By Bashir Bello, KANO
No fewer than 100 youths have been trained under the Community Initiatives to Promote Peace, CIPP on how to use social media positively to mitigate conflict in Kano State.
The youths were drawn from four high conflict risk communities namely Kofar Mazugal, Gamaja, Tudun Bujuwa and Rijiyan Lemo in Dala and Fagge Local government area respectively and where CIPP is implementing the project in the state.
The Project’s Mass Media and Public Outreach Officer, Priscilla Fiberesima during the one day Media literacy seminar said the essence of the training was to build the skills and capacities of the youths to use the social media platform to promote peace.
According to her, “the training is about building capacity of the youths to resist manipulations through fake news and hate speech on social media by enlightening them on how to verify information received on social media.
Also read: Wasps players take 25% pay cut
“The seminar encompasses how youths can positively use social media for positive purposes. And encouraging the youths to use social media to engage in businesses as opposed to them being idle and vulnerable to be used as tools for violent conflict in their communities.
“CIPP is working in high-risk conflict communities. The project is to empower communities to prevent and respond to violence and violent extremism by strengthening key skills and relationships in communities and harnessing the role of women and youths in peacebuilding.
“And today, we have youths whom we know if left on their own could be used as tools for violence. So this is one of the ways by teaching them how to use the social media space to advocate for peace.
“CIPP is implementing the project in three Northwest states of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and three North Central states of Plateau, Kogi and Benue where they have different forms of conflicts,” Fiberesima stated.
Earlier, the lead consultant, Shamsudeen Sani said a lot of youths wasted their precious time on social media doing all sort of unproductive things hence the need to change the narrative by building their capacity to add value to themselves and the nation’s economy at large.
Other activities carried out by CIPP include women critical discussion groups, mediation training, dialogues, radio program programmes, engagement with political leaders and training of journalists.
The post CIPP trains 100 Kano youths on use of social media to mitigate conflict appeared first on Vanguard News.
This post was originally published on this site
