communities, knowing the different cultures, the gifts God has given to different communities and that it is this knowledge that brings respect and acknowledgement of others.

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“Conferences like the one day by SSCC on the world’s Youth Day is one of the activities that can also bring the youth together,” he said, and added, “The youth should also be involved in some activities of the country, such as environmental activities, debates that bring them together and discover talents and share it with one another and continue connection to one another.”

The youth leader of the only metropolitan Archdiocese in the nine-year-old nation lamented that young people in the country have not embraced the spirit of volunteerism to serve societies with their God-given talents.

“With their talents, the youth can offer services to the country,” the youth official observed, and added in reference to young people, “They should have voluntary health camps to assist the people, and by doing so, society would be transformed and we would be more linked to one another.”

He further said, “We can do a lot to the society by being together peacefully.”

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