The Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) has inducted 90 youths into its Niger Delta Peace Champions Program to join PIND’s network of peace actors in peacebuilding, conflict Early Warning, and Early Response (EWER), and carrying out interventions where they live and work in the region.

In a release, the organization working to address socio-economic issues in the Niger Delta said the inductees included 51 men, 39 women, and five people living with disabilities.

According to PIND’s Peacebuilding Program Manager, David Udofia, the program, which empowers 18 to 35-year-olds, is part of PIND’s peacebuilding strategy of contributing to preventing, mitigating, and resolving violent conflicts in the Niger Delta.

“Members are young people passionate about making a difference in their communities through peacebuilding,” he said. “They were selected for their passion for supporting existing peacebuilding structures and implementing solutions to conflicts.”

He said the youths learned how to use PIND’s EWER system to report conflicts and respond to those threats quickly while they were also shown how to send text messages through PIND’s Integrated Peace and Development Unit (IPDU) SMS-based platform.

Speaking on some benefits of the program to the youth, PIND’s Peacebuilding Capacity Building Coordinator, Chukwudi Njoku, said it was an opportunity for the participants to gain new knowledge, share ideas, and contribute to peace and development in their communities and the Niger Delta at large.

He added that the beneficiaries also benefit from training in leadership, volunteerism, conflict management, analysis, peacebuilding advocacy, community engagement, and election monitoring/reporting. They also learned the applicability of innovations such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for peacebuilding processes.

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