At Nkabom 2008 (the commonwealth youth Leadership Programme), we 29 young people from 23 countries and territories, living in 6 continents. Between us we have traveled the whole circumference of the globe and we speak some 27 different languages. We live in every corner of the commonwealth; from Barbados, Bangladesh, Singapore, South Africa, Malta, Nigeria, Uganda, Mauritius and beyond. Some of us are from huge countries like Canada, Australia. Others come from tiny Islands like Vanuatu, Jersey and even Cyprus itself. We share interest in celebrating our diversity and multiculturalism.
Despite our varying differences, we share key similarities, notably; we are all young and passionate about sharing ideas especially about conflict and peace building.
We had come to Nicosia to experience the Cyprus conflict and use it as case study to develop our leadership potentials, as key agents for peace building, share deep insights and ideas on how we can contribute to a peaceful and better world as young people. Starting from our inputs and contributions in local community to the time we become commonwealth leaders of tomorrow.
Here is the first day. We get to meet each other formally and introduced ourselves, shared our passion, interest, expectations, fears and more important our uniqueness (USP).
We were introduced into the programme and given background information on the need and essence for peace with little exercise that seek to boost our understanding of the concept of peace. We were able to bring out four words that that causes conflict (Inequality, Intolerance, miscommunication…)
It’s lunch time and we met costa (a young cyproit) who showed us around and we had lunch, had a glimpse of the the green line from the restaurant’s garden.
Evening was another great time with Prof Yiannis Papadakis (social anthropologist and expert in the Cypriot conflict from the university of Cyprus) leading us on a tour to the green line. It was really great seeing the division lines and being in a no man’s land.
Dinner was great with Prof Yiannis as our special guest. Tiime for more and more question… It is really exciting getting to know the basics of the Cyprus conflict and conflicts as a whole..
PS: Met some of the Nkabom delegates, it was really great getting to meet some new passionate young people from different part of the world who are passionate, committed and interested in contributing to a better world.
Nkabom 2008 Participants
Martin Atela (Kenya)
Alvin Singh (Canada)
Talha Ghannam (United Kingdom)
Leigh Elston (Jersey)
Danial AbdulRAhman (Malaysia)
Reema Chataroo (Mauritius)
Maria Tsiarta (Cyprus)
Swati Chawla (India)
Richard Hargy (Northern Ireland)
Fiaza Muhammad (United Kingdom)
Alex Nuwagaba (Uganda)
Asiya Mohammmed (Trinidad and Tobago)
Ival Cummings John (UK/ Sierra Leone)
Kyasingmong Marma (Bangladesh)
Suryani Lukman (Singapore)
Andrew Solomon Napuat (Vanuatu)
Rosie Sitorus (Australlia)
Barbara Soetan (United Kingdom)
Jiselle Baker (Canada)
Olalekan Oshunkoya (Nigeria)
Valeria Okai (Ghana)
Hopolang Selebalo (Lesotho/South Africa)
Daisy Kirk (Malta)
Devan Marten (New Zealand)
Amarasingham Jeevan (Sri Lanka)
Helen Astaniou (Cyprus/UK)
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