Felix Obwar, Delphine Umutoni, Teresia Morfaw and two friends from Kenya

The International Youth and Crime Prevention Summit, held in Durban, South Africa in June, 2008 and sponsored by UN-Habitat and the Government of Kwa-Zulu Natal, brought together representatives from governments, international institutions, universities, civil society and youth groups to share their work and discuss the pressing issues of youth and crime that impact the safety and harmony of cities.  The Huairou Commission, invited as a partner to the UN-Habitat Safer Cities Program, was represented by Sarah Silliman, coordinator of the Huairou Commission Governance Campaign, and four youth leaders from member organizations of the Huairou Commission.   

• Winnie Nankya, an intern with UCOBAC, Uganda
• Teresia Morfaw, a student working with Ntankah Village Women Common Initiative Group, Cameroon
• Felix Obwar, a youth working with GROOTS Kenya and
• Delphine Umutoni who works with the Rwandan National Youth Council and the Rwanda Women’s Network

Key Conference Themes: Art and Hip Hop, Engagement with Law Enforcement, and the Role of Local Authorities

The Summit brought together a number of experienced practitioners – from youth working on crime prevention in their schools to scholars who had been working on the topic for decades – yet there were a few key strategies that stood out for the Huairou Commission delegation. 

Mohamed Yunus Rafiq, a well-known hip hop artist from Tanzania who founded the organization Aang Serian, spoke in the plenary session on the first day about the importance of respecting and recognizing indigenous solutions to crime and youth.  He spoke of a common issue of non-governmental organizations and other institutions that frequently come into communities with new projects and programs without taking into account the solutions that already exist in the community or cultivating collaborations between communities and other stakeholders.  You can visit the link below to the Baobab Connections web site to see a full interview from Mohamed. http://www.baobabconnections.org/competition/live/10/?PHPSESSID=11392bd200bc1287117e98965379c0c7

There were many strong voices at the Summit that spoke from the perspective of law enforcement such as police officers in Paupa New Guinea who actively engage with the community to resolve issues that are at the root of crime such as poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.  Some of the strategies they highlighted were to publish the positive stories that were happening in their communities, a ‘jobs for guns’ exchange that resulted in the recovery of hundreds of arms from the streets, and a tee shirt campaign where people would take pictures of themselves with the tee shirts and tell their stories – uniting communities and ensuring that everyone knew they were not alone in the struggle against violence.

“The work done by the youth in stopping crime was highly inspiring work that had to be put to mention. Particularly there was this narration of work done in Nigeria by a 13 year old boy on how he and his colleagues manage to fight and eliminate crime in their school. He mentioned that they work closely with the police to see to it that no crime is committed by anyone in the school and their surrounding. This inspired me in a way that this boy was just a child and he had done so much. It put me to shame and inspired me to do more.” - Excerpt of a summary report from Winnie Nankya (download a full version of her report HERE)

Youth and sports was another theme that was frequently discussed at the Summit and one that resonated with the Huairou youth representatives.  Theresia Morfaw shared her impressions of what she heard at the Summit and how she thought these ideas could be applied at home. 

“I got a lot of inspiration from what they said about sport especially the UN Secretary general BAN KI MOON who gave an example about the benefit South African youth will gain from the 2010 World Cup before, during and after.  By discussing with some youth I learned that their governments invest so much in sport but that is not the case in our country [Cameroon] though most of the youth in our community love sport especially Foot Ball, Hand Ball and Basket ball. We never thought of sport as a tool to reduce crime rate in our community, although we have a small field, which is made of ground and stones where we carry out these games on Sundays.  We intern to make sport more serious because some of the youth in our community are interested in making our community a better place.  We plant carpet grass on this small field to make it more comfortable.  We are convinced that if we start something in our small field I think it will provide job opportunities to youth, like in the construction and maybe selling jerseys, boots, water and towels for the players.  I'm also happy that the international community is paying attention to youth who have often been neglected.”

