By Gilbert Azeem Tiroog
Bolgatanga, Feb 14, GNA – The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organization (NABOCADO), a faith-based organisation, has trained youth leaders in the Upper East Region on strategies to build peace and promote social cohesion.
The youth leaders, drawn from religious bodies, political parties, and communities across the region, were taken through peacebuilding process, warning signs of radicalisation, and values embedded in the duties of a citizen, among others to enable them to guard themselves against violence acts.
The training, held on the theme: “Strategies for Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion,” formed part of the organisation’s Integrated Peace building for Improved Food and Nutrition Supply (INPEACE) project, with funding support from MISEREOR, Germany.
It is being implemented in 20 communities in three districts, including Bawku Municipality in the Upper East Region and Yunyoo-Nasuan and Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri Districts in the North East Region.
It is aimed at building the capacities of the youth with the requisite techniques to spearhead peacebuilding and social cohesion in their respective communities and to promote peaceful coexistence and create an enabling environment for development to thrive.
Dr Joseph Bangu, the Director of Good Governance, Justice, and Peace Directorate of NABOCADO, addressing the youth leaders in Bolgatanga, said the region was faced with challenges, including chieftaincy and land disputes, among other conflicting issues that needed to be addressed.
That, he noted, coupled with the upcoming general election and its accompanying problems, necessitated the need to educate the youth as major stakeholders to promote and maintain peace in their communities.
He emphasized that there was the need for people to find common ground on issues and not act based on emotions, adding that “elections and chieftaincy disputes will come and go, but we will continue to stay as a people.”
Reverend Father Robert Abotezabre, the Diocesan Youth Chaplain, in a solidarity message to the youth leaders, urged them to be peace advocates for the advancement of development in the region and the country at large.
Mr Mawuli Agbenu, the Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and facilitator of the training, indicated that the youth were the targets of violent extremists and that the steps taken by NABOCADO to educate the youth was in the right direction.
Mr Abdallah Sheriff Ziem, the Regional Youth Leader of the Ahmadiyya Mission, said the education offered was insightful as it had well prepared him to engage in interfaith dialogue to foster peace.
GNA