In 1998, during a long and difficult war, citizens in what was then called the "New Sudan" asked for something that sounds modest: information. They wanted to understand democracy and good governance, their rights, and how decisions about their lives were made.
CEDED began as the answer to that request: a single Community Resource Centre under the New Sudan Education Agency (NSEA) in Yei.
A place to read, and a place to talk
The centre became independent in 2008 as the Yei Community Resource Centre, and it has grown into the Yei Community Resource Center (YCRC): the region's only long-standing public and school library, in a peaceful, green setting, with a modern community hall for workshops.
Its activities reflect its founding purpose:
Book Reading & Literacy Clubs for primary and secondary school pupils, every week.
Civic Literacy Circles at weekends, where local government budgets and human rights laws are translated into simple, local formats for public discussion.
Youth Innovation & Debate Panels, a safe space for student leaders to debate public policy and peacebuilding.
A CSO Secretariat Workspace where civil society actors and Human Rights Defenders share reference materials and research.
Why a library matters to peace
In 2010, as South Sudan prepared for its historic vote on self-determination, the work that started here scaled into a national civic sensitization campaign, helping people understand electoral processes and safely exercise their democratic franchise. The same conviction runs through everything the YCRC does today: that people who can find credible information, and talk about it freely, make better decisions together.
As CEDED puts it: an informed, literate, and civically conscious population is the foundational bedrock upon which a peaceful, self-reliant society is built.
