Increasing Tolerance among Youth of Different Faiths Project - fundsforNGOs

Increasing Tolerance among Youth of Different Faiths project aim to increase religious co-existence among members of community development structures such as Area Development Committees (ADCs) for effective youth participation in community development and promote Human Rights understanding among religious and traditional leaders and their faithful followers and subjects particularly on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

Project Objective(s)

State the overall objective(s) of your project. What do you want to achieve?

To increase religious co-existence among members of community development structures such as Area Development Committees (ADCs) for effective youth participation in community development.
To promote Human Rights understanding among religious and traditional leaders and their faithful followers and subjects particularly on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
To build the capacity of Community Youth Organization on Inter-faith Community Co-existence among Youth and on Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights

Analysis of the Problem(s) or Issue(s)

(Describe the problem(s) or issue(s) the project aims to address. Why is this project necessary? )

In Malawi 65% population are Christians in this case more Muslims are segregated in form of school participation, development work, marriage issues and decision making in the communities. The problem of poor school participation among Muslims young people is increasing because they are being mocked by their fellow young people in schools and this tends to force many Muslim youth to drop out of school. Since they are limited in terms of literacy and numeracy skills, it becomes difficult for them to actively participate in development structures such as Area Development Committees.

The project will be implemented in Traditional Authority Chikowi in the City of Zomba. Chikowi area is predominantly a Yao speaking ethnic group which is largely a Moslem population. However, there is also a significant population of Lomwe and Nyanja ethnic groups whom most of them are Christians. The Leadership of the area has chiefs from these two major faiths, Islam and Christianity. There are times that these two different groups fail to tolerate each other’s faith especially because they are of different ethnic groups too. Young people who are Muslims hardly take an active role in the development of the area and when it comes prioritizing of development issues at community level, some of the needs by the Muslim Youth are not taken into consideration. For instance, important periods for the Muslim youth such as the Ramadan period are not considered a special period by other non-Muslim youth when plans are being laid out for the community and this tends to create conflicts between the two groups where Muslims feel they are not being respected of their religion by other community members.

Social interaction among young people is also affected and there is some animosity between the two religious groups when they interact socially because their parents restrict their children from mixing with children of other religions for fear of being lured into joining the other religions. This creates conflicts in form of name calling, stigma and in extreme cases, discrimination among young people of different religions. It is also a major case when a young Muslim or Christian man tries to marry a woman from another religion. Religious leaders of both religions including parents will say bad things about the other religion discouraging their children from getting married to partners of their choice.

Culture and religion play a major role in derailing development and social interaction among young people in Zomba. This is why the project intends to target religious and culture custodians of the area and have public discussion forums for parents to have a deeper understanding and appreciation about other religions in order to inculcate a culture of tolerance among the community members of Zomba. Training of the religious and cultural leaders, not only in understanding Human Rights but also appreciating why young people should mix, marry and take part in development despite from two different religious groups, will greatly improve community co-existence among the communities in Chikowi, Zomba.

Project Activities:

Describe the activities you will implement to address the stated problem(s)/issue(s) and reach your objective(s). How will these activities help you reach the project objective(s)?

To increase religious co-existence among members of community development structures such as Area Development Committees (ADCs) for effective youth participation in community development.
- Orientation of Area Development Committees and Village Development Committee Leaders in Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as it relates to religious co-existence among people of different faiths and contribution to community and national development. This activity will select young people who are representatives of the development structures to be oriented on how they accommodate other young people’s development needs.
- Conduct Monthly Public Discussion Forums. This activity will bring together parents from different faiths, religious leaders, traditional leaders, and young people themselves to discuss various topical issues and forge a way forward on how to increase peaceful co-existence and tolerance among themselves. Topics will be selected by the young people themselves.
To promote Human Rights understanding among religious and traditional leaders and their faithful followers and subjects particularly on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights
- Training of a total of 30 Youth Leaders from Religious institutions in Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as it relates to religious co-existence among people of different faiths. These youth leaders will be trained in order to progressively teach their fellow youth and children in their respective religions through Bible Classes and Madrassah.
- Conduct Bible Classes and Madrassah in respective religions to young people in order to increase religious understanding and tolerance among young people in Chikowi. This activity will be facilitated by the trained youth leaders.
- Training of 50 young peer educators from different religions on Inter-faith Community Co-existence among Youth and on Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. The peer educators will be responsible for ensuring that they instill and encourage tolerance among young people and conduct community awareness meetings through drama, dances, etc.
Conduct community awareness meetings in Chikowi area by the Peer Educators on religious tolerance and human rights.
- To build the capacity of Community Youth Organization on Inter-faith Community Co-existence among Youth and on Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights
  - Training of 20 members of community organization in Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as it relates to religious co-existence among people of different faiths and contribution to community and national development. This activity will prepare members of the community to be well equipped to train the community structures mentioned above and to effectively coordinate and implement the project.

Target Audience

(Who are you targeting in your activities? How will you select participants? How will you ensure gender balance? What is the total number of youth you are planning to reach/involve? )

The project targets youth leaders as follows: religious, cultural and development structures. The selection process will be through the leaders of the structures mentioned where they will select youth representatives to be trained. The project will follow the traditional protocol of meeting the leaders from different religious group and the chiefs. Gender bias will be avoided by carefully ensuring that participants to the activities are representing both young males and females. The project will reach out to over 3000 in the community.

