Daily Times

LAHORE: Aimed at promoting peace among the youth, The Youth Affairs Department of the Punjab government has launched the second phase of its Punjab Youth Peace Corps (PYPC) project.

This was announced during a joint press conference of the Youth Affairs Department and Bargad, an organisation for youth development, at the Lahore Press Club on Tuesday.

Youth Affairs Department Deputy Secretary Tehmina Habib and Bargad Executive Director Sabiha Shaheen participated in the press conference. The organisation is the implementation partner of Punjab Youth Affairs Department in the project.

Shabiha Shaheen said that a showcasing event of the phase-II of the PYPC project will be held tomorrow (Thursday) in which achievements made during the phase-1 would be highlighted, and the phase 2 will be officially inaugurated.

The Youth Affairs Department started the PYPC project last year, which was aimed at peace building and propagation and implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) among the youth.

The pilot phase of the project built capacity of a cadre of 600 youth on peace building and the National Action Plan (NAP) in 30 union councils (UCs) of two districts of Punjab – Lahore and Multan.

The activity made youth aware of government endeavours for peace-building, especially the NAP, which is the first document of its kind whereby all political parties of Pakistan have consented for its development.

It also made youth an active part of the peace-building process, and prepared them as peace champions, who in turn organised 60 social action projects in their respective communities and spread the messages of peace at the community level.

They organised social actions in the form of peace walks, peace signature campaigns, wall paintings, seminars, discussions, speech competitions, peace video screenings, etc along with distribution of peace information material on streets of the selected 30 UCs.

Elected chairmen and councillors, educational institutions, academies and other local dignitaries of the UCs were also involved in the process.

Now, the initiative is being extended and will reach out to a planned number of 600 more participants, including 15 new UCs from the Lahore district. A showcasing event will also be held where participants from the pilot phase will get a chance to showcase their social actions. The trained participants will then go into their respective communities to hold social actions.

Tehmina Habib, who also serves as the focal person of the department, said that the participants from phase-I were linked with the department’s activities, and added that they had been very active ever since their trainings.

In his message, Youth Affairs Secretary Nayyar Iqbal congratulated Bargad on successful completion of phase-I, and extended full support from the department in implementing the second phase.

“It is important that the youth is being engaged in peace-building process, as 60 percent of our population is under 30 years of age and they will be the leaders of tomorrow,” he said.