Ugandan Youth Peace Building Workshop: Kampala, Uganda

In January, 2003, the Interfaith Cooperation Circles MCC gathered together thirty young people from various religious affiliations at Makerere University, Kampala, to share and reflect on the role of religion in peace and conflict, the meaning in their own lives of peace, and in planning how to engage in interfaith cooperation and other peace building initiatives for youth.

The Hon. Dan Kidega, Youth Member of Parliament set the tone for the day with a reflection on growing up in and living with conflict. He challenged the youth to play a part in solving the process and urged them to begin by examining the conflict within themselves.

The group explored religion as a source of conflict and a resource for peace, focusing on how each of their traditions promoted inclusion, peace, tolerance, or exclusion, prejudice or violence against others. Participants related their traditions to current conflicts in Uganda and noted that the teaching of peace in all faith traditions, are misinterpreted for political reasons. Together they discussed the potential of young people from all traditions working together for peace.

The participants described the characteristics of youth as growing, dynamic, flexible and ambitious. They agreed that young people desire to have peace, employment, their own houses and vehicles, to play a role in society and freedom and this leads to them to be easily recruited to join rebels because they are promised their desires.

The participants defined peace as living in harmony, co-existence, consensus, understanding, mutual respect, compromise, friendship. They discussed that peace is not merely the absence of war. It also means health, adequate food supplies, employment equality and economic prosperity. In peace building there is need to concentrate on efforts to build relationships of trust with others.

Despina Namwembe spoke about the United Religions Initiative as a way to work together and appreciate diversity. URI Cooperation Circles (CCs) in Uganda include the Youth Initiative Mission Cooperation Circle. She encouraged the youth to consider what it would mean to create a CC without the attitude of "what /how will I benefit?" She said in her own experience that the most valuable part of her experience was meeting people of faiths she did not know and learning how people can be together and work towards one goal despite their different religious beliefs

Participants committed to:

• establishing a network and keeping in touch
• understanding and accepting others
• sharing knowledge
• relationship building with neighbors, family, and peers, etc.
• training
• promoting friendship with others
• involving friends to let them know more about URI
• holding bigger gatherings of this kind.

Proposed activities included: seminars and workshops; visiting other churches; public talks; participation in environmental conservation; news placements and a newsletter; leaflets; regular meetings.

The workshop was such a success that it ended with a unanimous decision to go ahead and form a URI Youth Initiative Mission Cooperation Circle.

This workshop was led by URI Peacebuilder Shabnam Olinga. To learn more about Shabnam, visit our Members Corner.

This workshop was sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace through a grant to URI.