NUER SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT CONFERENCE ENDED SUCCESSFULLY

PRESS RELEASE

Conference Organizing Committee, Minnesota State University, Mankato, U.S.A.

June, 17, 2011

In addition to letter post by Mr. Lul Gatkuoth here are some facts. It is our pleasure to inform the public and all interested parties that Nuer social empowerment conference took place at Minnesota State University, Mankato, from June 4^th—5^th, 2011. The aim of the conference was to empower the Nuer community in the U.S. to handle the side effects of cultural shock that affected their communities.

The keynote speakers at the conference were H.E. Thowath Pal Chai and Dr. John Ruach Jal. The former is notable community leader with enormous experience in leadership and management. He is a known figure among the Nuer who conducted leadership workshops in the past to empower the younger Nuer generation to work for the future. Dr. John Ruach is a scholar and a community builder who has enormous experience in building communities to address problems that face the younger generation.

During the conference, H.E. Thowath Pal and Dr. John Ruach were accorded standing ovation and applause as a demonstration of their commitment to empower the Nuer community through education. Both leaders were given special recognition by the audience in the conference. In the conference, these two community figures taught the community in how to handle problems associated to cultural shock, youth gangsters, economic hardships and homelessness in the United States.

In the conference, the community raised problems which faced them in the U.S. particularly higher than normal divorces and students’ loans. In response to the problems bedeviling the community, H.E. Thowath Pal advised the community to take note of Nuer and American cultural differences which may be the source of higher than normal divorces in the Nuer community. Nuer men should understand that the American way of life is anchored on individualism, meaning that women are treated equal with men in everything. He seriously advised men to adapt to American culture and treat their wives with utmost respect in the community. He continued urging members of the community to empower women and youth and ignore cultural practices which may be in conflict with American way of life.

H.E. Thowath Pal talked about the need for attitude change in order for Nuer who live in the U.S. to fit into American melting pot. In order to fully participate in American society, members of Nuer community should learn the language and begin transforming themselves to fit into American way of life in order for them to succeed.

H.E. Thowath Pal also advised the community to take note of generational change. The younger generation raised and born in the U.S. has developed a different attitude that is totally different from the way the older generation sees the world. The generation that migrated to U.S. has different way of looking at things while the generation that grew up in the U.S. has a different world view. These conflicting attitudes have some negative side effects within the Nuer community in the U.S. because there is a struggle between the old and the new. However, he stressed that both generations must invest on education so that they would be able to reconcile attitudinal differences.

In talking about leadership, H.E. Thowath Pal advised the community to know the difference between community leadership and political leadership. Community leadership is about enabling local communities to steer their own future. It is not traditional top-down leadership, but involves people and families in using all the tools at their disposal to engage communities in making their own difference. It promotes a partnership of shared commitment to promote a shared vision for the locality. On the other hand, a political leader is given power to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the team's performance. It gives the opportunity to the manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predetermined goal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correct and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached. A political leader is highly visible and uses chain of command to get the job done.

H.E. Thowath Pal advised the Nuer community to differentiate between political leadership and community leadership in order to keep the community in harmony. He seriously advised the community to keep politics away from community organizations because politics can divide people on ideological lines.

In conclusion, the entire Nuer community in U.S. and Canada thanks the two Nuer leaders in conducting the workshop on leadership to empower Nuer community. The Nuer community benefited a lot from the experience of the two elders and the time they devoted to pass on their leadership skills to the younger generation.

For contact:

In behalf of Conference Organizing Committee, Minnesota State University, Mankato, U.S.A.

Gondar Tongyiek

gtutlam@gmail.com