The Plan International Nigeria has trained 200 youths as drivers of peace building in crisis prone communities of Kaduna and Plateau states respectively.
The Country Director of the organization, Mr. Charles Usie, said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a Close Out workshop of the Middle-belt Youth Peace building Academy (YPA) Project.
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The event organized by the Plan International Nigeria was in partnership with Aid Foundation and Center for Peace Advancement in Nigeria (CEPAN).
The five communities the project is implemented in Plateau are; Daffo, Yelwa-Shendam, Jos-Jarawa, Rukuba and Mangu; while Kaduna communities are Kajuru, Rigasa, Kasuwan-Magani, Sabon-Gari and Birnin-Gwari.
Usie said that the YPA which began two years ago was aimed at developing the abilities of selected young leaders in Kaduna and Plateau state to design and lead their own initiatives that could build peace and tolerance in their communities.
He said that the initiatives would strengthen the freedom of thought, conscience and religion of their respective communities by building social inclusion through awareness and tolerance of differing beliefs.
“The ultimate goal of the project is to improve the abilities of young leaders from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds in Kaduna and Plateau states, to lead local initiatives that build peace and tolerance in their communities.
“The project reaches 200 direct beneficiaries from 10 communities in the two states through participation in YPA courses and reaches about five million indirect beneficiaries.
“Our unique approach is that while the youths will be targeted and sensitized on the need for peace as others have done before us, will be active drivers of the peace process. The initiatives, ideas and actions targeted at peace building will be solely theirs,” Usie said.
While saying that the organization targeted youths in these two states because they had long stories of conflicts, he said that despite efforts by state and non-state actors, crisis still persisted but that the initiative by the organization to engage youths in peace building had yielded results.
He urged peace building agencies in the communities and their state governments to leverage on the structure built as model that would be adopted and institutionalized.
He said, “We will however, not pretend that we have solved decade’s long problem in two years. We will also not pretend that we have found the solution. We will not pretend that in just five communities in each of the states, we have resolve decades long conflicts, we will not pretend that with having to deal with the sudden and disruptive appearance of COVID-19 globally, things went smoothly.
“And, we have completely solved a long-time problem, No. We will not even ascribe to ourselves the whole of the impact of these efforts. What we are certain of however, is that we have together with these young people come up with some ideas that can address the frightening situation, and there is ample evidence they will work if more investment is made in the approach.”
On his part, a member, Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Timothy Dantong, commended Plan International Nigeria for the initiative, saying that the youth has brought relative peace to the communities.
Dantong promised to sustain the process of restoring peace to the state and appealed to Plan International to extend the initiative to other communities.
Daily Trust reports that the project reached 200 direct beneficiaries from 10 communities in the two states through participation in YPA courses and also reached about five million indirect beneficiaries.
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