There were also a number of examples of the participation and initiatives of local authorities demonstrated at the Summit.  Nicholas You, Strategic Advisor to UN-Habitat, offered an example of local government and youth collaboration that brought the community together and reduced crime.  The local government of Santo Andre, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerias, nominated a youth representative to their municipal council (who must be under 24 years of age) and implemented a graffiti competition between the various communities in the municipality.  A team of judges was compiled and the top five groups were commissioned to paint significant areas in the community.  Now, when you go to the football stadium of Santo Andre, you see many examples of great graffiti art works, “You don’t go to the art museum in Santo Andre to see great community art, you go to the football stadium.” 

Feedback from Participants: What was inspiring and what was missing

The Huairou Commission delegation met at the end of the week to discuss our impressions and think about how we could apply what we heard and learned over the week to our work at home and our future work together.  There were many ideas that the youth participants heard that sparked their interest as well as many things that they felt were missing from the dialogue. 

For some, such as Felix Obwar, the conference focused a lot on older youth and didn’t talk so much about the younger ones, who he felt should be first priority.  “For me, I think that yes, there is something I can do for the youth – but tomorrow’s youth – they are the ones that need to be focused on, those from 10-12 years, these are the ones that are vulnerable, who are transporting guns and drugs [for the older youth].”
However, for other participants, such as Winnie Nankya, the context of ones own country mattered.  In Uganda, she felt that there were many programs and civil society organizations that focused on children up to age ten and women’s groups, so a gap exists where youth from their teenage years to early twenties that isn’t being addressed.  For Winnie, she saw a lot of potential in creating forums that would bring these youth together through arts, hip hop, and sports for positive change. 

The realities of what youth face in today’s world were very real in our conversations.  For youth such as Teresia, who is a student and who pays her school fees through making handicrafts, children’s clothing and other products, bringing other youth on board is a challenge.  Many don’t want to work for small amounts of money and are lured to scams through the internet and drop out of school.  Through the discussions, many felt that if youth were exposed to more alternatives life styles and role models they would be inspired to broaden their lives.  Unfortunately many youth living in informal settlements and facing crime and poverty in their communities don’t see examples other than those in their daily lives which may be peers who sell drugs, have expensive cars and phones, and may be pregnant at an early age.  Instead it’s important for youth to know people who have struggled, come from modest means, and have now made a success of their lives. 

Nearly all of the youth participants were dealing with some difficult circumstances.  Delphine Umutoni of the National Youth Council of Rwanda explained that one of their main challenges is the fact that due to the genocide, many youth have lost their parents and have missed a significant period of school, so returning is difficult as they are old and don’t have a lot of support.  For Delphine, a ‘One Stop’ youth center is a project they are working on to provide resources and information for youth on a broad range of topics and issues.  In addition, Delphine’s group is also working to engage the community through community justice forums, which have been put in place after the genocide for communities to share ideas and experiences to contradict separation and continued hatred. 

While the issue of HIV/AIDS was not frequently discussed during the Summit, it came up often in our conversation.  For the youth participants, it was directly linked to poverty, prostitution and rape.  We heard stories of women being taken advantage of working as house help, increasing drop-out rates in Universities, and infrequent punishment and prosecution for perpetrators.  However, they also had solutions to such insecurities which included community lawyers (Ntankah Village Women Common Initiative Group has employed a lawyer that women can utilize to address such issues in court). 

Follow-Up and Next Steps
 
Despite the challenges and gaps, many of the participants were very impressed with the scale and impact young people had been able to achieve.  It even made some of them feel that they hadn’t done enough and needed to go home and get to work!

