Youth Peace Ambassadors promote peace and unity to eliminate violence around elections

Makeni – Magaret Kamara and Desmond Kanu, both 19 years old, were walking together and visiting every corner of their community, Binkoloh, a moderately populated town in Bombali District, northern Sierra Leone. They are known as “youth peace ambassadors” who move from one market stall to the other and from one motorbike parking lot to the other to promote peace. Their audience comprised mainly of young people (who are more prone to violence), traders, and some community elders on the importance of keeping the peace and promoting a violence-free environment before and after the June 2023 general elections.

In Sierra Leone, violence is common among young people, particularly around election periods. UNICEF has used the U-Report platform to reach out to its more than 185,000 U-Reporters, who are mostly young people, to gauge their opinions on peace and other issues around elections.

To promote peace and maintain a violence-free society, UNICEF, in collaboration with UNDP and with support from the Peacebuilding Fund, is implementing a project to promote the creation of an enabling environment for the conduct of peaceful elections and the strengthening of social cohesion in Sierra Leone.  

“We became inspired and motivated to be part of this peace promotion campaign as we are tired of seeing so much violence and rancour among young people who were once friends and suddenly became archrivals and enemies around election periods because they support different political parties and candidates,” said Magaret.

In collaboration with civil society partners, the project is implemented in 30 communities in five hot spot districts, including Bombali. A total of 120 young people were trained and enlisted as youth peace ambassadors to reach out to their peers and community leaders. Through the Peacebuilding Fund, about 250,000 youths and adolescents and more than 185,000 community members received messages on peace promotion and violence-free elections.

“We were trained and recruited as peace ambassadors to promote peace and political tolerance among our peers and to maintain the unity and love which we usually enjoy in our community. We have been doing this for the past five months, reaching more than 500 young people,” added Desmond. 

As Magaret and Desmond moved around their community, they reached a motorbike parking lot where about 12 young motorbike riders were waiting for passengers to convey to various neighbouring villages around Binkoloh community. Adjacent to them was a small cluster of petty traders selling mostly foodstuff and lubricants for the motorbikes. As soon as these young peace ambassadors started speaking, the whole area became quiet, and everybody was listening attentively.

“Stop the violence! Let us promote love and unity among ourselves so that we can be responsible citizens and leaders in society as the foundation of any strong society rests on us the young people,” Magaret and Desmond echoed as they admonished the curious groups of motorbike riders and petty traders.

“These messages of peace which are being brought to us by our own peers are calming the rising tensions among us, the young people around this election period,” said Yusif Sesay, one of the motorbike riders in Binkoloh.

Apart from promoting unity, peace and harmony among young people, this project has also helped in building the confidence of the peace ambassadors in civic education, public speaking and community leadership.  “Until this initiative was introduced to our community, I was a very shy and introvert person and I hardly talked or interacted with a large number of people,” Magaret recounted, “Now, I am one of the most talkative and engaging young people in my community. I am contributing to the promotion of peace and non-violence approaches in settling scores and disputes among young people in my community.”

As Magaret and Desmond returned to their respective homes in the community, a group of young people who had enjoyed receiving the peace messages shouted with thumbs up, “Peace and One Love!”