When the doors to Women for Change opened in mid-September, our team walked in with both excitement and uncertainty. We knew we needed to level up our work—to become more effective advocates, better fundraisers, more strategic planners. But would six days of training really move the needle?

Three weeks later, we can say without hesitation: absolutely.

What Brought Us Here

Nyandu Spark Initiative exists to serve our communities with dignity and purpose. We work on some of the toughest challenges South Sudan faces—from preventing gender-based violence to rebuilding lives after trauma. But effective work requires more than good intentions. It takes skills, systems, and knowledge we didn’t always have.

That’s where Women for Change stepped in. They brought together women- and youth-led organizations like ours for a six-day intensive training designed around four critical areas: GBV prevention and response, resource mobilization, proposal writing, and MEAL—monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning.

Learning Together

What made this training special wasn’t just sitting through presentations. The facilitators knew that real learning happens when you roll up your sleeves.

We worked through case studies. We wrestled with proposal-writing exercises. We shared our own challenges with organizations doing similar work across South Sudan. And slowly, something clicked.

We learned that:

• GBV isn’t a stand-alone issue—it needs to be woven into everything we do, from planning to implementation
• Finding funding isn’t about luck—it’s about knowing who to talk to, building relationships, and telling our story clearly
• A strong proposal isn’t fancy—it’s honest, evidence-based, and focused on real results
• Measuring impact matters—not just for donors, but for us, so we know if our work is actually making a difference

The Real Value

If we’re being honest, one of the biggest wins was simply feeling less alone. Sitting with other organizations, hearing their struggles and solutions, reminded us that this work is possible—and that we don’t have to figure it all out by ourselves.

Our team left with:

• Deeper understanding of GBV prevention and survivor-centered approaches
• Concrete strategies for resource mobilization and partnership-building
• A clearer framework for developing proposals that resonate with donors
• A stronger vision for how to track and communicate our impact
• A stronger network of organizations fighting alongside us

What Comes Next

We won’t pretend those six days made everything easy. We identified real gaps—we need more time to dig deeper into some topics, more follow-up support, and the organizational resources to actually implement everything we learned. The work of applying this knowledge is just beginning.

But we also know exactly what we need to do:

• Keep building our resource mobilization strategy
• Strengthen our internal MEAL systems
• Develop better policies and tools
• Create safer ways for the communities we serve to give us feedback
• Keep learning and networking

A Grateful Team

Nyandu Spark Initiative is deeply grateful to Women for Change for creating space for this learning, and for believing that organizations like ours deserve investment and support.

This training didn’t fix everything. But it gave us better tools, clearer thinking, and renewed confidence that we can design and deliver programs that truly respond to what our communities need and deserve.

To the women and youth organizations still considering whether training like this is worth it: it is. Invest in your people. Invest in learning together. It’s how we get stronger.