UNOY Global Network Members

ADECOP (Action des jeunes pour le Développement Communautaire et la Paix - Youth’s Action for Community Development and Peace) is a nongovernmental, apolitical and non-profit youth-led organization created in Goma (Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 2002. The initiative to create ADECOP came from a group of young internal displaced persons (IDPs) lead by Guelord Mbaenda, a young artist interested in peace, human rights, democracy and development issues. There are 117 youth active in the organisation and there is a Youth-led initiatives (YLI) network of about 700 members throughout the Democratic Republik of Congo. The activities reach about 10.000-15.000 youth each year.

ADECOP aims at bring together young people from all origins and backgrounds in order to empower them to play a role in fighting intolerance in all its forms - and particularly that in ethnic matter -, human rights abuses and the pangs of the governance crisis. At this purpose, actions of mass education to peace, research and analysis on inteculturality, advocacy and networking are undertaken in order to contribute in redrawing the relationship between ethnic communities in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo so as to create conditions which are favourable to a peaceful cohabitation between the Africa Great Lakes countries. Through alerts on the risks of community bursting, peace building and conflict transformation training courses for young people affected by the ethnic conflicts, dissemination of educational materials, creative arts and cultural exchanges activities as well as visits of mediation, ADECOP seeks to mobilize more young people around its vision of an united Africa Great Lakes Region. It arrives thus, each year, to reach through its various activities between 10.000 and 15.000 young people.

Biggest success

The greatest success of ADECOP is without any doubt the “Club BARAZA for cross-cultural exchanges” set up in 2004 with a support from the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, Radio Okapi/ Fondation Hirondelle and the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Club BARAZA came to meet a real need of exchange and constructive confrontation felt by young people from various ethnic groups in conflict. As a place for meeting of this “disabled” youth, Club BARAZA is the framework for debates, open-discussion forums, cultural and artistic activities, workshops and solidarity initiatives aiming at showing that “diversity causes richness; it cannot be taken as a factor of conflict”. Last Saturday of each month thus became “le rendez-vous du donner et du recevoir” (the appointment of giving and receiving), the occasion to learn a little more from each other while giving oneself. Young students, professional and other from disadvantaged communities often attend the Baraza (Council) where they work out ways to implement joint capacity building and advocacy actions for a positive change in the way communities live together.