The Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipal Assembly has agreed to support the implementation of the Pins & Balloons initiative which has been running since October 2017 within the municipality. The agreement was confirmed on the 28th March 2018 at the office of the planning officer between Emmanuel Clifford Gyetuah of Youth Advocates Ghana and Isaac Asante Wiafe the Planning officer of the Assembly. The first set of youth leaders under this partnership will go through the Pin & Balloons initiative on 26th-29th April, 2018.
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Details of the Pins & Balloons Initiative
Creating peace means accomplishing freedoms, rights and equality, not just avoiding war. Famine, drought, disease, inequality, poverty, racism, institutional violence, exploitation and intolerance are all threats to peace. Therefore a sustainable and positive peace relies on a real culture of human rights. Through education, children and young people can play an incredibly important role in creating a peaceful world. Young people’s participation in achieving peace is so crucial because they are more likely to find innovative solutions, are more open to change, are courageous and more interested in achieving a positive future for themselves and future generations. United Nations Security Council has adopted several resolutions to support peacebuilding including the landmark Resolution 2250 on Youth Peace and Security which is anchored on five pillars namely; participation, prevention, protection, partnerships and disengagement and reintegration.The "Pins & Balloons" Project which is under the "Youth Skills Hub" Program of Youth Advocates Ghana-YAG, seeks to use non-formal education as a tool to build the capacities of community Youth Leaders on Understanding Conflict, Transforming Conflict and Making Peace. The non-formal peace education is a participatory process where the participants learn from their own experiences, are not judged or graded, but led through a process of self-reflection and consideration of how they want to use the results of their learning in their lives. In peace education, not only the content is important, but also how we educate for peace. Therefore non formal education is logically the best methodology for peace education, as it is based on equality between learners and educators, does not enforce anything and lets the learner experience a peaceful environment.
This initiative will take selected youth leaders from political parties, community based youth groups etc through series of activities adopted from IFEM-SEI's (International Falcon Movement Socialist International) training Manuel titled "Peace Education Handbook for Educators". It is expected that this project will directly reach over 180 youth leaders every year by using four days in each month to train 15 Youth Leaders from diverse background and communities across the municipality. Also, specific political parties and other youth groups in the municipality will be contacted through the Municipal Assembly for them to register their participants with YAG.
The goal and overall objective is to take youth leaders through non-formal peace education in order to build their capacities in Understanding Conflict, Transforming Conflict and Making Peace so they can meaningfully participate in Peacebuilding processes at all levels
The project's theory of change is that when young people are given the right empowerment and orientation in Pecaebuilding they shall be able to live peacefully with their neighbors, mediate to resort to non-violence during conflict and promote peace wherever they find themselves.
Through the various activities, the Pins & Balloons initiative will ensure that:
- Over 180 youth leaders are equipped annually to transform conflicts and make peace in their communities.
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security is localized.
- Young peoples capacities are built to meaningfully participate in peace building processes in their communities
- Intercultural relationships and understanding are fostered between young people from diverse backgrounds
- Confidence in security agencies and state authorities are ignited at all levels.
It is envisioned that after running this initiative for maximum of two years, it will be adopted as a national project to tackle Youth vigilantism, radicalization, extremism and human rights issues in Ghana and beyond. Via cliffgyet143@gmail.com the focal person for this initiative can be reached.
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