Name of organization:
Cooperation for Peace and Development (CPD)
Description of organization:
CPD was established in 2011 with the aim of bringing positive changes in the perception and behavior of Afghans to ensure peace and development. The organization links marginalized populations, including women, youth, children, with decision makers. Its programmes are committed to promoting voluntarism, human rights, good governance, rule of law, anti-corruption, peace building and environmental protection.
Context:
With 63% of the population below the age of 24, youth comprises a sizable portion of Afghan society. However, continuous conflict over the past three decades have prevented many young people from obtaining even minimal education and have adversely affected Afghanistan in terms of mutual understanding among people of different ethnicities, languages and religions. Governance and the decision-making process is traditionally dominated by elders and religious leaders, with youth lacking the capacity to organize themselves, voice their opinions and interact with institutional structures. CPD aims to address this issue through providing opportunities for intercultural education and dialogue, with a particular focus on the role of young women and teachers.
Proposed project and expected results:
“Community-based Initiative for Afghan Youth Cultural Convergence” seeks to set up youth cultural diversity hubs in five girls’ high schools of Kabul and mentor this education community on the vital role girl students and teachers can play in promoting the positive aspects of Afghanistan’s cultural diversity through networking, discussion and interaction. The project proposes to do this through dialogue sessions, youth camps and sports tournaments. By the end of the project, CPD expects to:
- Develop a coordination mechanism with related government departments.
- Identify and partner with 5 communities and 5 girls’ high schools.
- Establish 5 youth cultural convergence groups in selected high schools.
- Establish and build capacity of 5 Community Advocacy Groups composed of teachers, headmasters and religious scholars to facilitate community buy-in, intergenerational dialogue and overall project implementation in target schools and communities.
- Develop content and promotional materials for youth camps, sports tournaments and dialogue sessions.
- Organize 5 youth camps (one per target school) on youth cultural convergence, involving a total of 200 participants.
- Organize a girls’ volleyball tournament (competition among 16 teams).
- Organize 4 dialogue sessions per target schools, for a total of 20 sessions with approximately 30 participants in each session.
- Continually feed the CPD website, Facebook page and Twitter account with project findings, promotional posts and information on youth cultural convergence.
Project coordinator: Anahita Hadi
Contact information: cpd.afg@gmail.com
Website: www.cpd-af.org
Read More About the UNAOC Youth Solidarity Fund Here