iCreativeWorks model was designed as a soft option to Preventing Violent Extremism among young people in Uganda's vast refugees settlement which has become vulnerable to the threats of radicalization ideals.
Uganda is currently facing this threat of violent extremism and there are still fresh memories from some of the most gruesome acts of extremism, that include murders, kidnap, car jackings, Violent extremism in this region. The country has witnessed different acts and types of violent extremism that have caused loss of lives,displacement of people, destruction of property and infrastructure, physical and psycho-social trauma and generally caused family, religious, cultural/ethnic in Uganda and the region as a whole.
Violent extremists continue to sow seeds of division between communities, giving rise to increasingly reactionary and extremist views in our society. The young people in the refugees’ settlement have become vulnerable to this threats because of their dire situation making them become breeding targets for violent extremism, thereby perpetuating a vicious circle of radicalization to violence, aggression and violent responses. This is evidenced by the November, 2019 clash between Refugees and hosting communities in Djaipi Sub-county where loss of lives and property were registered.
iCreativeWorks designed a youth led approach where young people are trained as change agents to become iCreative fellows who then proceed to provide peer to peer education and mentoring support to idle youth to immune them against the threats of radicalization. The model makes young people to develop creative scripts which they use to produce film reality shows that depicts messages on violent extremism, its impact on their safety, livelihood and social cohesion.The young people themselves are the casts in the film reality shows and the films are shown to an engaged groups youth which triggers discussion and action points for each individual youth.In December 2019, a prototype of iCreativeWorks approach was tested in Bidibidi Zone 4 Annex refugees’ settlement in Yumbe District of Uganda to validate the innovation designs/model.
Community Empowerment For Rural Development (CEFORD) now intends to deploy iCreativeWorks model as a youth friendly approach of managing the risk of young people in the refugees and hosting communities from entering and re-entering violent extremist groups, and of exploring methods them to disengage from violent extremism voluntarily and then re-integrating them back into society.
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