"Stop civil war in Mama Africa!”
Peace Journey Africa (PJA) is established by two young enthusiastic and peace aspiring Ethiopians in 2007 to promote peace throughout the continent of Africa. In 2010, PJA undertook phase one activities “Peace Caravan” with the objective of promoting peace across the continent. The objective of the Peace Caravan was to spread the message of peace and unity in Africa. During the travel, various peace promoting activities were implemented across African countries starting in Ethiopia, through central Africa to southern Africa. Some of the activities carried out were
- Discussion with local communities, elders and religious leaders regarding the importance of peace on a grassroots level and how they can influence the youth in promoting peace for stability and economic development.
- Meeting with heads of state, and ministers working with youth and international non-governmental organization representatives and we discussed issues related to peace, and lessons from their respective policies regarding employment opportunities for youth, and equitable resource distribution. In addition, the discussion included awareness of conflict resolution and what has been done to work on the source of conflict such as resource distribution, corruption and inequality between citizens. Lessons from Rwanda were a positive example for the rest of the continent.
- Peace walk and tree planting are events and contributions to end environmental degradation, and will mark the day. This showed PJA's effort to promote peace for years to come.
Peace Campaign Project description
In addition to the Peace Caravan (phase two) we are currently planning a peace promotion campaign in Ethiopia with special focus on youth. Ethiopia is currently at a stage of political and economical reform and has seen a new election. Looking at our past experiences during this time dynamic movement is expected from our youth. Therefore, we are planning to work with youth especially university students promoting peace and its great input to economic development by sharing the experiences of other exemplary African countries. We will demonstrate to the students the consequence of instability on the country, both socially and economically, through the launching of the documentary film.
The documentary film will be produced compiling film footage taken from the Peace Caravan (phase one)capturing each experience during the travel at different destinations.
Enable the youth to become a positive force in building peace and ultimately contribute to building a nation, and leading it towards economic growth and development.
Enable university students so they can contribute to their country’s reform activities towards democracy building and economic prosperity while promoting peace.
Share our experience from our Peace Caravan (phase one) from other African countries showing how peace contributes towards rebuilding a country’s economy. We will do this through the screening of the documentary film and our photo exhibition.
Development and delivery of interactive training to university students covering topics such as: 1) cultural heritage that help for centuries sustain peace within our communities, 2) creative expression and peace promoting methods, 3) creative ways of using social media to promote peace and building positive images of the country, and 4) how to approach social media influencers to promote peace
The continent of Africa is unique and extraordinary- it is the cradle of modern humanity (homo-sapiens),
Known for the domestication of plants and agriculture, and iron work, the land is filled
with many natural mineral resources. Africa is also the home of 2,000 indigenous languages,
and diverse cultures with a rich historical heritage and civilizations, such as the Axumite, and Egyptian kingdoms.
All show great potential for economic development. Nevertheless, the current development statistics of the continent
do not signify its rich natural resource and glamorous history, and it remains underdeveloped and its people remain poor due to slavery, colonization, geopolitics and long lasting civil wars.
MR HAILEAB
Project Owner and Manager
Promoting peace and unity in Africa.
The Peace Journey in Africa (PJA) team continued its noble task of sharing the message of peace and unity in Africa. It arrived after a long and hard journey from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya on Sunday the 1st of August 2010. Our first meeting was started on Monday 2nd of August with the Kenyan Ministry of Youth and Gender. The Minister of Youth and Gender welcomed the team in her office and she appreciated the work we are intending to do for the few days we were in Kenya as messengers of peace and unity in Africa. The team together with the Ministry of Youth and Gender, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative and youth representatives created an activity to participate and promote peace and unity in Africa among Kenyan youth.
To mention some of the program that was planed
and participated are;
• To join the famous old scout movement that brings the world’s youth together encamped at Roslyn Scout ground in Nairobi, Kenya
• Peace tree planting at Ngong forest (the outskirts of Nairobi) one of the most well-known government protected forests
• A peace walk and tree planting activity at Kiambu, about 50 kilometers away from Nairobi, Kenya
• We also had a chance to visit the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya and had a warm welcome from Deputy Ambassador Mr. Yealbu Legealem and other staff. The Ethiopian embassy was helped us to have safe parking for our peace caravan (Lorry) and they opened their offices for us to write, print and use email
After three to four hours of driving from the Ugandan border with our caravan we reached the source of the White Nile, the town Jinja. As usual, we had to look for accommodations and after few hour searches we find simple and well organize hostel, a backpacker kilometer or so away form downtown Jinja.
