Young Peace Journalists
“This project means a lot to me … Through this project, my mindset changed. We, as young people, can pursue ideas to bring about peaceful coexistence by getting in contact with people and, especially, by sharing more stories of hope, love and friendship.”
— Innocent, a member of the
Young Peace Journalists from Nigeria
The “Young Peace Journalists” project of Pax Christi International is about interviewing refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants and asylum seekers, and sharing their stories with a wider audience. The project trains and empowers youth to conduct interviews with people who have had to flee their home countries, to listen to the stories of refugees, to get a better understanding of their situation, and to share and promote the interviews online to raise awareness of the plight of people seeking refuge.
The Young Peace Journalists project was launched in 2016 and includes youth and young adults from all over the world, including Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania, and the Middle East. Nearly thirty journalists have been trained and they have cumulatively published over 50 stories on the Pax Christi Peace Stories blog, giving insight into refugees’ lives in Turkey, USA, Belgium, New Zealand, Lebanon, Croatia, the Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, Italy and more. The Young Peace Journalists has interviewed refugees and internally displaced persons from 14 countries including Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Papua New Guniea, and elsewhere. These stories have been republished, re-posted and shared in other formats and across other platforms, reaching thousands of people throughout the world.
Online training sessions have been conducted to educate youth in the tenets of peace journalism, how to conduct interviews, the worldwide context of the refugee crisis, advocacy work, and more.
- To read some of the interviews done by our Young Peace Journalists, click here.
- For a brochure on the Young Peace Journalists project, click here.