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This text was written by Noha Yasser, Intern at RWI.
” Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman receive the Right Livelihood Award “for promoting peace, demilitarisation and human rights in Somalia in the face of terrorism and gender-based violence.”
For the past 25 years, Somalia has been in a state of war. Many years of conflicts, famine and drought have led to violence and exploitation in the country. Many young Somalis became child soldiers, and faced a lot of violent sexual exploitation and torture. It is in this grim moment that a mother and her daughter Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman fight for human rights and mobilising their community.
Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman are Somali human rights advocates who initiated a community-based peacebuilding organization “Elman Peace” to offer humanitarian support to the marginalised groups in Somalia. Fartuun and Ilwad have used advanced and socially relevant resolutions to support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, disarm and assimilate child soldiers, and supply women and youth with opportunities such as jobs and management skills.
Elman Peace’s community-based demobilisation and rehabilitation approach tackles the main origins that leads to radicalism, and in doing so, offers opportunities for those who are at risk such as child soldiers and sexual and gender-based violence survivors. The organization focuses on offering psychosocial support, reintegration, education, vocational training, and job opportunities. As a result, Elman Peace is now used as a successful model to tackle similar issues in Western and Central Africa.
Elman and Adan main goal is to keep the organization operating with the same goals so that it lasts for the upcoming generations. With the idea to increase knowledge, rather than expanding the organization I different part of the world, they established the network Peace by Africa, which has developed to more than 50 peacebuilding associations. Together with Peace by Africa, Elman Peace is inspiring the marginalised groups to participate in the peace processes that ensure their life as well as the next generation’s wellbeing.
Image: Imagebank Right Livelihood