Initiatives and Actions for Peace and Development

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With a per capita GDP of around $300, Burundi is the poorest country in the World and unfortunately not known for its beauty but rather for its long civil crisis and the associated genocide that caused many deaths. 65% of our population is youth and we represent the labor of the country and the hope of the future. My goal is it to contribute to a positive development in my country. I want to put Burundi on the map as a place, where youth are taking up their future in their hands and work towards improving their situation.

What is most lacking for young people in my country are vocational training and job opportunities for young people. Youth are largely left to themselves without any support. This creates a high potential of them again being engaged in violence perpetuation, particularly in that period where there is political tensions here in Burundi which may lead the country back to the civil crisis. This is where my vocational and values-based training and workshops come in that I am going to organize in collaboration with CUFORE, an Academic training and entrepreneurial research center.

The vision of our NGO-" IAP- Initiatives and Actions for Peace and Development" is it to contribute to the building of peace and sustainable development in Burundi through the empowerment of Burundian young people and interethnic dialog. Its mission is to equip youth with entrepreneurship skills in order to allow them to create their own employment opportunities and to combine vocational training with workshops on peace-building, reconciliation, democratic values, good governance and human basic values. I am convinced that through these two programs, we can prevent future violent conflicts in Burundi and thus, contribute highly to Peace and Sustainable Development in my country.

The scope of work is situated on two levels.

*Trainings, for a period of up to three Months per term, in social entrepreneurship.

Trough experts lectures, youth will be taught how to create a profit project, to manage it, the fundraising strategies and how to sustain their projects. Youth will be provided a mentorship of experts as a continuous support for the implementation of their small profit- projects for up to 1 year after the termination of the training.

*Series of seminars on topics such as democracy, good governance, leadership, respect of human right, corruption’s eradication, transparency in managing, gender participation, diversity and development, non-violent communication, and the culture of dialog. Guest speakers and trainers in those areas will give a non formal education to the youth to accompany their entrepreneurship skills development.

As well, the youth will self-organize cultural events and sport’s activities to further social cohesion among them and others community members.

Get involved – by donating no more than a small amount of money you will enable a young person to recover hope, create her/his job and thus participate to the building of peace and sustainable development.