March 14, 2019 – Recently, 46 young peacemakers trained and supported by the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) conducted a series of a five-day youth training workshop for local youths from the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement and surrounding communities. The workshop took place in a sequence of trainings aimed at building youth-based local forces to promote peace and development in and around the Settlement.
This latest series of trainings that took place from February 18-22 and February 25-March 1 represented the third of a total of four scheduled workshops, which began in June of last year. These trainings as a whole are a momentous step in the deployment of our flagship program, the Youth Peacemaker Network (YPN). A main pillar of this youth-empowerment program is to build well-trained grassroots groups that are genuinely youth-based and -led. To that end, we do not stop at training groups of highly talented youth leaders, we trust them with the responsibility of training other youth from local settings, with whom they will be undertaking peacebuilding initiatives and income-generating projects. It is to this effect that our 46 leaders from the Settlement and around are training these 358 local youths and to strengthen their skills in conflict resolution and business management.
The workshops of last month primarily focused on honing the youths’ skills in peacebuilding. They focused on issues such as how to build an effective peacebuilding framework, equality, and sustainable development. Besides presenting theoretical aspects of these concepts, the youth leaders made special effort to be as practical as possible so that the local youths understand how they can best use the skills they learned in their daily lives back in their neighborhoods.
The local youths themselves proved very enthused by the workshop. Matiop, a 23-year-old resident from South Sudan told us that “the cluster youth training has given me useful skills and knowledge that I had not known before. Now, I can resolve conflict and promote peacebuilding programs within the refugee settlement with ease and confidence.” Lillian agreed, declaring that “the youth training has empowered me to advocate for girls’ rights in my community. I previously feared speaking my mind, but after becoming a peace-builder, the sky is the limit!”
Later in the spring, the 46 youth leaders from the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement and around will hold a fourth workshop to further strengthen the capacity of our peace force of 358 local youths. We look forward to continuing to help develop their skills for the benefit of their communities.