Pakistan: Quetta - Lets say YES to Peace and NO to Conflict

Youth leaders of Cyaad came up with an idea to design an action on the GCC theme of the month with the title of LET’S SAY YES TO PEACE AND NO CONFLICT.

The idea behind this action was to show solidarity with the most targeted and vulnerable community of Quetta recently dwelling in Mariabad.

A comprehensive meeting was conducted to plan this activity at Cyaad office keeping in view the current law and order situation of Quetta. The security of the youth participating in this activity was ensured and then the activity was put forward.

This event was held in Murrie Abad one of the most target area in terms of violent incidents, especially on sectarian basis. The youth of this community has been magically isolated from other parts of the region plus the parents are more concerned about interaction of their kids with people who do not belong to their sect. To bridge this gap youth came with this innovative idea to share their feelings of solidarity with community who have been suffering from all these genocide incidents.

More than 80 youth participated in this activity on 17^th January 2012.This group included youth form all ethnic and religious background.

Youth had a solidarity walk heading towards the graveyard of the community to recite fatiha (prayer) where they wrote PEACE MESSAGES in order to let this community know that they are not alone, everyone around strives for peace, furthermore, to pay gratitude to the martyrs. These messages of solidarity were tied to a tree with colorful ribbons, identified near the graves of the martyrs to enable people read them for a long time even after youth leave the place.

Then the youth were guided towards the Amozgah center located in Mariabad (the point they started their walk).where youth leaders were aware on conflict analysis ,its importance and ways  to explore the potential connectors and dividers of conflict in the most affected area and how we can contribute our efforts to address it ,launching small scale local actions.

 Minister for Quality Education, other stakeholders of the community and the parents of the youth were bacalso invited to this activity. They not only highly appreciated this activity but also showed interest in attending such activities in other targeted communities as well to promote peace and address conflict. The community was very glad to see such an action, they were hopeful that these kinds of activities will bring positive changes in the region especially in ethnic and sectarian unrest.