Washington, DC (PRWEB) December 14, 2016 -- A Nigerian local community program that prevents conflicts between Christians and Muslims, and uses sports to prevent young people from joining terrorist groups, has won the annual prize for Inter-religious peacebuilding from the London-based international Peace Direct organization. The winners were announced at a ceremony in London and Washington, DC on Friday, December 9, 2016.
The American University of Nigeria-led Adamawa Peacemakers Initiative (AUN-API) was one of three winners out of 244 entrants from 61 countries. The Tomorrow’s Peacebuilders Award includes a $10,000 grant to be used to further the recipients’ peace work.
“We are deeply honored by this recognition,” said Dr. Margee Ensign, president of the American University of Nigeria, which created API and provides overall direction. “We’re grateful to all members of API, our interfaith clergy and other leaders of API, but especially Abdulahi Bello, who coordinates our Peace Through Sports program.”
According to one of the judges: “The jury was extremely impressed by (API’s) application and the way that API’s programs respond to the needs of the community and show both long-term sustainability and innovation in approach.”
One innovative aspect of the program is the Peace Through Sports, where young men and women join teams to play soccer, basketball and volleyball. Said Dr. Ensign: “The teams are unity teams-with Christian and Muslim young people playing together. They learn to respect and to cooperate with one another, to appreciate and value beliefs different than their own.”
One measure of program success is the number of young men who’ve been radicalized and joined the insurgency. So far that number is zero. According to Dr. Ensign: “Numerous participants told me that ‘It was either Boko Haram or you.’” AUN also coordinates education programs and job training for young people in the sports program, as illiteracy and chronic unemployment are key contributors to the region’s instability.
In addition to the Peace Through Sports program, AUN-API conducts mediation sessions in communities, teaches conflict resolution techniques, provides literacy instruction for out of school children, and feeds thousands of people displaced by violence.
Dr. Ensign, who also chairs API, said that the AUN-API’s approach is scalable and replicable, and the key elements, which rely heavily on local knowledge and expertise, have already been replicated elsewhere, especially in places that are hard for government authorities and humanitarian organizations to reach. Another advantage is that the community expertise at the heart of AUN-API is sustainable and can evolve in response to challenges inside and outside the community.
The longer-term vision, according to Dr. Ensign, is to spread the model throughout the wider region and country, wherever there is conflict, at-risk youth and the need for local empowerment.
About the AUN-led Adamawa Peacemakers Initiative
AUN created the American University of Nigeria-Adamawa Peacemakers Initiative (AUN-API) in 2010, a peace initiative consisting of local leaders, traditional rulers and religious leaders, working to improve the quality of life of local and displaced Nigerians. Members of API identify vulnerable youth from their communities who are then educated and trained by AUN. The members of API are local leaders who are deeply involved with and embedded in their communities. They have the best knowledge of which youth are the most vulnerable to violence and to groups like Boko Haram. Through locally led literacy and technology training, economic development, peace through sports programs and more, AUN and AUN-API are facilitating an environment for peace, promoting women’s empowerment and socioeconomic equality, engaging and preventing the radicalization of local youth and combatting violent extremism in Yola. AUN and AUN-API’s integrated approach marries peacebuilding, literacy, vocational training, and women’s empowerment to ensure a sustainable transformation of the community. At the height of the Boko Haram crisis AUN-API fed 276,000 internally displaced people.
About the American University of Nigeria
The American University of Nigeria (AUN) is located in Yola, Adamawa state in northeastern Nigeria. AUN enrolls over 1,500 undergraduate, graduate and nursery to high school students, representing Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and the United States, and an international faculty and staff from 35 countries. A law school opened in September 2016. Founded by former Nigerian Vice-President Atiku Abubakar with a mission to be a development university, AUN is deeply involved in improving the quality of life for people outside its gate. AUN’s programs address food security, job training and entrepreneurship, literacy education for out of school children, and emergency feeding programs for families displaced by violence. AUN is also one of the most technologically sophisticated universities on the continent with an award-winning e-library, leveraging technology to solve existing challenges, particularly those related to education. The university is committed to being a catalyst and an agent of economic development.
About Peace Direct
Peace Direct is a charity based in London, England which supports grassroots peacebuilders in areas of conflict. Peace Direct focuses on supporting grassroots peacebuilders who are local to the conflict and have a clear vision of what needs to be achieved. The organization funds this work, promotes it and shares lessons learned. In 12 years, Peace Direct has supported more than 40 local peacemaking organizations around the world.
Doug Barry, Conover + Gould Strategy Group, on behalf of American University of Nigeria, http://www.aunf.org, +1 802-229-3866, [email protected]
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