The increasing conflicts in the great lakes region and other African countries have resulted into Uganda hosting over 1.5 million refugees. Countries with conflicts such as Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Southern Sudan among others have presented refugee populations with different nationalities, cultures, religions and political ideologies a situation that has continued to present discrimination, hatred and hostility among refugees themselves in the refugee camps and also among refugees and host communities’ populations. These conditions have promoted radicalization resulting into acts of violent extremism among the refugees themselves and also among the refugees and the host community populations.
However, we know that youth can act as key actors to achieve peace and harmony in order to prevent radicalization and violent extremism among youth and adult populations in Uganda as well as other African countries with conflicts; In November 2021, the one and half year grant from United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and its partners like United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Centre for Sport and Security (ICSS) under their global sports program “United Nations Global Programme on Security of Major Sporting Events, and Promotion of Sport and its Values as a Tool to Prevent Violent Extremism” awarded to ICODI to implement a project titled “Youth Centered Sports Approach as a Tool to Prevent Violent Extremism.” The project was implemented in Nakivale refugee settlement and surrounding host communities in Isingiro District-South Western Uganda.
The project used the power of sports as a tool and a platform to;
Train 1528 youth from 12 villages of Nakivale Refugee Settlement and 3 host sub-counties on how to use sports and its values like tolerance, perseverance, discipline, friendship, teamwork, inclusion among others to promote peace building and prevention of violent extremism.
- Conduct 72 intercultural and interreligious dialogues reaching a total of 1440 refugees from different nationalities, cultures and religious identities and non-refugee youth in the host communities which promoted respect and understanding/tolerance as well as building social inclusion and cohesion among refugee and non-refugee youth populations.
- Establish 12 youth sports and peace building clubs in the refugee camp and host communities, trained 72 young sports coaches and equipped them with appropriate trainer of trainees (T.O.T) knowledge on how to use sports as a platform to conduct intercultural and interreligious dialogues.
- Train 1011 refugee and non-refugee youth in refugee host communities in project planning and entrepreneurship skills. The trainings equipped the beneficiaries with knowledge and skills of starting agricultural and farming projects to create employment and boost their individual and family incomes. This initiative together with sporting activities helped to divert youth from getting involved in violence and violent extremism activities and instead they got involved in productive activities to create employment for themselves and other youth as well as improve on their individual and families’ incomes.
Establish 21 Community demonstrable agricultural gardens in Nakivale Refugee settlement and the refugee host communities. These gardens have continued to act as practical training centres for refugee and non-refugee youth in climate resilient agriculture which is further boosting their employment opportunities in agriculture and agribusiness and promoting food security in the refugee and non-refugee families.
This project through sports also worked with individual youth and youth led groups/organizations in Nakivale Refugee Settlement and surrounding host communities to help enhance the ability of young people and their organizations/groups to foster mutual respect, understanding and long-term positive relationships between peoples of different nationalities, cultures, religions and political affiliations. This programming facilitated networking and exchange among youth-led organizations/groups; provided them with the opportunities to increase their competencies and to implement sports activities to advance intercultural and interreligious understanding.
The project also worked with other grassroots and regional youth-led groups, the Government of Uganda-through the district local government among other partners to expand, enhance and intensify the role and capacity of youth to use sports to prevent radicalization and violent extremism which is conducive to terrorism. Eventually, these contributions from youth populations helped make a real and lasting difference for communities facing tensions and conflicts in Uganda.
