Four-day training for tribal students held on harnessing youth for peace

PESHAWAR: A four-day training on “Harnessing Youth for Peace” was held at FATA University from November 21 to November 24 for 26 students selected from newly merged districts of the province.

The event was an initiative of the Higher Education Regulatory Authority (HERA), Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, supported by Community Resilience Activity-North (CRA-N), USAID, and implemented by International Organization for Migration (IOM) Students from Kurram, Orakzai, Khyber and North Waziristan and 24 faculty members of FATA University attended the event.

The keynote speakers of trainings were Rashad Bukhari, Kayenat Hameed Khan, and Mufti Asad Gul.

Their hands-on training sessions were focused on civic engagement and community resilience themes including tolerance, critical thinking, leadership, conflict resolution, and positive social action.

This will help the young generation to break down existing negative stereotypes approach resulting their positive engagement in society, they said adding that only educating youth could help to cope up with the post violence scenario and would also play an important role in the reconstruction of the society and improving the quality of life.

The closing ceremony was graced by Dr Fazl e Qadir, Chairman, HERA, Prof Dr Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan, Vice Chancellor, FATA University, Dr Yasir Kamal, Member, HERA. The Vice Chancellor in his speech emphasized on the fact that this initiative of empowering and engaging youth would develop strategic network and opportunities for collaborative working on peace building.

Dr Yasir Kamal, Member HERA added that by establishing synergies of collaboration between young students could result in an understanding of diversity, exchange of knowledge, networking, and best practices in society. The chief guest distributed certificates among the participants and nine shields among the three best performers of each session.