TUMAINI ENGAGES YOUTHS IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION
By Chisomo Daniels
Organizers of the Tumaini Festival have launched an initiative which seeks to end discrimination and stigma against refugees.
Speaking at a youth conference at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa district on Saturday, Spokesperson for Tumaini Festival Berger Bandere Bellegie expressed regret that rocky relationship between refugees and host communities has persisted.
Bellegie said, "There is need to seek youth support to end the bad blood that exists between locals and refugees."
He further said the country would benefit from engaging youths in peace building efforts considering young people command huge portion of the country’s population.
More than 100 youths attended the conference which was conducted under the theme "engaging youth as agents of social cohesion and peaceful coexistence between refugees and host communities’’.
One of the youths who took part in the conference Innocent Ndizeye said, " The peace building process has come at the right time when tensions are high."
Derived from a Swahili word "Tumaini" which means ‘Hope’, Poet Menes La Plume introduced Dzaleka Refugee Camp’s first arts and cultural festival called Tumaini Festival in November, 2014.
