Enhancing Youth Capacities as Actors of Peace and Community Mediators – YOUTHS UNITED FOR PEACE, LITTORAL REGION WORKSHOP – Friday 26th February 2021, Hotel Augusta – Bonaberi, Douala

OBJECTIVES

– Involving youths as mediators of peace
– Working to deescalate violence
– Fortify the youths to move in their communities
– Pass on the information

The workshop started a little behind schedule due to last minute change of venue. There were a total of about 25 participants who were trained in four modules

MODULE 1

IDENTIFYNG AND PREVENTING/COUNTERING HATE SPEECH AND FAKE NEWS, BOTHONLINE AND OFFLINE

This course was facilitated by Mrs ETEKI STELLA DOPGIMA, who described hate speech as being more than just harsh words. She further said hate speech is a communication that appears subtle in form and belittles people. She concluded by explaining the impacts of hate speech on the victims. She also talked on fake news being propaganda or a misinformation that damages the reputation of a person or entity; being communicated through spoken words, electronic means and digital communication. She concluded by giving tips on the relationship between fake news and hate speech, how to identify fake news and how to prevent and manage hate speech. This module lasted for an hour.

MODULE 2

CONTEXTUALISING AND CONCEPTUALISING HATE SPEECH

This second module was facilitated by BESONG BAWACK MALLET who gave clear explanations on what is hate speech, fake news, propaganda, disinformation and misinformation; in a very much interactive form with participants. He also gave out some basic ways of fighting hate speech and fake news online by commenting with the right information or by providing alternatives or by even reporting bad content online.

MODULE 3

BREAKOUT SESSION

This breakout session was an opportunity for all participants to put to practice all they had learned during the first two modules. This was facilitated by GEORGE NEBA and SALLY MBOUMIEN. Participants had to make a small presentation using these three points:
1.) Identify existing hate speeches or expressions of hate speeches in our communities.
2.) Propose ways to combat hate speech.
3.) Who should be involved in combatting hate speech?
The participants formed three groups and each group presented their work after 20 minutes of deliberations.

MODULE 4

UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS TO VIOLENT EXTREMEISM AND ITS RESPONSE

This course was facilitated by Ntui Oben Obi. He gave more light on violent extremism, which according the FBI is condoling, encouraging, justifying or supporting the commission of a violent act to achieve a political, religious, social or economic goal. He further said violent extremism is a product of historical, economic, political and social circumstances. He gave participants the opportunity to provide ways to tackle violent extremism, which was an exciting exercise.

MODULE 5

GENDER BASED DISCRIMINATION (GBD), CYBER BULLYING AND NON-VIOLENT COMMUNICATION

This course was facilitated by Mavis Yeluma Tembi who further divided it in three parts.
For the first part, Miss Tembi expounded on GBD, describing it as discrimination on a particular
gender based on their race, sex, political orientation etc. For part two, she briefly described cyber bullying as electronic harassment, with its effects being intimidation, emotional blackmail, suicide and suppression of speech for teenagers.

In part three, she talked on non-violent communication. She said that NVC considers four things which are consciousness, language, communication and means of influence. She went further to give list the steps needed to communicate non-violently.

She concluded by saying that an effective way to resolve conflicts is by using a conflict resolution checklist which will help us see what has been resolved and what is still to be resolved. Given all that was said during this workshop, the participants were encouraged to pass on what they had acquired and learned to their various communities and change makers. Each participant was asked to submit a proposal on a project gathering youths, based on what they had acquired. The workshop ended by 7 pm with all participants excited to ‘PASS IT ON’ to their communities.

Report by
EHABE E. Rodrigue
Bonaberi – Douala
01/03/202