WPDI’s Youth Peacemakers in Mexico Continue Training and are Looking Forward to Graduation in August
After their first months of intensive training, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) is pleased to report that the cohorts of young people we selected as part of our Youth Peacemaker Network (YPN) programs in Tijuana and San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas state are on track to graduate in August 2019. These 61 youths – 26 in Tijuana and 35 in Chiapas – have exceeded our expectations during the training process thus far and are excited about becoming future youth peacemakers.
The process of building these cohorts began last year with the recruitment of youths from vulnerable neighborhoods in two of Mexico’s most conflict-affected communities: the megacity of Tijuana and the state of Chiapas, in the southernmost part of Mexico. Our YPN program is groundbreaking in how it provides opportunities for youths in conflict and violence-affected environments to increase their engagement in the civic, socio-economic, and cultural lives of their communities. In places like Tijuana and Chiapas state, youths far too often become the victims of conflict by becoming subsumed by it; instead, WPDI seeks to empower them to become transformative changemakers, so that they can be instrumental in promoting peace and sustainable development instead of falling prey to never-ending cycles of violence.
After selecting the youths in collaboration with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), WPDI began an intensive, one-year training regimen for them in August. On a weekly basis, they learn about conflict resolution education (CRE), business and entrepreneurship, information and communications technology (ICT), human rights, leadership, conflict mediation, and many other topics. This prepares them for their future responsibilities: after successfully completing the training, they will return in pairs to their communities and undertake dozens of projects, like training other youths, teaching conflict resolution in schools, organizing community dialogues, facilitating workshops, and developing income-generating projects (IGPs) to address community needs. These youths will become our partners on the ground in peacebuilding, whom we will support, in order to have a lasting and sustainable local impact.
This is the promise that these 61 youths from Tijuana and San Cristobal hold for their communities. After nearly seven months of training, both cohorts have made remarkable progress. WPDI couldn’t be prouder of their successes and we are all looking forward to their future work.