“End Racism, Build Peace” was the theme for the celebration of the international peace day 2022. Community Education and Empowerment (COEDEM) as a member organization of the Southwest-Northwest Women Taskforce (SNWOT) was on Cameroon radio and television (CRTV) Bamenda on the 21st of September 2022 to join the rest of the world commemorate Peace.
COEDEM joined the narrative by highlighting the importance of living together in a cohesive community and this could only be done, if we learn to break the barriers we possess that make us different from one another. Is it our skin color, language, place of origin, status, etc? Our socio-political or socio-economic standpoints or levels in the society may be the course for us to discriminate or look down on our fellow human beings bringing about barriers amongst us.
The theme for the international world peace reminded us that, we end racism which to us in our context may mean to End tribalism, End segregation, End favoritism and above all, avoid using hate speech on fellow human beings and let us come together and build peace in our communities.
Antonio Guterres quotes “Peace is a noble and necessary pursuit and the only practical pathway to a better, fairer world for all people. In too many places, in too many contexts, we are failing the cause of peace”.
We should tear down structures that sustain racism and tribalism, hate speech and other social ills to lift up human rights movements everywhere to make the world a better place to live in.
