UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize laureate leads 2023 Fraternity Walk in Cameroon

Nowadays, not a day passes without instances of man's inhumanity to man. We live in an era where religion and different ideas have triggered unnecessary conflicts; conflicts which should have been avoided if we but understood 'the oneness of our humanity' and just learned how to dialogue and understand our fellow men.

Franca Ma-ih Sulem Yong2022 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize laureate for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence

A former journalist in Cameroon, 32-year-old Franca Ma-ih Sulem Yong refocused her career on community development and activism. With a background in art therapy and psychology, she founded the Afrogiveness Movement in 2018, while Cameroon was grappling with interfaith and intercultural conflicts that disrupted the lives of 4.3 million people. Her main goal was to enable survivors of conflict and intolerance to heal through forgiveness and the language of the arts.

Later, Sulem Yong established the Afrogiveness Centre, a psycho-social center which enables refugees and opposite camps of survivors of interfaith and intercultural conflicts to heal, connect and uplift each other. They learn the value of tolerance and that peace is necessary for everyone, regardless of their background.

In 2022, Franca Ma-ih Sulem Yong organized the annual Fraternity Walk in the context of the UN World Interfaith Harmony Week. This year's edition focused on enabling young people to understand the importance of peaceful co-existence. The laureate used part of the prize money she was awarded in the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize to organize a more impactful event, benefitting from a partnership with the Positive Youth Initiative and the African Initiative for Health and Research Promotion. The National Commission for UNESCO in Cameroon supplied patronage for the event.

During the Fraternity Walk, over 1,000 refugees and survivors of interfaith and intercultural conflicts joined forces with host-community youths and policy stakeholders to raise public awareness about human fraternity while walking, singing, and holding placards with messages of peace, love, living together, tolerance and forgiveness.

The Fraternity Race Competition was introduced to foster social cohesion while promoting sport values such as tolerance, empathy and teamwork.

© UNESCO

I am glad I took part in this walk. It has helped me to make new friends, mostly Christians, and we now understand that we are one people.

Young Muslim participantAttendee at the Fraternity Walk

Funds raised from the sales of tickets for the Fraternity Walk were used to empower survivors.

The 2023 edition was crowned by a joint community outreach project to donate food supplies and basic needs to refugee families whose lives have been disrupted by interfaith and intercultural conflicts.

© UNESCO

See also