August 2, 2021 – Last month in Mexico’s Chiapas State, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) organized a training workshop to sharpen the Business & Entrepreneurship and Information & Communications Technology (ICT) skills of the young women and men hailing from the cohort of Youth Peacemakers that we have trained there. While these youths are already well versed in these areas, we strive to ensure that they continue to learn and improve their capacity to deliver change at the grassroots level, as this group will indeed soon recommence their work to build a culture of peace and promote sustainable development in their communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conducted over the course of three days, the workshop – which was hosted at WDPI’s Community Learning Center in San Cristóbal de las Casas – explicitly focused on strengthening the knowledge and skills of our Youth Peacemakers from Chiapas. As many of them spent the past year and a half isolated in their communities save for their participation in distance learning activities, we wanted to ensure that they would be ready to work in their communities as they reopen. Especially important was to provide refresher trainings in Information & Communications Technology, which has proven to be vital within the past 18 months for so many, and in Business & Entrepreneurship, as the youths are working to further develop small businesses designed to have a positive impact on their communities. Beyond this technical dimension, the workshop also proved to be a unique opportunity for the WPDI Chiapas community to reconnect and rekindle their esprit de corps. As the world discovers the extent of the psychosocial impact of the pandemic on millions of people, this gathering had a nurturing and healing impact that, we know, will significantly improve the capacity of our young leaders to deliver and impart change across their home communities.
The rejuvenating energy of the workshop was on everyone’s mind as we observed from the feedback we received from the Youth Peacemakers. “The trainings left me with renewed knowledge and an even stronger desire to move forward with activities that will benefit my community,” Dany told us. “I feel fulfilled and ready to fulfill my responsibilities.” Another peacemaker, Elsi, expressed a similar sentiment as she told us how the workshop inspired her to consider new ways to grow the impact of her organic farming community project: “In the training, I was able to review all my project’s details and receive some new advice. I realized that there were some aspects I didn’t consider, and I’m going to make adjustments. I’m confident that me and the youths I’m working with will be able to reach our goals, and maybe even exceed them.”
With their refresher training now complete, WPDI’s Youth Peacemakers in Chiapas have returned to their communities, where they are planning their next steps. In the coming weeks and months, as their communities reopen after being largely dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic, they will be ready to have the greatest impact possible, helping foster a culture of peace and promote sustainable development in one of Mexico’s most vulnerable places.