Teresia Morfaw recently wrote to say that, “I have already had a meeting with our group members and we have all decided what we are going to do as far as sports are concerned. For now the Ntankah Village Women will provide carpet grass and we will plant them ourselves. [We want to do this] because we want to really change our lives especially those who have gone astray.  We now have two new members. I tried bringing others to join us but they mocked and said I will never progress because I do not want to open my eyes that I’m stupid and interested only in doing petty jobs.  But I still survive and [I know] most youths are glad to be engaged in this sports stuff but I know very few are willing to work.  The few of us will try to make the field more comfortable than the way it was because some other boys have promised to make chairs out of bamboo for the spectators who usually stand and for tired players and reserves.”

Winnie Nankya also was interested in using sports to engage youth and plans to work with UCOBAC to put focus on youth especially those in war-ravaged areas which are many in Uganda like the North. In addition she wants to use art to prevent crime. 

“UCOBAC has already been working on a program of using music, art and drama as a means of youth development in some of the remote areas on a small scale. From the experiences shared by other countries [at the Summit], we are planning on using art and music, in particular Hip hop, as a way of preventing crime among the youth. Hip hop music brings the young people together and it is the only way the youth of today know of how to express their grievances and demanding issues in Uganda. These however have not been recognized due to lack of awareness and of course as a result of the negative attitude people associate hip hop music to of drugs. We intend to change this and instead use the music as a way of talent development and a means of passing on a message to youth to stay out of crime.” 

“There is also a plan to use the media as the defense of the youth. In this project we intend to have interviews and talk shows through the media with different youth coming up to share their experiences and hardships they face and asking the public to come into participatory contributions in finding solutions in helping such young criminal offenders.” 
             
In conclusion, it was clear from our experience that there are many serious issues that youth and the community as a whole face when in comes to trying to create safe cities that provide opportunities and hope for all.  The good news is that there are many innovative lessons that can be shared and learned from which inspired our youth participants.  We look forward to continuing to provide information about what each of these young people are doing, as well as the work of the Huairou Commission overall in supporting youth within the networks to develop programs and initiatives that truly make an impact on their communities.

Following is a report by Nankya Winnie, with her reflections from the conference.

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CRIME AND PREVENTION SUMMIT, DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, 17-21 JUNE, 2008

The youth and cities summit was one that represented a very significant step for young people and how they are perceived around the world. It portrayed some of the changes in the way young people see themselves and their role, some of the significant achievements of young people as actors and participants in urban life and aimed to shift the way the world thinks about them-as children and young people who are actively participating in creating a better world, rather than as a problem generation.

These objectives and works were based on some of the catch phrases that were frequently referred to in the course of the summit. “It is all of us, not just the young people – even the adults. All of us were once young.” A message from Mohammed Yunis –Hip Hop youth crime co-ordinator – Tanzania. Gavin Sheppard from Toronto Canada argued that we live in the age where two qualities are in high demand - Courage and Humility. Youth need to have the courage to stand by their conviction, to succeed and to fail, courage to speak truth to power and to have the humility that we can do a lot better and that the best ideas might not come from ourselves but others.

Why do we do the work we do?
It is a legacy of the work that was started before us. This is the beginning of an era where we can continue of the works of our fore fathers and mothers. The summit was attended by various countries with the delegates each sharing their experiences in regard to crime in their cities, how they have helped deal with it in their various organizations and the works they have done.

Different criminal experiences in the countries.
Abuse of drugs and alcohol was a crime that cut across all countries but mostly common in South Africa in the Brazil Columbia and France among the youth national football players; Homicides theft especially pick pocketing, scamming among countries of Nigeria, Kenya and Cameroon, rape and assault against girls, women.
Important to note is that in all countries, people want their children to grow up in safe and pleasant surroundings to have good health and education and access to jobs and sufficient income. This however is not possible especially in fast growing cities where the young are vulnerable to being exploited and victimized, more prone to committing offences to be trafficked, abducted as child soldiers, and killed by guns, HIV/AIDS or drugs. There has therefore been a tendency to see young people as a problem and not as constructive citizens.

