This engagement in form of a training program brought together student leaders from various universities in Kampala as they highlighted the dangers of extremism to our societies and encouraging young people to be agents of peace in their respective societies. “We are equipping the next generation of multi-faith leaders with the necessary skills to promote love and tolerance, prevent violence and contributing positively to their communities”, says Mr Issa Kirarira, the NDP Secretary General.

"In East Africa, eight out of ten people use social media every day. Social media shapes opinions and mindsets across the region. Extremists use social media to promote stereotypes and misperceptions. Through this training, we want to use the same channels to promote coexistence, and to encourage dialogue," He added.

"In our experience, young people do not want to be spoken down to or preached to, by teachers or authority figures. This is why we are reaching out to young men and women, from the region, who are already active on social media, and who already have an interest”. He added.

The NDP hired consultant from Makerere University who conducted the training participant shared on the role of social media in promoting peace and how to develop effective online and offline counter narratives.

He highlighted the need for trainees to help their peers to understand how any story can have multiple perspectives and the importance of critically examining various sources to develop a better understanding.

In this session, the youth were also trained on how social media is often used as a platform for misinformation, stereotyping and even recruitment by violent extremists, how it can also be a way to reach millions of young people, and for them to dialogue amongst themselves on the role of coexistence in their lives and communities.

During the Q&A session, a participant highlighted that one of the challenges to this process is the fact that champions of coexistence and moderate religious leaders are often unable to use social media effectively to promote their values.

One of the major outcome of the training was that the students resolved to create their own digital media content which will help spread positive messages of hope, togetherness, unity and cohesion using design thinking, a process in which they would research information about their audience, develop a point of view, brainstorm possible problems and solutions, and then design and test a prototype. In doing their research, students were advised by the facilitators to be very critical and not to directly contact violent extremists or visit high-risk environments such as online chat rooms but to focus mainly on developing positive counter-narratives.

All participants found the training very relevant to their contexts and promised to go ahead and organize similar dialogue sessions on social media and peace in their respective communities and institutions.  Interested and promising trainees were encouraged to become trainers, so that they can have a broader impact in their communities.