Prof. Marfo urges youth to self-initiate peace campaigns

Professor Samuel Marfo, a Professor of Conflict Resolution, at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), has urged the youth to self-initiate peace campaigns to sustain, restore and build peace in their communities.Prof. Marfo, who is also a member of the Upper West Regional Peace Council, said the youth had the power and the platform coupled with their modern ideas to help promote peace that would change society for the better.He said these during an awareness creation event amongst the youth on hate speech, misinformation, disinformation around elections, religious tolerance and protracted conflicts, held at Jeffisi in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region.He said it took the ingenuity of Dr Martin Luther King Jnr., Emma Gonzalez, and David Hogg of America, Steve Biko of South Africa, Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, among numerous others to change things in their countries.He urged the youth to emulate these people by initiating their own campaigns to change things in their communities and the country.Exposing the youth to the deadly consequences of hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, the Prof. Marfo, advised the youth who were still dreaming of achieving their goals to desist from sitting aloof and allowing the older generation, who had limited time ahead of them to engage in negative acts that could destroy their future dreams.The objective of the awareness creation programme, which brought together about 50 participants, is to expose the youth to the concept of misinformation and disinformation as a trigger to conflicts, highlight the dangers of hate speech to social cohesion and to harness the energies of the youth as ambassadors of peace.The project, which is being co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is being implemented by the National Peace Council across three regions including Upper West, Upper East, and North East Regions.Source: Ghan a News Agency