What was interesting about the meeting?
The youth and cities summit successfully managed to globally unite youth from different spheres of life and backgrounds all in one room for a similar cause. This in effect triggered off a lot of interaction and sharing of experiences. I personally got to learn about what goes on with the youth in other countries and this brought with it a glimpse into learning simple basics of other languages.
Another area of interest was the shame the youth placed on all those with a negative perception about them thinking of them as a problem generation. During the summit, the contrary was portrayed as the works carried on by the youth in their different countries and organizations were highly inspiring and motivating works all aimed at youth development and achievement of the millennium development goals.
              Also of interest were the different entertaining events that were put in store. The Dolphin show was one such event, Tribute to Lucky Dube, Hip Hop shows and the sumptuous diners that equally had lots of entertainment.

What inspired me mostly...;
        The work done by the youth in stopping crime was highly inspiring work that had to be put to mention. Particularly there was this narration of work done in Nigeria by a 13 year old boy on how he and his colleagues manage to fight and eliminate crime in their school. He mentioned that they work closely with the police to see to it that no crime is committed by anyone in the school and their surrounding. This inspired me in a way that this boy was just a child and he had done so much. It put me to shame and inspired me to do more.
Shammir Adams – Baobab co-ordinator and representative South Africa in his speech and while commending the youth for all the work done in youth development and crime prevention he stated that, “In a dark room when you are wondering if you should stop – please don’t stop. Do not give up...continue doing the work that you do. It’s all of us, not just the young people even the adults. All of us were once young. We need to make change.” Others had a vision that they are working to a day when it will be the youth sitting on table  and making decisions that guide the country while the adults listened and took it all in. All these paused a challenge on every person in the summit I believe to do a lot more than what was being done. It was this I took back home and intend to carry on.

Relationship between the work heard in summit and my experience
After a discussion of all the works done by the different organization in their respective countries there was a similarity with some of the works I do in my country  like the use of peer group counseling to offer a green light to ex – youth crime offenders, counseling university rape victims and giving grants to school drop outs. But all in all this is very little effort and works done to help the youth compared to what others have done. The use of sports art, music and culture the cop-watch project, was all highly motivating work that I too would love to carry on and then and only then will I clearly relate my experience with theirs.

The way forward.
With the guidance of the experiences shared by other organization in their country the youth group working under UCOBAC intends to put focus on sporting activities for the youth especially those in war-ravaged areas which are many in Uganda like the North. Such youth only know how to play with guns are characterized with high rates of violence and indiscipline. Sports create a sense of belonging and acts as a unifying factor and thus where enmity existed, friendship, love and togetherness is created. This project has been successful in New Guinea under the Yumi Lukautim Musbi organization and in Brazil.
UCOBAC has already been working on a programme of using Music and Art and Drama as a means of youth development in some of the remote areas but this has been on a small scale. From the experiences shared by other countries, we are planning on using Art and music in particular Hip hop music as a way of preventing crime among the youth. Hip Hop music brings the young people together and it is the only way the youth of today know of how to express their grievances and demanding issues in Uganda. These however have not been recognized due to lack of awareness and of course as a result of the negative attitude people associate hip hop music to of drugs. We intend to change this and instead use the music as a way of talent development and a means of passing on a message to youth to stay out of crime.
There is also a plan to use the media as the defense of the youth. In this project we intend to have interviews and talk shows through the media with different youth coming up to share their experiences and hardships they face and asking the public to come into participatory contributions in finding solutions in helping such young criminal offenders.
              Conclusively, with all that went on at the summit and the inspiring works done I intend to put the youth in Uganda closely at heart, determined to instill change in every one of them and carrying on and building on the works of others picked from the summit. I thank the HUAIROU COMMISSION and UN-HABITAT for granting me the opportunity to take part in the Youth Summit to share my experience for it indeed had a lot to offer if which not carried on and used to help a lot more other people to help them develop would be greatly unfair.                                                                                       
                         Uganda Community Based Association for Child Welfare (UCOBAC)                                                       Nankya Winnie, Intern