A section of participants attending the peace-building seminar organised at Konya, a village about 40 kms away from Tuensang town on September 18
Dimapur, September 24 (MExN): National Foundation for India (NFI), New Delhi is implementing the European Union funded project ‘Leave No One Behind: Building Pathways for Peace in the Northeast via Engagement of Civil Society and Youth Leaders’ in nine districts across Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland.
The project aims at enhancing peace building, leadership, and advocacy capacities of youth leaders, and other stakeholders in the community to meet the 2030 SDG goals. The project will be spearheaded by field coordinators at each of the districts. In Nagaland, NFI has identified Kohima, Dimapur, and Tuensang districts for implementing the project, informed a press release received here.
Since June 2021, NFI has undertaken a series of training sessions for the field coordinators and youth leaders on Conflict to Change to help advance the idea that dialogue can be an essential mode to resolve conflict. This objective will be further executed through peace building seminars, workshops, campaigns, and other activities in all the districts.
On September 18, a peace-building seminar was organised at Konya, a village about 40 kms away from Tuensang town.
According to Joshua Chang, NFI Field Coordinator in Tuensang, the seminar was held to educate the youth of Konyato promote peace through “cultural exchanges, sports meet, and commerce.”
The resource person of the seminar, M Among, who is the youth secretary of Chang Baptist Lashong Thangye and who has been a part of the ongoing peace building training, mentioned that social exchanges like relationships, trusts, friendships, companionships, and social support systems can lead to peace and harmony. He also emphasised on how sports can be a compelling agency to promote peace.
Sporting values like teamwork, fairness, discipline, and respect are all pervasive and hence can be used as a medium to bring humans collectively across the spectrum of ‘diversities.’ Another means is to commercially elevate one another and can be used to build relationships between villages and communities.
“The Sustainable Development Goals are a very relevant framework for peacebuilding in Northeast. Young people deserve a future free from violence, crime, and drugs. Together we can achieve it,” it stated.
