Workshop about CVE engages youth from Cameroon
By Achaleke Leke
Achaleke Leke is a young peacebuilder from Cameroon. He works with PVE & CVE on the ground, ensuring that other youth do not engage in violent extremism. After the Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security (21-22 August, Jordan) and the Global Youth Summit against Violent Extremism (28 September, New York), Acheleke organized an event in Cameroon to discuss relevant topics for the youth, peace and security agenda.
As part of our pledge to young people, Local Youth Corner Cameroon in collaboration with Action for Change Cameroon organized a Post Youth CVE Summit restitution Workshop with youths in Cameroon.
The title of the workshop was “Youth, Peace and Violent Extremism” and the theme was “Sustainable Peace and Nation Building: A Requirement for Cameroon’s Emergence by 2035”. This event was held on 16 October 2015 at the National Youth Children Correction Centre, Bostal Institute.
It was an honour for our team to finally have the opportunity to meet with this group of young people with a history of violent extremism in order to create a sustainable network for further empowerment initiatives so as to prepare them as agent of peace and counter violent extremism.
As a main speaker during the workshop, sharing my experiences and outcomes of the Summit with over 30 young people and authorities of the Centre was an unforgettable opportunity. I equally used this opportunity to share with them the basic ways to counter radicalism, promote peace and engage in the CVE process. I used my personal experiences and story of my transition from an agent of violent extremism to an ambassador of peace as a major point of contact and motivation during my discussion. We equally used the opportunity to talk about UNOY and some of its activities.
At the end of the event, the participants and management of the school expressed their gratitude to our initiative; pledge to uphold peace and security and call on us always include them in all our youth empowerment initiatives.