By Staff Writer
We know that we all have a role to play when it comes to our societies. No matter who you are, how old you are, or what you do, this is a matter that concerns us all. However, the youth who make up over 70 percent of the Ugandan population, have an even bigger role since the future belongs to them.
One of the key things about being happy and being able to make a positive contribution to society is having peace. This enables anyone be young or old to express their full potential and for the youth is helps them to harness their potential for sustaining the peace in their society.
Even when you look at securing a peaceful, just and inclusive society, it will always come back to you. The youth may wonder what it takes. Some may say, it has all be done and it still being done. This is the point where the same question that has always come up shows its face, why is our society still the same or worse becoming the opposite of what we want it to be? The interesting thing about all these questions is that it will always come back to you. What are you doing to achieve peacebuilding in your society?
The truth is nothing will or can change unless you change. You start are the one to start and we will follow. You are the one to lead and we will follow. You are the one to act and we will follow.
You would never be peaceful and face war, you would never be just and meet injustice, when you are peaceful and just, your environment will be inclusive and complete.
The takeout here for Ugandan youth is to be peaceful and just to create an inclusive society for all. The fear and violence will not have to even exist with ladies and gentlemen of peace and justice in Uganda.
Remember the words of Rev. Mukonzo Ezra Yongeza at the ACORD Uganda peacebuilding training in Kasese about the youth position in peacebuilding, he said; “The youth are the wall of every building the iron sheets are the elders who are supported by the youth who are the majority and energetic. The moment the youth are equipped, the world changes. The adults have tried for many years and things are the way they are, the youth need to be supported too.”
We all need to do our part to foster peaceful, just, and inclusive societies in Uganda that are free from fear and violence.
The Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development – Uganda (ACORD-U) is a Ugandan National Non-Governmental Organisation that has worked in Uganda since 1979 with headquarters in Nsambya-Kampala and several other offices across the Country. ACORD-U aspires to contribute towards Uganda’s Development and Humanitarian Responses for Vulnerable Communities in Rural and Peri-Urban Areas. Currently, ACORD-U Implements interventions in more than 23 Districts in the South-western, Western, Northern, West-Nile, and Eastern Parts of Uganda.