The African Great Lakes region is a group of three countries: Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 1990s saw the rise of long-term social, economic and political instability affecting the populations of that region. Inter-ethnic conflicts, the explosion of xenophobia due to ethnic prejudices, power struggles, tribal wars and armed violence left thousands dead in these three troubled countries and led to humanitarian tragedies: the Rwandan genocide and massacres in Burundi and Congo. Children and young people, accounting for 60% of the population were victims of this terror, they lost so much and in many cases were manipulated by adults, becoming deeply involved in the war and killing.

The Scouts asked themselves what they could do to contribute to the return and the maintenance of peace in the Great Lakes region and how the young people could be involved positively in a process of developing and promoting lasting peace? So, twelve years ago, the Scout Associations of Burundi, D.R. Congo and Rwanda decided to set up a south-south partnership focusing on scout education for peace.

A particular stress was thus put on the “education for peace” component of the youth programmes, and education for peace tools for scout units were produced. The young leaders are trained on positive conflict resolution techniques; the trans-border scout groups meet regularly and exchange ideas on tolerance and on how to live together; they periodically organise Jamboree-like gatherings, national days for each branch, worksite camps or local, national or sub-regional competitions on peace, thus allowing young people from different ethnic groups to live the reconciliation, to learn to respect each other and to see their differences as an asset and to use them. Each year, a number of solidarity actions are identified by the leaders during open forums and are implemented for the benefit of the victims of all these conflicts, of refugees, of displaced people, of repatriated people or others in need.

Two years ago, the Scouts decided to take this project to a new level and developed the Amahoro Amani project, in collaboration with the Girl Guides Associations of the region. Amahoro means 'peace' in Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, and Amani means peace in Swahili. The project is based on the work of 420 young men and women aged between 15 and 25 who run all of the activities. They have been trained as community mediators ,and work to combat ethnic prejudice, manage conflicts without violence and train others to do the same.

In addition to the awareness campaigns, peace workshops and political involvement, the mediators are also helping to safeguard the environment by taking part in the reforestation of areas where refugee camps were set up.

To ensure the sustainability of the project, people are also being trained as trainers of mediators, and these trainers are supervising the mediators in the field. Peace caravans and a peace rally will be organised to bring the young people from the region together and to highlight the role of community mediators in international cooperation. Over the course of two years, over 20,000 young people should benefit from the advice and help of the community mediators and become agents of peace in the region. The peace education and promotion actions have now been extended to non-scouts thanks to good cooperation with other youth organisations working on the issue of peace.

Updated news and Video:

Click here to read a news article on scout.org about the project and view a video clip.