CAPs Friday 02/10/09

Friday, 2 October 2009 | posted by Matt_BC
Activism, Africa Youth Summit 2009, General

The 2009 WIFIPE International Youth Conference in Migore Town, Kenya

Our purpose:
We champion for Peace and Peaceful Co-existence in African societies.

Our vision:
To be the pioneer non-profit youth organization Integrating African Youth into Global Peace- Building.

Our mission:
We harmonize youth power into invaluable champion of Peace and Peaceful Co-existence by identifying socio-economic inadequacies and moulding them into profitable and sustainable community enterprises.

The year is 2008. The month is either January or February...or March! You can never distinguish them as they all resemble in a country that cheated her traditional Peace! I mean, it was a progression of Unrest, Impasse, Skirmishes and gnashing of teeth that followed after the Kenyan disputed elections in December 2007. My tender mind then, presumed that 2007 could go home with its curses! But gosh! Each day that came was only worse memory. My heart bled when I witnessed innocent infants yawning at their mothers’ backs, the old swallowing lumps of dry oxygen up country, Street kids and the market insane feebly galloping from police teargas; all an indication of days of starvation simply because our economy was paralysed, our schools in a carthesis and our social fabric tone.  I got a prick off my seat to action when I witnessed how negative ethnicity was spreading among Kenyans like a curse of cancer! I saw brothers who had lived together for years turning against each other and sisters baying for each other’s blood; a humanitarian crisis the human eye is not meant to see. Back at school- a community I thought each of us could find solace- was an advanced hell form of tribal discordant! I realized how tribalism has penetrated in the hearts of my countrymen like Ghostly spears! Then I embarked onto a journey, a journey to understand “What is Peace and where does Peace lie?” For my country, it was not about stopping the war, the fissure is deeper than it appeared! Then I started living to the meaning of the words of Rudolf Pannwitz, ‘We may have all possible reasons against war-but how does this help us when we are unable to say what peace is, can be, Shall be?” Something had to be done, and be done really fast before Kenya could pack and go to hell!

Sally Adwar, WIFIPE National Treasurer presenting during the conference

In seeking to understand what was breeching peace in our midst, I  found out that the youth were the greatest perpetuators of its non-existence- either directly or indirectly- mainly while serving their political masters for ‘something small’ that we will never understand. Then in questioning another ‘why’, the wisdom of Dorothy Thompson opened our eyes- “They have not wanted Peace at all: they have wanted to be spared war- as though the absence of war was the same as Peace.” Thus, for 44 years, Kenyans had been confusing ‘Calm’ for ‘Peace’! White Fingers Peace Initiative (WIFIPE) had to be born in Friends School Kamusinga to explore the concept of Peace, and how the youth can restore or build a sustainable Peace block in our country. The invaluable support of our then Principle Mr. Simon Nabukwesi and a colleague student Emmanuel Omurunga instilled passion of WIFIPE in many souls that it could be a champion for Peace and Peaceful co-existence not only within the boarders of Kenya, but also the globe.

WIFIPE youth during presentations to Hon. Koigi and Bishop John Okinda during the conference