We started our journey the next day at 7:00 am and arrived the same day in the evening at 6:00 pm and then slept. On 11 August we arrived at Kampala and started our day to day activity by meeting the long serving and dedicated youth leader in the National Youth Counsel of Uganda Mr. Joseph at the Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala. Our discussion was to come with a working plan and participate in the International World Youth Celebration held in Kenya. The World Youth Day was celebrated in west Uganda in the Kimuli district. It attracted thousands of us, and President Gagothi Yoweri Mosvani attended and gave a speech on the celebration. The Peace Journey Africa team also had the chance to meet the president and light the peace flame given by the African Union (AU).
Peace Journey Africa (PJA) proceeded its first journey with lots of excitement and great expectation for success and reached the city of Kigali, Rwanda, called the City of a Thousand Hills. Though the team arrived in the evening at the Rwandan border we could not proceed to Kigali. There at the border we continued to talk about peace with our African brothers and sisters sharing the importance of peace and the unity of Africa. Our discussion was with the immigration officers and travelers who were crossing the border. Finally, we decided to spend the night over the border camping next to the immigration office at the Rwanda border post. The next day we started our journey towards Kigali. On the way to Kigali we had a fruitful discussion with different people in all our stop overs. In our interactions we discovered that African people are tired of war, conflicts and are ready to integrate Africa as one continent and continue to work on its development.
Immediately, when we reached Kigali we met the chairperson for the Rwanda National Youth Network. We discussed how to implement the designed activities. However, because of the recent elections in Rwanda, most of the government offices were busy on related work with the elections. We still were able to meet the senior officer from Foreign Affairs and discuss our program and the importance of peace and security in Africa.
Our next journey was to Burundi. Our caravan driver really had to do extra work to pass through those hills, sloops, and turns to reach Bujumbura. By the time we reached Bujumbura it was a bit late to look for accommodations and we camped in one of the golf courses in Bujumbura. When we arrived it was the weekend and not many activities going on within the town, so we decided to visit Like Tanganyika. At the lake we met a group of young people coming from different countries for the Bahia Faith Congress. We had a discussion with them about the importance of peace, security, and the unity of Africa and how our young generation has a role for all this to happen in Africa. Finally we decided to light the flame of peace that was given to us by the AU to light in different countries.
As much as traveling with the Peace Caravan can take most of our time and can have inconveniences we decided to follow our program. We always used any opportunity to share our message. On our preparation of leaving Bujumbura to Tanzania early Sunday morning we attracted the beautiful sounds of drums, and went out from our lodge to find out who was playing those drums. We met a group of people who were practicing dance and drums right behind our lodges. We started our conversation with the young vibrant Burundian drummers about our mission and objectives of traveling all over Africa. They warmly accepted the idea and promised to work with us on peace and the unity of Africa. They also presented to us the wonderful African (Burundi) cultural dance, with beautiful drum beats exhibited in our video. Immediately after their presentation we left for Tanzania.
When we approached Tanzania through the Burundi border most of the roads were not tarmac. It was also not easy like other countries to find villages and towns after traveling a few kilometers. In all our journey, when it was night time we camped in different places such as the bush, the roadside, health centers, next to village compounds, lodges, and big hotels as well.
In all our stops we met people and discussed the importance of peace and unity among Africans for development and growth. People welcomed us and participated in our discussion with full interest and attention. On our way we attracted a group of students dressed in college uniforms going to the Teacher’s College in Mpamda, we had a good time with them. Most of the students gave us positive feedback on our presentation at the college and we also lighted the peace flame with them, and we ended our speech and discussion after almost two hours. The same day in the evening we reached the border and presented our documents to the Tanzanian immigration officer and proceeded to Malawi.
The next day at 8:30am we met representatives from: the Karonga District office, the Karonga Youth, the Malawi Ministry of Youth, the Foreign Affairs ministry, the police force, and the AU southern region representatives. This was the organizing committee that was comprised of different groups for the Malawi chapter of Peace Journey Africa. We were welcomed by this team and also young people from the town of Karonga and other civil societies in the “warm hearts of Africa” that is Malawi. In this brief meeting we discussed the activities that we were planning to do in Malawi. After the discussion we started our first activity.
