The Grassroots Centre Africa in collaboration with Cardinal Onayka Foundation for Peace and Queen Amina Foundation have trained youth on the use of technology tools to promote peace and development in Nigeria.
The training which is part of series of youth engagement activities under the * #Tech4CommunityPeace program targets young people within communities in order to turn them into peace building champions in their communities.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two days training held at QAIC Conference Hall in Azare, Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi State, the Senior Program Officer at Grassroot Centre Africa Mohammed Chiroma Hassan said, as the elections draw nearer, traders of hateful contents online continued to gather momentum that could easily spark violence among people, hence the need to engage the youth who are considered the most active portion of the population.
“Youth are considered the champions of these hateful contents on social media, because they are the most active portion of the population in terms of online interactions”, He said.
“The goal of this program is to targets young people within communities at the bottom of the pyramid, in order to make them peace building champions, leveraging on the power of technology tools”. He added.
Mr. Hassan who stressed that the objectives of the training is to to use technology tools to promote peace, good governance and getting the best out of the internet, also called on the participants to remain focused and tap all the knowledge sets to be exhibited at the training.
Also speaking, the Head of Queen Amina Foundation Mallam Salisu Abdullahi emphasized that the program must be supported by all, as it provides an opportunity for leveraging on technology tools to propagate peaceful coexistence among people.
“As a foundation, we are so much interested in this as it directly aligns with our mandate, we will continue to support this initiative”. Salisu added.
Four technology stall were stationed in the training hall; the use of technology to fact-check, hateful contents reporting on various Social Media Platforms, Internet safety and security. While an online group was created for the trained champions at the end of the training for onward engagement.
Participants were drawn from different various Community Based Organizations, student unions, ward development committees, farmers associations, peace building networks, entrepreneurs hub and faith based initiatives among others.
