October 16, 2023 – The overarching goal of our programs is to foster lasting change in the lives of local people who have long suffered economic, social and institutional instability. Providing them with safe spaces, Internet access, and learning materials is key to achieving our long-term peace goals. This is why our network of Community Learning Centers (CLCs) is so strategic. They have been designed as peace hubs, places where local people can access relevant information and knowledge that will help them on their journey to sustainable development. At present, we have 15 CLCs in South Sudan, Uganda, South Africa, Mexico and France. Together, they receive more than 200,000 visits per year.
This July, we were delighted to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Community Learning Center that two WPDI Youth Peacemakers opened last year in Chalam, Mitontic in Chiapas, Mexico. The event was led by Victor Sàntiz Garcìa, one of the leaders of the project.
Since June 2022, when the doors opened to 146 young people from the local community and COBACH 57 school, trainees have been able to hone and develop skills and knowledge through the various programs that our team have designed in view of reinforcing community resilience and stability, in what is one of the poorest, most marginalized communities in all of Mexico.
Victor underlined his pride at the achievements of the first year: “This first year has been a great achievement and community work because thanks to the youth who have participated in the learning community, where we have a space where we listen to each other, where we interact, it makes it a very valuable experience for the youth of the community. If I could summarize it in one word, it would be with gratitude, because we are grateful to all the institutions, organizations and the community itself because they believe in the good intentions of generating more alternatives. This has been the most valuable thing, the fact that they believe in our ideas, believe in our dreams and join the collective. We are motivated by the people themselves, and the fact of knowing that this is useful, that it is of interest to young people, to see the excited face of a girl or a boy when they are learning to play the keyboard or when a musical note comes out. That is why the people are the ones that motivate us to continue promoting and making this bigger.”
Whether it be through Conflict Resolution and emotional skills training, Social Entrepreneurship and Business, or ICT, the Community Learning Center has served as a platform for sustainable development, contributing to helping young people build their futures within their communities, and not trying to migrate north to the United States looking for livelihoods.
Local community members are very open about the importance of the Center. “The CLC in our community is an opportunity for everyone, because one of the main challenges is migration, as the youth continue to migrate during the course of the year and that prevents them from attending on a regular basis, there are many economic needs that force them to seek work elsewhere and we know that this effort of work and collaboration is very important. It helps promote spaces of peace and reduce the rates of violence. This challenge becomes an opportunity because we know that if we continue to open spaces or alternatives in the community, we can contribute or we are already contributing to the recognition of the potential of the communities. These challenges of migration are becoming an area of opportunity in which we will work with hope and firmness,” said the director of COBACH 67, a local school whose pupils often participate in activities at the CLC.
Our CLCs are designed to become active community platforms, a place of meeting and exchange, of reinforcing community bonds and of building a communal future. If they can help reduce violence and increase economic opportunities, they have a real role to play in the promotion of lasting peace in marginalized areas. We are very proud that our Mitontic CLC was set up by two Youth Peacemakers who were so motivated by what they had learned with us that they decided to emulate our approach within their community, taking our model even closer to some of the most remote communities of the country. This is the principal objective of our Youth Peacemaker Network: to create local peacebuilders and agents of change that will proactively transform their communities to build sustainable peace.
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