September 13, 2022 – From June to August 2022, WPDI ran a special Peace Education training program across 10 secondary schools in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Uganda. The program reached 750 students, and aimed to improve their skills and understanding of what it means to build peace and become a force for good in their local community. The 750 students were all awarded a certificate at the end of the course.
Omony Churchill, a 23-year-old participant originally from South Sudan was delighted about being given the opportunity to participate in the program and learn more about Conflict Resolution: “I am thankful to WPDI for giving me the opportunity to attain the training in conflict resolution education which has helped to change my life. I used to be a very violent person but this course has changed me a lot by enabling me to see how violence doesn’t pay apart from making me create more enemies and fear in people around me.”
Adong Gloria, 19, highlighted how the program helped her become a better person: “I am very happy to have been part of the peace education in my school. I now relate well with my peers unlike before and my family and friends are very happy with the person I have become. Thank you WPDI for making a positive change in me.”
These unique programs created by WPDI aim to reach young people badly affected by conflict and violence growing up, and turn their experiences into forces for good. If each young person becomes an active peacemaker in their communities, it will facilitate a move away from violence and conflict and help build a lasting peace. In order to achieve this, students are introduced to a wide range of topics, including negative and positive peace, trauma healing, human rights, identifying needs and how to constructively find solutions to conflict, among others.
Onen Jackson, a 21-year-old South Sudanese student, outlined how the program helped change the course of his life: “WPDI has surely done a great job in ensuring that I become a peaceful person, I grew up a fighter and would encourage my peers to also engage in fights but this peace education has enlightened me and I hope to be a mediator in my community especially among my peers.”
WPDI hopes to expand our Peace Education initiatives across the countries where it operates in order to help grow our global Youth Peacemaker Network. Over our 10 years of operation, WPDI has trained over 70,000 pupils in schools, and we are currently partnered with over 120 schools worldwide.
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