WIFIPE believes that Peace comes with Self- Contentment! Thus, we started engaging in programmes that help we Youth be self-contented both socially and economically. The most venomous social inadequacy facing youth, we realized as lack of interactions with colleagues hailing from different tribes and regions.  Hence, most nefarious actions and humanitarian crisis committed by the youth and the society along tribal boundaries are due to stereotypes and misconceptions. So WIFIPE started running as clubs in high schools and creating social avenues that help the Youth interact and share best practices. As we travelled this journey with a mass of students in the country, we realized how Kenya has an incredible population of young people from diverse backgrounds with immense potential. This youth population should therefore place Kenya at the centre point of innovation, social and economic stability. However, in most cases, instead of joining in revolutions to enhance and transform the various aspects of our lives, we have been known for pitching and pointing fingers at the inadequate and underdeveloped sectors. This is yet again due to rare opportunities to interact with colleagues and professionals beyond our locality, despite having great ideas, strength and untapped potential.  Apart from such platforms as co-curricular activities and congresses, youth forums that enhance ideas- sharing and social understandings are very sparse. Hence, as mentioned before, our actions like dominating in fuelling skirmishes in times of unrest and impasse in the country are determined not by passion but by response to stereotypes, misconceptions, and lack of information resonating from inadequate interaction amongst the diversity of youth in the country. WIFIPE has been empowering these interactions and understandings among the youth within its different branches through organizing mini-conferences, branches social outdoor competitions, debates, community service and various branches and head sponsorship accounts to help assist needy members to pursue their education. Some branches involve even school drop-outs and unemployed! To harmonize the power of the youth in these branches, WIFIPE resorted to focus more on organizing frequent mini-Peace conferences in different regions of the country to keep on bringing the youth together regardless of their backgrounds. Through these conferences, WIFIPE managed to work with about 7000 young Kenyans in different regions of the Country by April 2009. This inspired me to organize an International forum that would enable these committed young people to meet other passionate youth from other parts of the word and be exposed to a global perspective of Peace building. The WIFIPE International Youth Conference thus envisioned convening 320 youth-(200 representatives from WIFIPE branches, 100 identified disadvantaged youth from local communities and 20 invited international youth) for an intense “ GET CONNECTED” one-week workshop and networking programme. This conference mobilized Kenyan youth from diverse backgrounds to meet and interact, share ideas, and get an exposure to different academic, business and social networks and opportunities. The conference focused on involvement of the youth in enhancing African education and culture, finding and implementing solutions to poverty, entrepreneurship and youth participation in Kenya and Africa. These youth were then exposed to ways of initiating and managing rural/community enterprises and individual mini-income generating projects- of which six new ideas were approved and two connected to microfinance firms such as Equity and K-rep banks to help them run and maintain these grassroot initiatives. This enables the WIFIPE umbrella to create capacity building through the youth’s participation at grassroots levels even ages after the conferences. The program was run by both international and local facilitators who created the most desirable impact on this group of youth. This team included such professionals as Peter Myers (head of Leadership department, African Leadership Academy- South Africa), Hon. Peter Buteyo (Senior Integrity Officer-Kenya), Bishop D. White (Youth Bishop- USA), Hon. Koigi wa Wamwere (Former Information Minister and MP- Kenya), Michael Kayemba (GlobalChangemaker- Uganda), Ms. Belinda Sheilla Munemo (Zimbabwe), Ms. Beryl Samba Obiero (Kenya) and other charity organizations heads amongst others.

Hon. Koigi (centre), the Citizen TV reporters (far ends) and the WIFIPE National Leadership. Eddy- 4th from right.

The conference was a great experience and success. Albeit a bit ‘small’ according to the organizers, it was the first conference in the Country, as Citizen TV reflected, to be held for the Youth with a theme of Peace-Building and an approach of tackling the root causes rupturing Socio- economical fabric.  Most schools were just closing the term and it was quite a challenge to send some representatives to the Camp. Raising funds was another big challenge we experienced! However, we were met invaluably by the British Council GlobalChangemakers, Equity Bank, mini-Harambees, members’ registration fee and well-wishers.

WIFIPE aims at organizing much more and cheap but intense social platforms that will allow the African Youth to get to meet and interact with brothers and Sisters from other fronts. August 2010 finds WIFIPE preparing for yet another ‘OriginalWhite’ International Youth Conference (Details on our Web)! During such meetings, we help members come up with community enterprises through professionals and work together in them to generate income. A technical follow up WIFIPE committee in every branch helps them access funding from WIFIPE Head account, banks, micro-finance firms and other schemes to galvanize their projects. We seek for opportunities such as sponsorships and networks for them to grow into life-transforming Enterprises. This is because we believe that economic activities pin the youth to always be ‘busy’, committed, resourceful and focused such that they shun involvements in lackadaisical activities such as riots, negative political participation, hooliganism, callous moral and economic crimes that breech Peace. Working in model groups on these enterprises with ‘new friends’ from different parts of the country as ‘WIFIPE Family’ also dearly helps the Youth break the tribal lines that drift our country’s tectonic plates from our motherland. When all the youth in the continent; an orphan or not, a school drop- out or a graduate, Oketch or Gicheru, will one day be able to at least win their own bread from their own small areas of passions moulded into community enterprises; and get to understand one another as a one people- refusing to hate because love can only do a better job against ethnic wrangles; then a continent will be self-contented, then a continent will be one...yes, Africa will have defeated the age of Peace and Peaceful Co-existence.  This is Our Dream, it is Your Dream!    

Eddy Gicheru Oketch
GlobalChangemaker, Founder and CEO,
White Fingers Peace Initiative (WIFIPE)