3 days ago
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PORT HARCOURT – A non-governmental organisation, Search for Common Ground has organised a three-day capacity workshop for youth leaders in the Niger Delta to strengthen their skills in preventing violence through dialogue in their various communities.
The workshop themed “Training of Trainers for capacity strengthening of youths on conflict transformation and non-adversarial engagement, is running simultaneously in Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states.
Addressing journalists at the Port Harcourt training center on Wednesday, the Lead Consultant for Capacity Building, Search for Common Ground, Cyril Bieh, said the workshop was organised to drill the youths on ways they can transform conflicts in a way that will prevent conflicts from escalating into violence in the communities.
Bieh, noted that the youths have been empowered with the requisite knowledge and capabilities to positively impact their communities and mitigate conflict, using the non adversarial approach.
He explained that the ultimate aim of the workshop was to empower the youths to prevent violence in the Niger Delta region.
He said, “Today, we are doing a training of trainers (TOT), for a community center approach to conflict transformation in the Niger Delta.
“This is a peace building programme and we expect that participants when they get back home, they will train others in their communities, they would also be able to manage conflicts in their various communities.
“Managing conflict means they will be able to identify what the conflict is and then they use the common ground approach, which is to say they investigate what the problem is through dialogue and collaboration.
“It is also for their personal well-being, in their homes, anywhere they find themselves in public, they would be able to transform conflicts in a way that will not result to violence.
“We have taught them the difference between conflict and violence, conflict is not a bad thing per say, but when conflict is not well managed, it results to violence which is dangerous for every person at that point in time.”
Also speaking, the Support Consultant for Capacity Building workshop, Kefas Shutty, said about 30 youth leaders were engaged in Rivers, stating that the youths had been empowered to train others to manage conflicts which are inevitable in society not result in violence.
He said, “We are training 30 youths leaders, cutting across the LGAs in Rivers and this programme is going on also in Bayelsa and Delta states, so they are here to represent their communities on this training of trainers on non adversarial approaches to curtail conflicts in their own communities.
“We are expecting them to be strengthened in terms of capacity to understand the dividers and connectors of conflict and to also step down this training in their communities, because if they don’t have this type of training, there is no way they can deploy them adversarial approach in terms of mitigating conflicts.
“By the end of this three days training, we hope that we are going to be well equipped with the requisite knowledge of how to curtail conflicts in their various communities.
“The participants have been part of the Search team, engaging them through the Early Warning Early Response platform, where they have been meeting once in a month to discuss issues of insecurity in their communities, working together with other key stakeholders.”
One of beneficiaries, Rose Abali, who is a Vice Woman Leader in Edoha Community, Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, said she had been trained to foster peace, make friends and bring everyone’s ideas to the table during conflicts.
She expressed optimism that with the training, violence would a thing of the past in her community, thanking Search for Common Ground for the initiative, urging them not to tire out in their efforts to foster peace in the crisis prone Niger Delta region.
She said, “We have been trained to prevent conflicts from turning into violence because violence can lead to death.
“We have also been trained how to make friends and bring everyone’s ideas together so there will be peace.
“Ahoada East to be sincere is not a peaceful area, but with the help of Search for Common Ground , there will be peace in my place.
“My message for Search for Common Ground is for them to empower the youths more and to add more effort, not to be tired so that the people of Ahoada will live in peace.”
Also speaking, a youth leader from Kala-Ama Community in Port Harcourt City LGA of Rivers State, Sydney Iyoyo, said he had learnt that there are opportunities during conflicts to proffer new ideas in settling them amicably.
He said with the training he had acquired he would utilize every opportunity to engage other youths in his community to foster peace and dialogue, rather than resort to violence.
“From what we have learnt, we now know how to resolve conflicts and to transform them, because conflict gives us an opportunity to find new opportunities and ideas on how to solve problems.
“So we are expecting that by the end of this training, we would all get a new broad knowledge on how to resolve issues in my community.
“As a youth leader, I will go back to my community, use every opportunity, in our youth meeting, community meetings to call the youths and talk to them about what I have learnt, show them the need for them to also apply it. Doing so,. will affect our community positively and bring the needed change,” He said.
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