Country: United Kingdom
City:
The panel discussion on Youth, Peace and Security was held on February 9, 2022 at
7pm IST. The discussion was moderated by Daniel William. The conversation tried to
find the importance of Youth, Peace and Security Agenda in South Asian region. The
role of youth played in diverse field in preventing violent extremism. The panelists
were Anojitha Sivaskaran, Gajithira Puvanendran, Faisal Ilyas and Sameer Yadav.
Anojitha Sivaskaran is a youth activist working with grassroots and different civil
society organizations in Sri Lanka for more than three years. She is serving as a
member of the Global Refugee Education council Anojitha is a recipient of The Diana
Award 2021. She is working as a project officer at the National Peace Council of Sri
Lanka, specifically under the project called ―Creative Youth Engagement for
Pluralism‖.
She reflected on why it is important to include young people in peace process. She
experience difficulties during and after the war in Sri Lanka. She also mentioned that
our world is home to 1.8 billion youth, the majority of victims in conflict zones are
youth. So it is important to address the needs of youth and include their voice in peace
process. She also emphasis on the importance of providing education for young
people. During the pandemic, schools were shut down globally and the youth were
there to help them and providing free classes for those kids. The role of youth in
development and providing essential support to the society has to be appreciated. The
society has to recognize their role in the society.
Gajithira Puvanendran is a Trainer and Facilitator working in the areas of active
participation of youth in peacebuilding, reconciliation, countering violent extremism
and preventing radicalization of youth. She is one of the core team member of a youth-
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led initiative CREATE and a co-founding member of Global Youth Leadership
Council . Gajithira shared about the projects that transform the life of people . The
project ‗girl talk‘ initiated by a woman who belongs to a community that marginalized
women. The founder started a platform where women can gather and share their
stories. They started sharing the stories of movie they watch, and they started sharing
small things happening in their family. This sharing helped them to find the
commonness and they found they are connected one way or the other. These talks
empowered them and gave them the feeling of appreciated.
Faisal Ilyas is doing research studies in Peace and Counter Terrorism, Youth Peace
Activist, member of Amnesty International & Asian Peace Youth Network (APYN).
Alumni of Paris Peace Forum since 2018, Young Scholar for religious studies at
Academy of Religions-Italy, Alumni of Pyeong Chang Global Peace Forum South
Korea, Country Representative for Youth Business Startups at 6th Eastern Economic
Forum held in Vladivostok-Russia. He has facilitation skills on peace building,
interfaith harmony, youth awareness & development, women empowerment, minority
rights, gender equality and environment protection.
Faisal shared about the role of women in peacebuilding. He mentioned about the role
of mothers in building peace at home. ―The basic training or the basic education that
can a mother a mother can do is very important , the narrative building or the mother
who is a good teacher who know how to motivate their children to move in the society
with the good behavior and ethics and I think yes women are playing a good role in in
different walks of life.‖
Sameer Yadav is the Founding Director of No Borders Consultancy Private Limited.
He was a Young Researcher and now a Fellow at project #ALLY: Amplifying
Leadership of Local Youth in Preventing Violent Extremism in South Asia. ALLY is
funded by the European Union. He is a Steering Committee Member of the Asia
Working Group of Network of Religious and Traditional Peacebuilders. He is also a
core member of the Indian Collation for Youth Peace and Security. During the
conversation, Sameer encouraged young peacebuilders to start their own social
entrepreneurships as an approach to make changes in the society and try to create jobs
rather than seeking jobs or doing jobs that does not gives happy.