Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, a global initiative founded by HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, and the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) will conclude today a workshop in Uganda.
The aim is to equip former child soldiers and young people affected by conflict from across Uganda and South Sudan with skills in leadership, mediation and entrepreneurship.  
EAA has organised the five-day event through its legal advocacy programme, Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC), at the Hope North campus, Kiryandongo, Uganda, a secondary and vocational school where many former child soldiers have found a haven.
The partnership between WPDI and EAA was established in 2016 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Globally acclaimed filmmaker Forest Whitaker, who is Unesco Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate for the UN, is delivering training, along with a range of experts, including leading law professor and PEIC director Dr Maleiha Malik. 
The objective is to train a new generation of leaders and to provide an opportunity for them to share their experiences, knowledge and expertise on human rights, entrepreneurship and the importance of education to others in their local communities. 
Both organisations seek to strengthen the capacity of the participants to act in the service of their communities as mediators, entrepreneurs, human rights advocates and engineers of hope. The aim is to promote education to achieve peace, human rights and sustainable development as key drivers of more peaceful and just societies and more open and inclusive economies.
Malik, Professor of Law, King’s College London and Academic Advisory Director, PEIC, explained that the workshop is the first of many that EAA, through its programme PEIC, is delivering with the WPDI to inspire hope within children who have lived through conflict and terrible hardship. 
“Only by equipping children and young people with the knowledge they need to build a better future for themselves – and for their country – can we start to rebuild and reconstruct communities”.  
Whitaker said: “The young people we are gathering at this training have been active peace leaders for some time now through our Youth Peacemaker Network programme. They have already accomplished a lot for their communities. This week is not just about teaching them things they do not know. It is also a time for us to listen to them, to learn from their stories. As they grow in confidence and experience, I feel that I receive more and more from them.”  
Hope North is where Whitaker started working with young people from conflict-affected communities, upon hearing their stories when he was working on the Last King of Scotland movie.


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