The Youth Leadership for Peace program promotes a culture of peace and respect for ethnic diversity in Kyrgyzstan through youth-led conflict prevention efforts. Youth Leadership for Peace trains youth and adults to form peer mediation groups and foster dialogue in their schools among students of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
At the end of the project, toolkits on peer mediation and best practices for supporting students affected by conflict will be widely disseminated throughout Kyrgyzstan. In addition, an inter-ethnic, inter-regional Youth Leadership for Peace Theater Troupe will perform on a tour to Osh and Bishkek. The Youth Leadership for Peace program is funded by the United States Institute of Peace [6] (USIP).
Contribute to the development of a culture of peace and respect for ethnic diversity by achieving the following objectives:
• Youth facilitate conflict prevention efforts in a supportive school environment.
• Youth are seen as leaders in positive interethnic relations at the national level.
Youth Leadership for Peace builds on the success of the Youth Theater for Peace [7] program, which introduced a participatory theater methodology called Drama for Conflict Transformation (DCT) to youth and youth-serving professionals in Kyrgyzstan. DCT incorporates local cultural traditions and starts with simple theater games that break the ice and encourage imagination and play. Participants then develop short plays about real-life conflict issues and perform them in their communities, engaging the audience to be part of the performance and contribute to the resolution. A discussion follows the performance, encouraging dialogue on conflict issues and bringing divided groups into contact.
Peer Mediation Training and Toolkit for Peer Mediators: IREX is training youth and adult mentors to conduct mediations in schools. Adults and youth leave the training environment with an action plan for developing a peer mediation program at their school. The Toolkit for Peer Mediators serves as a practical “how-to” guide for educators and youth interested in starting their own peer mediation groups and will be widely distributed throughout Kyrgyzstan.
Conflict Prevention Trainings and Resources: Adult leaders trained in conflict prevention will carry out trainings for their colleagues. The conflict prevention trainings and resource toolkit are designed to improve adult and youth interactions and to enhance the ability of youth-serving professionals to support youth in crisis.
Youth Leadership for Peace Theater Troupe: The inter-ethnic and inter-regional Youth Leadership for Peace Theater will perform at major events in Bishkek and Osh, bringing attention to youth cooperation and the role that youth can play in conflict prevention at the national level in Kyrgyzstan. The Troupe met at a summer rehearsal retreat and developed two forum theater performances centered on issues of labor migration, youth alcohol abuse, and predatory informal money lending.
• Youth Leadership supports teachers and youth from the Batken and Chui regions of Kyrgyzstan.
• The program will provide 40 youth and adults with direct training in conflict prevention and peer mediation. These adults and youth will train their peers with the goal of improving knowledge for an additional 600 youth-serving professionals.
ytp@irex.org [8]