January 15, 2007

A "Peace Village" in Sudan—the dream of co-founder of the New Sudan Council of Churches emeritus bishop Paride Taban—is promoting peaceful co-existence among neighboring ethnic groups in conflict-ridden Sudan.

"I have been dreaming of a community where people with different ethnicity and different religious background can live side by side with confidence in harmony and fellowship," Bishop Taban told Church World Service Education & Advocacy staff in Washington during a recent visit.

Throughout four decades of civil war, more than two million Sudanese died and an additional four million were forced from their homes and ancestral lands in southern Sudan. Though a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was reached in 2004, familiar war tactics being employed in the Darfur region call into question the possibility of lasting peace in Sudan.

In the south, the Government of Sudan employed a strategy of "divide and conquer," encouraging neighboring ethnic groups to fight against one another, leaving a good deal of work to be done in the areas of reconciliation and reconstruction, Bishop Taban said.

CWS is active in seeking an end to what President Bush calls genocide in Darfur, and to the long-running conflict in Sudan. It has pressed for action from the U.S. government and world bodies to increase pressure on the government of Khartoum to bring about an end to the year-and-a-half of assault that has displaced more than 2.5 million mostly black African farmers. The organization has also provided leadership on this front in regional and national initiatives and public events.

As part of the Action by Churches Together coalition, Church World Service helps meet the humanitarian needs of families and communities uprooted by the violence in Darfur. In partnership, CWS helps provide food, medicines, water and sanitation, agricultural inputs and tools, as well as a supplemental feeding program for malnourished children.

Taban was Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Torit in southern Sudan until 2004. Since his retirement from the diocese, he has been leading an effort to make peace real by setting up a peace village.

Peace Village Kuron brings people together to empower them to produce enough food, Bishop Taban said. Its second priority is to make formal education accessible and acceptable for girls, boys and adults in pastoral communities. An overall goal is to promote peaceful co-existence among neighboring ethnic groups.

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