Faith in the Commonwealth Trainers Network North West Region

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Cameroon trains young leaders in the North West in promotion of Commonwealth Principles, Community cohesion and peace.

The Faith in the Commonwealth Trainers Network North West Region – Cameroon has concluded a Youth training of Trainers in the North West Region. Thirty eight young leaders with and without disabilities from across the seven divisions of the North West attended a 3 day residential program to promote community cohesion through global citizenship education.

The North West young leaders are latest to benefit from Faith in the Commonwealth Trainers Network initiative after the training of trainers by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Khalili Foundation in Yaoundé Cameroon last November 2018. The training dwelled on principles of global citizenship education to promote greater respect and understanding across different faiths, cultures and beliefs.

The workshop combined practical facilitation skills with theories of how identities and cultures form and change. It developed the aptitudes of critical thinking and attitudes of tolerance, respect and understanding that underpin global citizenship and which promote social cohesion and peace-building efforts.

The participants will now return to their communities and organizations to lead tailored social action initiatives designed to build peace, social inclusion and respect and understanding from the grass roots. The training was spiced with a lot of initiatives geared towards promoting inclusive development, the role of youths in countering violent extremism, youth empowerment as a tool to overcome hate speech and promote community development.

Mr. Awa Jacque Chirac, the Program Manager of Empowerment for Inclusion and Sustainability (EIS) and Reverend Pastor Njini Edward visited during the training and all described the FCT Network as being imperative and timely given the socio political crisis our region is facing. Mr Awa expressed great joy seeing the program considered inclusion of persons with disabilities, this shows a paradigm shift in promoting inclusive global citizenship. While appreciating the organizers and the Commonwealth Secretariat for such an enticing program, they joined the voice of other participants for more training sessions for many to benefit.

Michelle Callander, Project Manager, Faith in the Commonwealth in her Skype call expressed a lot of satisfaction and encouraged the young trainers to strictly follow up and learn from the team. One of the things she stressed on was the spirit of oneness embedded in the principles of Commonwealth which is tolerance, mutual respect and understanding. She expressed great satisfaction for the program.

In his opening remark, Melvin Songwe Shuye, Regional Coordinator of the Faith in the Commonwealth Trainers Network North West Region emphasized that the program was geared towards promoting shared values in the Commonwealth Charter. He said, “The inclusive youth training of trainers will continue to invest in celebrating diversity and promote understanding between faiths, culture and between communities at local and regional levels”.

After the training, the participants remarked how the first session offered them new approaches to work with their communities and lead change through dialogue and social action. They equally seized the opportunity to present their peace messages as North West Youth for Peace “Cameroon, let us give peace a chance, peace is priceless, we are for peace, we want peace, youths let’s build peace”.

The workshop was organized with the partnership of United Youths Organization (UYO), Society for the Promotion of Initiatives in Sustainable Development and Welfare (SOPISDEW), Society for Initiatives in Rural Development and Environmental Protection (SEDERP), Empowerment for Inclusion and Sustainability (EIS) and Chelton Foundation.