Bangsamoro Youth Peacebuilding: Empowering the Youth, Multiplying the Peacebuilders

Bangsamoro Youth Peacebuilding: Empowering the Youth, Multiplying the Peacebuilders

In the prevalence of violent extremism and child soldiering, youth and children are at high risk. In a Rapid Assessment done by International Labour Organization-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC) Philippines on child soldiers in Central and Western Mindanao, there were estimated that 10.0 to 30.0 % of children in any given community are influenced by non-state armed groups or drafted as soldiers. Youth are easily ignored by the authorities after a conflict and excluded most of the time from decision-making processes and structures. They are now vulnerable to violence. This in turn starts a cycle of poverty and frustration that makes youth vulnerable to criminality and re-recruitment into armed forces and groups. We cannot afford to let other youth and children be in another insurgency involving them and using their vulnerability in terrorism and other personal interests. Capacitate them as peacebuilder to be on the frontline in preventing and transforming violent extremism. …

The Bangsamoro Youth Peacebuilding (BYP) intends to capacitate and empower the youth leaders from orphanages, schools, and youth organizations both religious-based youth organizations and from IP communities. They are called Bangsamoro Youth Peacebuilders. It involves capacity building program, online discussion and posting in a Facebook group, online/offline conversation and the actual tasks of applying of each training module. This intensive and consistent training design for young peacebuilder prepares the youth leaders of the context and in maximizing the available assets in the community. The learning of each session will provide space for creativity of each youth leader in creating advocacy work that is relevant and timely in the context they are in and in taking full advantage of the social media in promotion and information drive per se specifically on PTVE issues in the community. We will not just lessen their vulnerability in the recruitment of VEOs but we capitalize them as frontline for PTVE.

You may pdf download and read the entire update here (4.68 MB) .

You may find the Bangsamoro Youth Peacebuilding on Facebook here.