Sustainability

(How will you ensure sustainability of your project’s results and impact?)

The project design will ensure sustainability because it is targeting already existing structures such as the ADCs, Bible Classes and Madrassah which are there and will always be there. Hence by training youth leaders who teach in the religious classes and those that are part of the development structures ensures that the project will scarcely lose out the trained people. In addition, realizing that there are other groups which need to be addressed to address problems young people face, Tipindule will be developing proposals to other donors like HRCC, CHRR, MLS and some other notable organizations.

Match with UNAoC Priorities

(How does your project contribute to the UNAoC priorities? What is the value added of your project? Why should it receive funding )

XXXXX is youth led organization promoting lives of young people through projects that target development of youth and promoting and protecting their human rights.

XXXXX works with young people from different religious backgrounds and promotes tolerance among the communities where it has its projects.

The project is worth funding because it will bring a very big difference in the way people perceive and treat each other on religious grounds. There has never been an intervention like XXXXX has designed and it is expected that at the end of 6 months, the community in Chikowi will begin to appreciate efforts done through intervention and young people will see the importance of respecting each other religious, social and cultural rights. The project should also be funded because the intervention is mainstreaming religious tolerance in strategic structures which are easy to bring about changes in people’s mindset about religious and cultural co-existence. The other value added to the project is by allowing the community members to come together and openly and freely talk about sensitive areas of religion and culture with informed minds after training them. This will have immense results in terms of inter-religious dialogue.

Outreach to Marginalized Youth

(Will your project reach out to marginalized youth? How?)

The project will intend to reach out the marginalized youth in any form by training of young people as peer educators, training of youth leader, conducting mass awareness meetings, sensitization meetings with religious youth leaders and visiting youth in different religions.

Monitoring & Evaluation of Impact

(What type of monitoring and evaluation methods will you use?)

The project will employ the following methods in its M&E:

Conduct Monthly Monitoring visits to project site in order to measure the following:
- Number of youth reached with human rights and religious tolerance messages
- Number of young people reached through Bible Classes and Madrassah
- Level of religious among young people in the community
- Number of religious conflicts in the project area
Participation in the Public Discussion Forums to gauge the level of understanding and tolerance among the general community
Interviews with religious, traditional and development structure leaders in order to measure youth participation in development and religious participation

Project Partner(s)

(Do you have partners in this project? Who are they? What is their role? Will they receive any funds?)

Currently we are not having partners in this project.

Budget

(What are your main categories of expenditures? What are the total expenses for each category of expenditure?)

The main categories of our expenditures are as follows: Volunteer allowances costs, training of Tipindule youth, Training of peer educators, Training of youth leaders, Mass awareness meetings, transport, telephone costs, refreshments costs, travelling expenses, Venue hire, fuel cost, internet cost, see attached budget.

Executive Summary

The objectives of the project are to increase religious co-existence among members of community development structures such as Area Development Committees (ADCs) for effective youth participation in community development; to promote Human Rights understanding among religious and traditional leaders and their faithful followers and subjects particularly on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and to build the capacity of Community Youth Organization on Inter-faith Community Co-existence among Youth and on Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as reflected in the Malawi Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights by May 2010. The project will be implemented in Traditional Authority Chikowi in the City of Zomba which is predominantly a Yao speaking ethnic group which is also largely a Moslem population. However, there is also a significant population of Lomwe and Nyanja ethnic groups whom most of them are Christians. The Leadership of the area has chiefs from these two major faiths, Islam and Christianity. There are times that these two different groups fail to tolerate each other’s faith, especially because they are of different ethnic groups too. Young people who are Moslems hardly take an active role in the development of the area and when it comes prioritizing of development issues at community level, some of the needs by the Moslem Youth are not taken into consideration. For instance, important periods for the Moslem youth such as the Ramadhan period are not considered a special period by other non-moslem youth when plans are being laid out for the community and this tends to create conflicts between the two groups where Moslems feel they are not being respected of their religion by other community members. To address this problem, the project will train by targeting the following groups: Young leaders of maddrassah and Bible classes, youth peer educators, youth representatives of Area Development Committees and have discussion forums and awareness meetings about Human Rights particularly on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as it relates to religious co-existence among people of different faiths and contribution to community and national development. The project design will ensure sustainability because it is targeting already existing structures such as the ADCs, Bible Classes and Madrassah which are there and will always be there. Hence by training youth leaders who teach in the religious classes and those that are part of the development structures ensures that the project will scarcely lose out the trained people. The project is worth funding because it will bring a very big difference in the way people perceive and treat each other on religious grounds. There has never been an intervention like organization has designed and it is expected that at the end of 6 months, the community in Chikowi will begin to appreciate efforts done through intervention and young people will see the importance of respecting each other religious, social and cultural rights. The project will intend to reach out the marginalized youth in any form by conducting mass awareness meetings, etc. The project will monitor and evaluate its activities through monthly visits and interviews with selected groups to measure progress and impact.