Yengema Youth Project

The Yengema Youth Project is an advocacy initiative centred around the peaceful co-existence among youth in the community.

Yengema itself is a rural town, located in eastern Sierra Leone in the conflict prone Kono District. This initiative created a forum to advocate for the quality participation of youth in decision making as well as peace promotion activities and peaceful co-existence among youth. Similarly, peer education on preventive and positive living with HIV/AIDs among youths was also promoted. There is a focal person on such issues should anyone need support in schools and in the local community

Yengema is one of the villages in Kono that was adversely affected by the war. At present social- cohesion has increased and a peaceful co-existence maintained through recreational activities such as games, sports, and carnivals. This social integration and co-existence can been seen in the capacity of the local youth to manage conflicts during social activities that they have been empowered to organise themselves. Today Yengema can boost of youth clubs, demonstrate the spirit of oneness without violence, and above all youth are open to talk about issues that affect them in the community in a peaceful way. The use of radio and other means of communication have helped the local community to increase their knowledge on ways of dealing with conflict and other youth related issues in the community.

The Youth Project has also increase the awareness of child protection. Due to this the school administration and the local community, in conjunction with the Christian Brothers Development Office, organised a two-day training course on child protection. Teachers, community leaders, youth and religious organisations all participated in the training, increasing the knowledge of the importance of peace and child protection issues in the community.