Enabling peace building through dialogue

Dimapur, February 14 (MExN): The Peace Channel conducted various capacity building programmes with children, youth and adults on February 13 at Samaguri village with the aim to promote Peace in the community and teaching them to be peacemakers within their community and surrounding. 

Conducted at St Joseph Church, Samaguri Village, during the programme, resource persons Fr Kokto Kurian and Toviholi Y Yepthomi introduced the initiative of Peace Channel and its objective of bringing everyone together on a common platform to promote peace in the society. The session focused on the importance of dialogue in relationships.

During the session, Fr Kokto stated that relationships have to be reestablished among individuals, groups and communities through peaceful dialogue so that communities can refrain from the use of violence to resolve differences and conflict. He also stresses on the need to build ‘trust and safety’ among the communities which can be achieved through the people’s willingness and openness to accept differences in respecting the diversity of individuals and communities living in the society.

Resource person Toviholi Y Yepthomi presented an insight into the roadmap of dialogue towards peace building and highlighted that the world has journeyed through the different phases starting from ‘cruel stage’ where survival of the fittest was the mantra and killing was the only means of survival, to the stage where we feel sympathy towards others and now at empathetic stage of human history. She said dialogue is the need of the time as it is an essential democratic and inclusive approach to resolve differences. Stating that people often tend to impose their own ideology or beliefs on others and fail to recognise the views of others, she encouraged the participants to live in peace with others in the communities.