The Association for Media Development in South Sudan
(AMDISS) has awarded five young South Sudanese a mini-grant in the second edition of the Innovation Hackathon for the year 2024.
Nyakuma and Chuol Jany of the Catholic Radio Network jointly
pitched a three-month project titled: “Farmer Information Team to Mitigate flooding
effects on Agriculture”, and subsequently emerged second among the winners of the
innovation.
“There on the ground, there is so much flooding and people
are suffering a lot. The budget you gave us will help the community,” said
Nyakuma after receiving the check of $2,290.
“We are well prepared; we want to train them and host them for
a talk show on TRC’s radio station - Leer 88.0 FM in Unity State."
For his part, Jany said the
target audience of Unity State are mostly food-insecure due to flooding, which cut
off the agricultural activities and now the innovation aims at giving
information on alternative farming.
“Food security is a problem in South Sudan, and it’s caused by lack of agricultural activities; and lack of agricultural activities is caused by the issue of climate change which has devastated the state,” Jany said.
“We chose farming because we need food. If the media is not giving alternative
means of farming, the farmers will lose farming techniques which will also cause
more problems.”
The project will bring in experts to train about 30 farmers from
Leer and Mayendit counties on modern farming of alternative crops and vegetables during
the flooding to sustain their livelihood.
“When there is flooding, there are crops that you can grow
like sugarcane, tomatoes, onions and not just siting and going to the river to look
for water lilies or fishing when you can make use of water,” Jany stated.
Meanwhile, AMDISS Director Ayaa Irene stated that the grant is part of the advocacy group’s effort to address the challenges of information gap on issues affecting communities.
She urged the winners to strictly
use the grant for the projects.
“We came up with initiative like this to call you and assist us in addressing some of the community issues and I want to say openly that this money that we are going to give you does not belong to you as the winner. It belongs to the community,” said Irene.
The innovation winners are Mayom Mabuong, first winner with
project titled - Establishing Community Information Hubs in Rumbek; Chuol Jany
and Nyakuma Simon – second winner for Creation of a Farmer Information Team to
Mitigate Flooding Effects on Agriculture in Mayendit and Leer Counties; Rachel Hakim Edward – Third Winner with Project title: GoGo Play - Enhancing
the Entertainment Sector in South Sudan; Onen Francis and Irra Patrick - fourth
winner for Distribution of Solar Radios to Increase Radio Access in Rural Areas
in Torit; and Dube Simon - fifth winner for Empowerment of 20 Girls and Women
Through Social Media Storytelling.
The winners received $2,300 each except third winner who
received $1,800 and Chuol and Nyakuma who got $2,290.
The Hackathon is a mechanism to support innovative solutions
to increase South Sudanese citizens’ access to credible information and promote
ideas, address challenges, and identify incentives for effective solutions to
community needs, especially in SIMA’s areas of implementation.
