Preventing Extremism: An Exchange Between Generations
HELVETAS is implementing a new project for the prevention of violent, particularly religious extremism in South Kyrgyzstan. The combination of peace-education and psychosocial methods with local governance strategies make for an innovative approach.
Extremism is a matter of utmost urgency in South Kyrgyzstan. In the last few years, over 500 young people from South Kyrgyzstan have traveled to Syria to support IS. Helvetas conducted research about the reasons and correlations, concluding that, apart from widespread poverty and youth unemployment, the fact that there is hardly any communication between adolescents and adults is a particular reason why poor young people are driven to extremism. This generations gap is largely explained by the fact that their society has a pronounced hierarchy. Young people are not allowed to contradict an older person. Communication is limited to older members of society telling the younger members what to do. The youth therefore lacks role models and adults that can support them in an advisory capacity.
Our project addresses this point: on the one hand, we empower young people to present their opinion to adults in a respectful way. Our training courses offer a testbed of people of the same age with various social, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, allowing them to experience inclusion in an environment shaped by diversity. We also train adults in solution-oriented coaching, participation, and the rights of young people. They are trained to support the youth in their community and serve as ambassadors for adolescents in the adult world. Young people and adults also meet up for a few days in a communication camp, where they learn from one another and break down prejudices. In local-level working groups they then organize:
a) collaborative small projects to prevent extremism and
b) exchange platforms in their communities, involving all manner of different stakeholders. The platforms are organized jointly by the local government and our partner organizations.
Through this preparatory training, young people discuss their own identity, their visions for the future, cultural diversity, inclusion, and cooperation and communication. The adults learn how to become more empathic, to listen actively, embody inclusion and participation in real life, and work with adolescents in a solution-oriented way. Together, they spur on change in their community. The working groups maintain and strengthen this cooperation at home, laying the groundwork for the sustainability of these changes.
The psychosocial aspect is key in this work, as all issues that Helvetas covers with young people and adults are directly related to the push-and-pull factors of extremism. We support adolescents to find their way out of isolation, stigmatization, disorientation, and discrimination through this work. They are able to build their self-worth, get a better idea of what they want and are capable of in life, open up to others, and experience acceptance beyond cultural and social boundaries. They also learn how they can actively participate in their own society and can be both heard and valued. Helvetas is convinced that this approach offers young people real prospects.
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