August 18, 2023 – Since we started developing our global program for sustainable peace 10 years ago, we have never wavered from our conviction that long term peace can only be achieved if young people lead the way. Whatever their backgrounds, countless women and men have an immense desire to better themselves and their communities, their commitment to peaceful problem solving and determination to succeed. Having observed this for a fact, we have made it intrinsic to our strategy to tap the power of youths for fostering peace in areas fraught with marginalization, insecurity, violence and conflict.
We have, in this spirit, developed specific, targeted programs designed for reaching out to children and adolescents directly in their schools, where learning also bears on civic attitudes required of all individuals – including refugees, who can be trained as drivers of peace, even if they are not citizens of their country of residence. Based on a tried and tested curriculum validated by educational authorities of Uganda, our Conflict Resolution Education (CRE) program in particular has proven highly successful, notably at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. The settlement is home to 99% South Sudanese refugees who fled the civil war, placing different clans who were once in conflict together in the same space, which calls for efforts at disseminating a culture of peace and nonviolence that can improve relations among these groups both in the present and the future, when they return to their home country. Furthermore, such a culture of peace is indispensable for refugee communities and host communities, to maintain peaceful and cordial relations. Giving young people the tools, therefore, to mediate and find peaceful resolutions to eventual disputes is key to communal cohesion.
This year, from February to May, we conducted one such program across 10 secondary schools in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. A total of 750 students participated in the Conflict Resolution Education courses provided by WPDI Youth Peacemakers, which gave them an opportunity to build their personal capacity at mediation, and demonstrate the skills and knowledge required to promote values of peace in their schools and communities. Participants were delighted by the opportunity, the like of which is often out of reach in many such underprivileged and marginalized communities around the world. “The CRE training offered by WPDI has helped me to improve my relationship with people and my school mates. It has been helpful to me both in the classroom and in life by helping me practice and adopt healthy ways of solving interpersonal and intrapersonal problems and this has boosted my academic performance and strengthened my need for education,” said one participant, Atim Gabriella, a student at Panyadoli Secondary School.
These programs can be transformative across the board since they positively affect both the individual students that we train and their schools as well as their communities at large, because they encourage students to become agents of positive change and transformation in all aspects of their daily lives. The success of our Peace Education programs has only reinforced our desire to develop these programs further and make sure as many young people as possible have access to such opportunities.
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