From Participant to Peace Actor: Safia’s Role in Calming Community Tensions in Somalia
From Participant to Peace Actor: Safia’s Role in Calming Community Tensions in Somalia
From Participant to Peace Actor:
Safia’s Role in Calming Community Tensions
Location
Somalia
Focus
Mediation
IMplemented by
Elman Peace Center (EPC)
In Somalia, a GCERF-supported locally-led initiative equipped women and youth with dialogue, mediation, and conflict de-escalation skills to strengthen their role in local peacebuilding. Through coaching and practice, participants gained confidence to address tensions constructively and contribute to more resilient, peaceful communities.
Safia (pseudonym), a young woman participant who joined the “Dialogue, Mediation and Facilitation Coaching Session” on 8 January 2026, later described how the activity changed the way she approached tensions within her neighbourhood.
Before the session, she explained that disputes in her area often moved too quickly into anger, blame, and hardened positions, while young women had limited space to influence how such tensions were handled.
Through the coaching, she gained practical skills in listening, de-escalation, and structured dialogue, and she began using these approaches informally in her everyday community interactions.
In one instance, she helped redirect a tense disagreement between two households by encouraging the parties to listen to each other and focus on the source of the misunderstanding rather than repeating accusations.
Reflecting on the experience, she explained that the training had given her not only new techniques, but also the confidence to step forward more actively as part of the solution.
Before, I thought mediation belonged only to elders, but now I understand that even as a young woman I can help people talk calmly and prevent problems from getting worse.”
— Safia, Activity Participant
By applying these skills in real situations, Safia gradually became known not just as a participant, but as someone capable of easing tension and helping her community respond more constructively.
Her experience reflects one of the programme’s central lessons: when women and youth are trusted with relevant skills and meaningful roles, they can become effective agents of local peacebuilding.
It also shows that change under this programme goes beyond what participants learn in a session — it’s about how they carry that learning into their daily lives and relationships, and how their sense of responsibility within the community grows as a result.