August 16, 2021 – In recent weeks, WPDI has successfully recruited 339 local youths from communities across Cape Town’s Cape Flats neighborhood to expand the youth-led, grassroots peace force that we are building there to foster a culture of peace and non-violence. Representing a great stride towards the goals of our flagship program, the Youth Peacemaker Network, our cohort of 42 Youth Peacemakers in Cape Flats has already started training the local youths in Conflict Resolution Education and Business & Entrepreneurship. Once their training is complete later this year, the Youth Peacemakers and local youths will work to bring positive transformation to their communities.
As one of South Africa’s most vulnerable communities, Cape Flats has long suffered from a variety of issues, many of which can be traced back to the Apartheid era. Today, top challenges include high rates of unemployment, rising crime, educational disparities, and few opportunities for young people, just to name a few. For decades, the totality of these problems has created a seemingly endless cycle of marginalization and exclusion, with residents having little to no hope for change to occur.
This is what WPDI’s youth-led, grassroots peace force aims to address in their community. As a first step, WPDI intensively trained 42 Youth Peacemakers in Conflict Resolution Education, Information & Communications Technology, Business & Entrepreneurship, and Life Skills over a one-year period. With their training now complete, the cohort is now replicating their training – with WPDI’s support – to other, motivated local youths.
To start this process, WPDI conducted a recruitment strategy across 11 townships in Cape Flats in partnership with local government officials, community organizations, and other key stakeholders, whose endorsement will contribute to the strengthening of the implementation of our program in the area. After only a few short weeks, 870 local youths had sent in applications, which were reviewed by a committee composed of WPDI staff, government and community officials, and our Youth Peacemakers. Ultimately, 500 candidates were shortlisted for interviews, with 339 eventually chosen to participate in the trainings. Throughout the process, WPDI and the review committee ensured that the group of local youths selected reflected a healthy gender and geographic balance.
With the selection process complete, WPDI’s Youth Peacemakers recently began the next stage by holding the first workshops in Business & Entrepreneurship for the local youths, a first step in the 180 hours of training they will receive in the remaining months of 2021. If the initial trainings are any indicator of what is to come, the local youths are already well on their way to becoming effective peacemakers themselves, and their graduation ceremony – scheduled in December – will surely serve as a key inflection point for the Cape Flats community.
