Few members of two warring tribes (Dioula and Guerè) in the Ivory Coast have undergone Youth Leadership Training Program (YLTP) and they say that they have discovered brotherhood again.
Differences over land and economic issues have caused such disharmony that one cannot walk in the other’s village without being attacked. But miraculously 15 youth from each warring faction came together for the YLTP. The eight days they spent in the program changed them. "We lived together and discovered our ways were so similar. There is no fear. We're brothers," said Adama, a member of the Dioula tribe. As a peace initiative, the members of a tribe are handing over a village, which they had forcibly taken over. It is incredible that these youth are helping rebuild homes that had been destroyed during the hostilities.
Remarking on the success of the program, both tribes remarked that Sri Sri’s Art of Living Foundation was playing a peace-keeper’s role. In addition to inter-community harmony, the youth were also inspired to take responsibility for their villages and are engaged in cleanliness campaigns and repairing roads.
The locals were pleased with the results and themselves arranged another course in Bouaké, a town where the rebels are headquartered. Both victims and perpetrators of violence say they found peace and are now committed towards building a harmonious community.
The Youth Leadership Training Program empowers youth by helping them de-clutter their thoughts. There is a strong focus on personal and societal improvement and the importance of responsible leadership.
Recognizing the Foundation’s projects, the Minister of Reconciliation in the Ivory Coast has personally lent his support to the work. At a meeting between the Administration and 60 non-governmental organizations, participants hailed the good work of the Foundation and expressed their enthusiasm to work together to develop a strong society in the Ivory Coast.
Peace Conference
IAHV in association with Art of Living Foundation held a YLTP phase 2 with 40 students from 3 of the poorest and war affected areas of Ivory Coast . At the end of the program Art of Living Ivory Coast , organised a Peace Conference under the patronage of the Ministry of Reconciliation. The conference was attended my Mr. Djedje Dano Sebastien, Minister of National Reconciliation and his wife Patricia Dano Sebastien, Mr. Tihi Kpao Victor Mayor of Duékoué, Police Commissioner of Duékoué, Iman of Duékoué, Youth Leaders, Village heads. Each of them was there to share how to get sustainable peace back in this region. The conference was held at the Mayor’s Hall.
The Minister shared how most NGO’s came to see him with very impressive projects and big budgets. How almost all these projects landed up in a drawer and never saw the light of day. Art of Living was one of the very few NGO’s that just went ahead and took initiative to reach out to the most troubled areas of Ivory Coast without waiting for anyone.
In his tenure as Minister of Reconciliation he has seen that the Art of Living Foundation was one of the rare NGO’s that worked on the grass root level, close to the population, went where the core of the problem was, to solve it at the grass root level. It was an NGO that considered the human being in its entirety, and healed not only the body but also the mind and the spirit.
The Mayor of Duékoué said that taking into consideration the work done by the youth leaders of Art of Living he was ready to support any project undertaken by them and aid them in their initiatives.
The local youth leaders shared how misunderstandings between the different tribes had caused the war to accelerate to this point. They pointed out that it was the initiatives taken by the Art of Living Youth had helped calm the situation.
Many youth came and shared how before the YLTP they were racist and their door was closed to all people from other tribes especially after the war. However after undergoing the program they saw how uselessly they had spent their time in fighting with each other and finally they were all a part of the same family. Some shared how the Art of Living Program had brought peace in their minds and life and all the trauma and hatred caused by the war had been erased. They felt so much at peace that many of them had even became intermediaries to solve the problems between different tribes in the villages, and were now called the ‘wise’ of the villages.
