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Saint Lucian Students Empowered to be Peacebuilders in their schools
Eighteen students from two schools in Vieux Fort, Beanefield Comprehensive Secondary School and Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School, Saint Lucia, were equipped with peace-building skills during the UNESCO Youth for Peace: Life Skills Training for Students workshop held on December 7-8, 2023. Over the span of two days, the students received invaluable tools enabling them to harness the extraordinary potential within themselves and sculpt harmonious and inclusive societies.
The Youth for Peace Initiative, which supports the Saint Lucia National Youth Policy Action Plan 2021-2026 through its Goal Four Safety Security and peaceful Coexistence: Empower young people and community as agents of peaceful and safe national coexistence, focuses on empowering youth to advocate for mutual understanding and peace-building initiatives within both their school environments and broader communities.
Pius Stephen, District Six Education Counsellor from the Ministry of Education, Jonathan Chalon from the Youth Office for the Southern Cluster in the Ministry of Youth Development and Sport, as well as Representatives from Beanefield Comprehensive Secondary School and Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School, and Marcia Symphorien Secretary General of the Saint Lucia National Commission for UNESCO all attended the opening ceremony in support of the workshop.
Anna Paolini, Director and Representative of the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean, in her opening remarks, highlighted that with 63% of the population in the Caribbean being under the age of 30, youth are a priority at UNESCO.
We strongly believe that when young people are given the opportunity for active participation, they can become invaluable assets for driving transformative change.
The workshop, which served as a platform to raise awareness on the positive management and transformation of conflicts, provided opportunities for students to delve into various concepts including conflict, violence, gender stereotypes, and peace with the aim to enhance their comprehension, compassion, mutual understanding, and empathy – essential socio-emotional principles in addressing conflicts.
Students also obtained invaluable life skills designed to strengthen critical thinking, problem-solving capabilities, and cooperative learning skills through an interactive and engaging methodology and garnered tools and strategies for developing empathy and confidence management skills aimed at guiding students to become responsible citizens and agents of positive change and navigate conflicts peacefully.
After the workshop, the students expressed an interest in replicating their learnings with other students and creating Peace Clubs in their schools.
