The Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Catholic Diocese of Pankshin in Plateau, has trained 172 residents on some alternative techniques against violence in communities.
Rev. Fr. Basil Kassam, the Coordinator of JDPC in the Diocese, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos.
According to him, the training, which was implemented under its Alternative to Violence Project (AVP) had participants from Mangu, Kanam, Kanke, Bokkos and Pankshin Local Government Areas of the state.
He explained that the exercise had created deeper and wider awareness on peaceful coexistence and the need for communities to eschew violence.
He added that the beneficiaries consisted of 106 males and 66 females.
”The beneficiaries of this training further engaged other community members in a step down training on conflict mitigations, peace awareness, effect of drug and substance abuse, rape, domestic violence, among others.
”This has helped in establishing peaceful coexistence, mitigation of conflicts, reduction in gender stereotype and reduction in the consumption of illicit drugs among other vices,” he said.
The coordinator added that the commission also established additional peace clubs in secondary schools and revamped weak ones in the five local government areas of the state.
He explained that the idea for establishing peace clubs in schools was to inculcate peace education in young ones and equip them with the culture of peace.
Kassam added that the commission under its Promoting Micro Enterprise (PROMIC) project, had supported some vulnerable women with soft loans to their petty trading in order to make them economically viable. He also said that in the period under review, the commission had provided succour in terms of finacial support and distributed foodstuff and other items to 65 elderly persons in the diocese.