Peace Campers call for development of local tourism sites
“Selling the local tourism of this country means other people are going to know about South Sudan besides all the wars that they hear and besides all the horrible things they hear about South Sudan.” Lupai Samuel.
NIMULE, SOUTH SUDAN: The initiative I am Peace, a national NGO, has created a Peace Camp to bring together young South Sudanese from all walks of life to build trust, break stereotypes and promote peaceful coexistence in the country.
Lupai Samuel, executive director of the I am Peace Initiative says they realized that young people are always apart in smaller groups because they don’t have a platform and a purpose that brings them together.
“But when we created that platform (the Peace Camp), they started to connect at different levels and that’s the objective of the Peace Camp, building people to people relationships to build trust and break stereotypes.” Samuel told The Insider.
Samuel says South Sudanese need to connect with their country, explore its physical features and take advantage of its tourism opportunities. He says the camp enables youth to do more than just connect with each other.
“It means connecting with nature, connecting with what can sell South Sudan to make us proud of our country.”
“Selling the local tourism of this country means other people are going to know about South Sudan besides all the wars that they hear and besides all the horrible things they hear about South Sudan and promoting local tourism means there’s a positive aspect of this country that are not tapped into and the young people are the best to tap into this.” Samuel added.
The Peace Camp is encouraging local tourism to promote peace in South Sudan. Last weekend, the Peace Camp toured Nimule town where the youths visited Fulla Falls.
From a distance, one could hear the roar of white water at Fulla Falls, falling down the base of the Nile and crashing on the rocks below, sending foamy splashes of water up as high as five-feet.
Christine Kide, one of the youths who took part in the peace camp, says the Fula Falls are beautiful, as are many areas of South Sudan.
“We can’t deny the fact that South Sudan is surely beautiful and blessed. From the natural beauty; the hills and when you go to Fulla falls and see how God designed the falls, the elephants and Buffalos, it was quite an amazing experience.”
“Just that these natural resources are not well taken care of or maybe not well planned for, is becoming a challenge to access them to give the people an opportunity to see the beauty of South Sudan.” Kide says.
The River Nile’s floodplains are rich in green vegetation and fertile soil, an essential natural resource for robust agricultural activities along the Nile and recreational opportunities such as hiking the Gordon Hills, which offers stunning views of flowering vegetation at the Nile floodways. The floodplains also provide a habitat to a diverse variety of wildlife including elephants, hippopotamus, buffalos, monkeys and reptiles.
Peace camp participant Sunday Mayor says Fulla Falls is an ideal site for promoting local tourism in South Sudan.
“When you look across the river, we saw elephants grazing on the other side and we saw how powerful the waves were. It made us really look into the future and think maybe in the next ten years we can have electricity being generated in our own country.” Mayor laments.
He says If the roads can be paved to allow tourists to visit the sites to study and see the nature, it will really be amazing.”
Eva Lopa, a host on Advanced Youth Radio, says Fulla Falls could be South Sudan’s gateway to commercial tourism, which would boost the economy. She says local tourism needs to be promoted across the country, especially civic education.
“It’s important to have students come and see what exactly their country has. This has to do with the ministry of education as well. Make trips, have the students come out for trips. This is not just geography, it’s not just beauty, it’s history as well.” Lopa tells The Insider, noting the Falls could also generate electricity for the country.
The Peace Campers also visited archeological sites such as the Calvary Chapel Cush, and the 200-year-old tamarind tree that Sir Samuel Baker, the British explorer used to sit under with local chiefs in the Madi land to settle cases that affected communities in Nimule, which included the slave trade in the late 1860s and early 1870s.
It’s really amazing and I have to extend my warmest gratitude and appreciation to the CEO of this initiative, we as South Sudanese needs to preach to the world that ,we’re amazing country with beautiful cultures,tourist sites, and friendly environment, War is not the solution but togetherness and peaceful co-existence,
Woah! This is an amazing initiative! This is what we as South Sudanese should carry out and make our country a better site for tourist.