Afrodescendent youth preventing violence in Nicaragua

Countries:

Nicaragua

Start project:

2016

The aims to strengthen indigenous and afrosdescendent adolescents' social leadership to prevent violence in Puerto Cabezas, Waspam and Rosita in the Nicaraguan Autonomous Region of Northern Caribbean Coast . ICCO supports this intervention as it has a well-developed approach to empower youths as peace promoters within their communities and with their peers, and it incorporates a cultural relevant approach while putting emphasis in the prevention of gender-based violence.

Background

The project is implemented in Puerto Cabezas, Waspam and Rosita in the Nicaraguan Autonomous Region of Northern Caribbean Coast (RACCS for its acronym in Spanish).

This region presents the highest levels of physical violence in the country (31.6%); and both, North and South Caribbean Coasts rank third and fifth, respectively, among the Nicaraguan departments with the highest levels of violence against women: over 3 in 10 women have been victimized.

The projects main activities include a) Youth capacity building in violence prevention in order to replicate with peers their newly acquired knowledge and coordinate raising awareness initiatives in their communities. These workshops will include the following topics:
1) Youth rights, citizen security, lobbying & advocacy, and gender equality focusing on the new masculinities approach
2)Youth-led violence prevention and awareness raising activities (theatre presentations, radio programs, tv human rights game shows) oriented to promote a peace culture and respect for ethnic identities
3)Violence prevention and awareness raising activities with participation of target youth, including the organization of the World Youth Day Informative fair and coordinating the Mobilization for the International Day of Action against Violence against Women.