Ambassadors for Peace Phase II: Strategic Youth for Peace Networks

This project will transform the peace clubs, which were established in previous projects into physically anchored, self-sustaining networks. More specifically, we will establish two Strategic Youth for Peace Networks: one in Epworth and another in Goromonzi. These will be led by volunteers, who have been trained as peace ambassadors in 2015 and 2017, and their formal organizational structures will be voted for in a general assembly at the beginning of the project to ensure community ownership. The activities of the networks are based on the ideas and requests from young people in Goromonzi and Epworth, which were collected during a pilot project in 2018-19. The network will be the main coordinator of the following main tasks: 1) opening and running a physical center for information dissemination, in which youths will gain experience with social media management, writing of success stories, and reading newspapers; and, 2) Managing a peace garden, in which youths from across political backgrounds will work together. The networks will also be supporting other activities together with YAT, including: street parliaments to facilitate interface between duty bearers and young people in influencing policy; social activities for local youths; and, peace walks to leverage youth interests as they practice peace-building skills. The project will consist of two phases, which will help the networks to become self-sustaining in the long run. The first year, the activities and the operational costs of the networks will be fully funded by the project, and the networks will prepare for the second year, in which the operational costs will be funded through revenues from the peace garden.