Our first activity began by visiting the town of Karonga where we visited the Karong District Council office, the Karonga National Museum, and the Youth Resource Center. In our visit we learned how the people of Karonga strive to keep their cultural values that they received form their forefathers. We believe that they preserved their cultural values in the face of outside influences that have scrambled the cultural values and norms of African people for many years.
Again with admiration for the hospitality and care that we received from our African brothers and sisters in Malawi we continued our journey and crossed the Muanza border on 31st of August 2010 to Mozambique.
Our activities started in the Mozambique province of Tete. There we met the provincial administration officers who welcomed us. We briefed them on our PJA mission and objectives, and discussed the deliberation of it. We attended the Celebration Day that the Maputo Accord signed in Chimoeo, and we addressed the purpose of our journey to those who attended the celebration.
We started our journey immediately after we finished our visit in Chimoeo to Xai-Xai. We arrived at Xai-Xai after 12 hours of non-stop driving (about 1200 km). We started our activities in the Xai-Xai province by laying flowers at the Eduardo Mondlane memorial with a group of high school students and youth leaders on the provincial level. We then proceeded to the Eduardo Mondlane National Museum located 25 kilometers away from the town of Xai-Xai. The Eduardo Mondlane National Museum is an inspiring showcase to the resistance of Africans to colonialism, and their struggle for freedom. It is one of the historical places that Africans should visit and use to learn to be reminded of the freedom struggle. We should encourage Africans, especially the youth, to visit and understand the struggle for peace and freedom that our forefathers made and also how to appreciate the call and work for unity, and the economic independence and peace of Africa.
The official Ministry of Youth in the Masvingo province waited for us at the border and we proceeded to Masvingo, the first town the colonists chose to settle. The old Queen Victoria town, now Masvingo, is a nice old town that with historical places including the Great Zimbabwe monument. We had a chance to visit Great Zimbabwe showing us the great civilization of African in the 2nd century BCE. The structure was wonderful and can be used as African pride to motivate the current generation to appreciate their ancestors’ creativity, and their contribution to making and governing a civilization towards their continent. It also shows their great effort and contribution for African development.
Apart from visiting these places the PJA team hosted peace walk and tree planting activities in the city of Masvingo. The panel discussion that we had with Great Zimbabwe University medical students was another great experience that shows how African youth are very much interested and curios to bring issues to discuss when it comes to the peace and integration of Africa. For the Peace Journey Africa team the discussion was very interactive and a big part that gives thought to organize another panel discussion with different university students and youth groups to engage them in peace building and related activities. Since Peace Journey Africa started its first phase journey from July 23, 2010 up to now with all the challenges, difficulties, and lack of financial resources managed to fulfill its promises by achieving its goals and objectives effectively and reached South Africa to finalize its first phase with a great expectation and excitement in South Africa.
Though the PJA team was gaining strength and courage day by day to do more in each country the team somehow was disappointed in South Africa and did not make the best in that country. Our expectation and communication of the events that we want to do in South Africa indicated that September 21st is World Peace Day and celebrated in a big manner that attracted so many participants.
We also expected and communicated to have a part to play in that day with other activities that were also planned within that week. However, when we reached there, the situation was not the way we expected. The host group did not clearly know what to do and seemed unaware what was required with all the activities requested in our previous communication.
In all our challenges we tried to rearrange ourselves with the host team and tried to fit their program. We were able to participate in one of the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) awareness activity in one of the slum areas of South Africa, in Alexanderia, and we visited the Freedom Park situated around Pretoria. As one of our tools to disseminate messages across different groups of African citizens we used interpersonal communication, both printing and electronic media, distributing promotional materials and group discussion. To fulfill our goals and objectives, and bring the message of peace, it is important to promote African cultural values, dignity, creativeness, encourage hard work, resist ethnic-conflict and promote unity among Africans. The first phase of the journey helped us put our message to people in nine countries living in rural areas, big towns, and cities. From high level government officials, to local communities, old people, young people, students, businessmen and women, professionals, small-skilled workers, farmers, and youth...and their leaders as well.
Our unforgetable moments
Our great and enrgetic team
PJA Visionar and Leader
JPA project coordinator
owner and manager of PJA
project ,,,,,,
Who we are and what we have achieved to date
• Preparation of materials mainly the documentary film Marh 15, 2010 to May 15, 2020
• Launching May 20, 2020 to July 15, 2020
• Concluding July 30, 2020
Hello please drope your massage here!
