Dinka male youth's perspectives on causes of gender based violence in their community

Doing it differently: gender and age specific community dialogues; Dinka male youth’s perspectives on causes of gender based violence in their community

In Adjumani, Northern Uganda, ACORD uses community dialogues as one of the avenues to propagate messages on Sexual Reproductive Health and Gender Based Violence among the South Sudanese refugee population
In the Dinka culture, sexual issues are not discussed in the presence of young people, so dialogue meetings are now done separately for women and men and with young people apart.

Recently a lively discussion was held with a group of male youth aged 13 to 20 who had been attending a Dinka language class. After the lesson, the teacher requested the boys to remain behind for a discussion with   volunteers from ACORD and the United Nations Population Fund UNFPA The dialogue was vibrant and the boys also gave their perspective on the causes of gender based violence in their community as follows:

  • Use of abusive language by females towards males, causing males to retaliate, for example, by beating the female.
  • Jealousy and gossip about relationships causing anger and physical violence.
  • Disappointment from relationships and the females moving on to other relationships with other males, annoying the ex–boyfriends.
  • Community fights which are created by some youth. The fights occur when a boy is courting a girl and she is married off to an older man.


These community dialogues targeting South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are part of ACORD’s response in the current refugee situation. ACORD has a long standing presence both in South Sudan and in Northern Uganda which has received around 74,000 refugees since the conflict started last December.

  • conflict and peacebuilding
  • gender
  • refugee
  • sexual and reproductive health
  • sudan - south
  • uganda
  • violence against women
  • youth
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