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Building the Builders

Youth entrepreneurs, elders and religious leaders, street youth, and finally school peace clubs — five different rooms, one program building capacity at every age, 2024 to 2026.

Supported by Sweden & USAID Eastern Development Initiative (EDI) Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Not every capacity-building activity in the archive belongs to a single throughline — the four 2024 sessions below reached different audiences for different reasons, sometimes with different funders. What does run continuously is the school peace clubs work, which returns a year later to build on itself. Both are presented here: standalone 2024 context first, then the 2025→2026 school peace clubs progression as the throughline.

I.2024

Where Unemployment Meets Conflict

A panel discussion framed explicitly around the link between youth unemployment and conflict — organized by EDI with the Life & Peace Institute, supported by Sweden.

Three men shaking hands in front of the event banner, certificate handover moment
Wider view of the handshake and banner
Speaker at the podium with banner text on unemployment and conflict visible behind him
II.2024, incl. Dec 7–8 · Dire Dawa

Elders, Religious Leaders, and Students in the Same Room

Two related workshops brought together university students, high schoolers, elders, and religious leaders — a deliberately cross-generational, cross-institutional approach to peacebuilding dialogue.

Facilitator presenting via laptop to a mixed young and older audience
Facilitator beside a hand-written Amharic flipchart agenda and a sticky-note exercise
Wide shot of seated participants at orange-draped tables, December 8
III.2024 · Karamara Hotel, Dire Dawa

Life Skills for Street Youth

A different funder, worth noting: this training for street youth on life skills, communication, and community connection was supported by USAID rather than Sweden — the program's capacity-building work draws on more than one partner.

Group of youth seated in a hotel meeting room with a USAID and EDI banner naming the life-skills training
IV.Nov 7–8, 2025 · East Star Hotel, Dire Dawa

Enhancing Skills and Capacity of School Peace Clubs

Under the same PAR project, a dedicated session began building capacity specifically inside school peace clubs — the first of a two-part arc that continues into 2026.

EDI mission rollup banner and PAR event banner behind a speaker addressing a seated group
Facilitator at a flipchart leading a circular diagram exercise with Amharic annotations
Speaker in the foreground with a partial EDI banner visible behind him
V.Jun 4–5, 2026 · Dire Dawa

One Year On: Capacity Building for School Peace Clubs

Seven months later, the program returned to school peace clubs directly — the clearest youth-in-the-room evidence in the archive: students in uniform standing in dialogue circles alongside adult facilitators.

Students in school uniform and adult facilitators standing together in a dialogue circle
Mixed-age group seated around tables with notebooks, one participant wearing a red scarf
Wide room shot with PAR and EDI banners on the wall, about fifteen to twenty participants

A note on this draft

Chapters I–III are 2024 context (different audiences, in one case a different funder); Chapters IV–V are the one genuine year-over-year progression in this set. Some 2024 file timestamps in this folder set were unreliable copy artifacts — dates shown are the most trustworthy available (folder names / on-banner dates), not always an exact day.

Missing: participant/student names, first-person testimony, and any outcome data. Add before external distribution.

EDI · Draft photo story · Not for external distribution