Twelve years after he fled conflict in South Sudan, John Jal Dak is winning international recognition for the work of the refugee-led organisation he founded in Uganda – including being named one of the Obama Foundation’s Leaders in Africa.
John Jal Dak fled the civil war in South Sudan in 2013 for Uganda. Today he is internationally recognised for his commitment to displaced people through the pioneering organisation he founded, which is run by, with and for refugees. The Obama Foundation named him one of the Leaders of Africa in 2022. We talk to him about his life, his organisation and what drives him: As he says: “Who could believe a refugee-led organisation would distribute food or cash to fellow refugees, let alone create gainful employment?”
Why did you start your organisation?
In 2013, a bloody civil war broke out in South Sudan. Along with hundreds of thousands of my compatriots, I fled to neighbouring Uganda and ended up in a refugee camp in the northwest of the country. Of the 120,000 people in that camp, the vast majority were South Sudanese.
One day we travelled to Adjumani, a district in Northern Uganda for a football match as part of an exchange learning visit. But the football ended prematurely due to hate speeches from some refugees fuelled by conflict back home. Chills ran down my spine. During the football game, no one had even paid attention to each other’s backgrounds. Yet now hate speech and incitement to violence had been suddenly introduced to our way of life in settlements, hundreds of kilometres from home.
That incident made me rethink and decide to create Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT) in 2016. In July 2017 it was registered as a Refugee-led Community Based Organisation with the aim of promoting peace, advocating for youth rights to education and promoting gainful livelihoods, to divert them from violent activities and so that they become better citizens when they return home one day.
Peace, of course, is the ultimate goal, but that is only possible if you address the root causes of violence, such as hunger, youth unemployment, poverty and illiteracy. People, especially youth are less likely to be violent or be persuaded to take up arms if they have access to sustainable livelihoods, quality education and opportunities for their voices to be heard and respected in their countries of origin. So that’s what we envision to offer conflict-affected youth in the refugee settlements in Uganda and back home in South Sudan.
What you need to know about Uganda
Uganda hosts 1.7 million refugees, most of them from neighbouring South Sudan, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This makes the country the largest refugee population in Africa and fourth worldwide (after Turkey, Colombia and Germany).
In Uganda, refugees do not stay in camps but rather in refugee settlements and children can attend primary school for free. People can participate in society: they are allowed to work, start businesses and refugee-led organisations (such as YSAT), and volunteer.
Last year the Dutch government wanted to send refugees to Uganda, regardless of whether they came from that region or not (note the UK had a similar, short-lived plan with Rwanda). This plan fortunately fell apart. It is inhumane, unfeasible and unfair to Uganda, which already receives so many more people than the Netherlands.
Your organisation is run by, with and for refugees. Tell us more…
“80% of the staff in YSAT are refugees, just like me. Why? Because we are a refugee-led organisation (RLO) and the staff know best what their fellow people really need. The other 20% is from the host community who support program integration, alignment and compliance.
A refugee-led organisation has a lot of advantages. For example, we literally and figuratively speak the language of the people in the settlement and are aware of the often complex context. People trust us and give us feedback. Plus: we are always in the neighbourhood and can provide help quickly and cost-effectively. YSAT started small in 2017, but now with support of our strategic partners/funders, we have over 60 staff working in Uganda. In 2021, we extended our operations to South Sudan where we operate in 4 states and one administrative area with over 30 staff supporting returnees, refugees and IDPs.
What are the results of your work?
“We have reached over 890,000 people with our programmes in recent years. This ranges from supporting farmers with agricultural inputs support; training youth in life skills and ICT; conducting enrolment campaigns for school children; distributing food and cash to displaced communities, combating food insecurity through cash for work; Food for Assets; supporting establishment and maintenance of woodland through cash for work; distribution of seedlings for household tree growing; GBV awareness campaigns through sporting activities; supporting youth entrepreneurship programmes; training of peace promoters and leadership training for local leaders; and partnering with fellow RLOs to expand our reach to enable displaced people and vulnerable host communities to become self-reliant, resilient and non-violent.
Dialogue is incredibly important. At YSAT, we recruit people with different backgrounds for a reason. Peace is only possible if we keep talking to each other! We organise trainings, art workshops and field days. Think of the game of football I mentioned earlier: sport brings people together more than anything else, as seen in my home country South Sudan and in the diaspora here in the settlements.
You also collaborate with Oxfam?
Our collaboration goes back years! Before the founding of YSAT, I was a one of the refugee welfare council chairpersons for Agulupi Village, Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement. I was acting as a bridge getting community concerns/needs in my village and passed it on to aid organisations, including Oxfam.
One mind-blowing encounter was when my community demanded cash support, instead of relief they didn’t participate in choosing. The suggestion was to have people work for a few hours for a fee, so that they could then buy what they really needed. I was a bit nervous but, with my community behind me, Oxfam was able to listen to our needs and then adjusted the Emergency Response programme to a Cash for Work pilot… People in the settlement could earn 5K Ugandan Shillings daily (that is 25K per week) by opening community access roads, WASH facilities and renovation of feeder roads for three hours a day.
From that moment on, Oxfam became a trusted partner for me. They listened to our voices and championed what became known as the localisation of humanitarian aid in 2016.
Ours is an example of a good cooperation: we make programmes together, instead of the international NGO telling us what to do on the ground. We have the local knowledge and people’s trust; Oxfam has an international network, logistical know-how and funds from the back donors due to their robust systems. Together, we have been able to reach many people with our work, expanded our programmes and scope, and strengthened our systems [to evolve] from a community-based organsation to a reputable refugee-led NGO in the region.
What are you most proud of?
How far we’ve come with our work. It is one thing to establish an organisation, but quite another to develop effective programs, attract like-minded investors/partners, grow, and sustain it. And the last one is indispensable if you really want to transform lives, because it takes time to have an impact.
Yes, it is hard work every day: who could believe a refugee-led organisation would distribute food or cash to fellow refugees, let alone create gainful employment? It is necessary to keep working hard, because, since the war in Sudan in 2023, the number of people fleeing has exploded in the region. More and more people are relying on humanitarian assistance. My personal wish? PEACE, that one day I will be able to return to a peaceful South Sudan with our fellow people.
Find out more about Youth Social Advocacy Team here. This interview is adapted from one posted on the Oxfam Novib website (in Dutch) here