Our joint event with Youth for Peace BiH on the third of December was a great success! We organised an online panel discussion on the topic of the digitalisation of peacebuilding, in order to spark thoughts and insights about the advantages and limitations of peacebuilding activities in the online sphere. We invited four brilliant peacebuilders from all over the world to share their perspectives:
Ufra Mir – the first and only peace psychologist in Kashmir & South-Asia. Her work focuses on inner peace, wellbeing and mental health – you can follow her work on instagram.
Tahil Sharma – based in Los Angeles, Tahil is an inter-faith and social activist. He works in a variety of different organisations, striving to build a sense of community and push for the ‘uncomfortable’ in dialogue.
Joep Kies – being one of YPI’s programme coordinators, Joep represented our initiative’s perspective, more specifically mentioning the struggles of moving our Young Leadership Experience online.
Emina Frljak – working as an education programme coordinator at Youth for Peace, Emina mentioned the difficulty of adapting to online facilitation, but she is now a fan of this online format despite its limitations!
Some of the main questions that came out of this discussion were:
How can we experience empathy online?
How do we dominate the online space so as to counter extremism and violence?
Should internet access be a human right?
How do we address the issue of access to technology?
What are some favourite online tools for peacebuilding?
How can we create a safe space for vulnerable people online?
To end on a positive note, this virtual panel discussion reminded us of one undeniable positive outcome of the digitalisation of peacebuilding activities: we were able to connect and exchange with people from all around the world, from three different time zones, and feel energised through this insightful discussion! Thank you to all the panelists and live audience members; we are looking forward to our next collaborations with Youth for Peace in the future.
