As a consequence of 11 year long violent armed conflict, more and more people were displaced from their villages. There was a huge threat of insecurity for youths in particular as they were pressured by the rebels to join their cadre. Many of these youths fled their hometowns in the middle of the night in search of a relatively safer places for them are the bigger cities and in adjoining India. In these cases, youths are forced to drop out of schools and colleges. They left their families and social networks behind and find themselves with no source of income, work or opportunity to continue their studies. They are also dealing with high levels of psychological trauma putting them at additional risk.
It is important that these youths are provided with the opportunity to learn and sustain them emotionally and practically. Therefore, feeling the urgency to provide such displaced youth with a learning space and a positive environment, Nagarik Aawaz initiated the Displaced Youth Volunteer Support Program (DYVP) after thoughtful internal homework.
Capitalizing on youths is also important because of their productive age and vulnerable stage of life and, as the saying goes, in order to "save seeds in times of famine" it is equally important to save "Youth in times of war".
Programme goal
To provide a safety net to the displaced youth so that they can be taken from a place of anger and revenge to one of forgiveness, thus enabling them to work as effective reconstruction workers and peace ambassadors.
Objectives
To develop necessary and practical skills of the youth volunteers
To broaden the youths' understanding of development and peace building
To provide emotional and psychological support to the youth volunteers
Outcomes so far
It won Ashoka/Changemakers Innovation Award 2005 for "How to Build a More Ethical Society" Competition from 11 top finalists, selected from a field of 79 competition entries from 32 countries.
125 youth, in a total of 5 annual batches - each batch comprising of 15 to 25 displaced youths have successfully graduated.
7th batch comprising 22 displaced youths (1st July 2008-June 2009) is ongoing.
Graduate youths evaluated the programme highly; expressing the programme helped them tremendously in overcoming the feeling of desperation and revenge; improving their health, behavior and confidence; and stabilizing them emotionally, with an increased understanding of peace building and development. All the graduates express commitment for peace in whatever work they are involved.
The second batch DYVP (Aug 2004-Jul 2005), was able to include 15 displaced youths sponsored entirely by individual donors.
NA's Sahakarya Shantiko partners, CDF in Doti and Support Nepal in Janakpur, initiated similar programmes in their districts with seed grants from NA. Five partner organizations in Ilam, Surkhet, Doti, Dhanusha and Bajura have initiated similar programmes adopting it according to the local context, under the Communities for Peace Program (CFP).
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