A group of actors who have experienced trauma because of ongoing violence in South Sudan are using their dramatic skills to explain the role of the United Nations Mission in the country to other internally displaced people living in protected sites.

The Bomduong Kon Drama Group is made up of residents from the UN protection site in Juba. They recently performed at an awareness-raising workshop organized by UNMISS, keeping the audience informed, entertained, and erupting in laughter during in a short skit carrying important messages about the organization’s mandate to protect civilians and build durable peace.

“We came together as a group and put forward ideas on how best the community can understand the UNMISS mandate in a simple way. We wanted them to understand what UNMISS is really doing in South Sudan,” said Char James Kim, the director of the drama group.  

“To convince a human brain is not easy; you have to convince them inside the heart and the mind and to make that easy they should see something live, they should see it from a local person living with them,” said Char James Kim.

“This is why we chose to do a play, to make it easy for a child and the elderly to fully understand the UN mandate.”

The workshop was run by UNMISS’ Communication and Public Information Section. The Mission’s Head of Outreach, Hiroyuki Saito, said that it was very important for residents of the UN Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites to better understand all aspects of the organization’s work. 

“We wanted to explain what is really going on at the POC sites, concretely, so that there is no misunderstanding between UNMISS and the people who live here,” said Hiroyuki Saito.

There were also presentations at the workshop by UNMISS’ Gender Unit on the serious problem of gender-based violence, the role of UN Police and Force Protection within the sites.

There are currently over 38,000 civilians living in the UN protection sites in Juba.