From 2018 to 2022, the Centre for Peace and Justice at BRAC University (CPJ) implemented a flagship programme of UN Women, “Empowering Women in Peaceful Communities”, under which it established Peace Cafés at five universities across Bangladesh. Peace Cafés were created to enable students to gain a better understanding of peace, social cohesion, diversity, plurality, inclusivity, and tolerance among other issues and develop soft skills like leadership, digital literacy, and social entrepreneurship.
Recognizing the significance of such an initiative in Bangladesh, as well as the massive impact that the Peace Cafés had on the youth in Dhaka, Mymensingh, and Rangpur, they decided to expand the initiative even after the project ended. Now, another Peace Café has been established at Asian University for Women, Chattogram.
Raunak Jahan Moushi, a young girl from a stereotypical patriarchal family in Rangpur, was studying geography and environmental science at Begum Rokeya University Rangpur (BRUR) when she first got involved with the Peace Café. She believes that the experience of working with Peace Café enabled her to view society from a different lens.
Rahat Ara Risti, a student at the same institution as Moushi, began volunteering with the Peace Café just a few days after it was launched on their campus. She joined the café because she was frustrated with how little scope of decision-making women had in Rangpur at the time in every sphere of life. She wanted to contribute to empowering women in her community through the Peace Café.
Risti says, “The Peace Café helped me, my team, and my friends around me to be confident and actively take part in planning and implementing activities that enabled us to financially empower women in Rangpur. Our initiatives helped them gain greater recognition and acceptance as decision-makers within their families.”
CPJ has also been providing entrepreneurship training through Peace Cafés to university students. These training sessions have allowed several young women to think positively, take initiatives to start their own businesses, and gain better leadership qualities.
Risti believes that the training she has received from Peace Café has helped her a lot to polish many of her interpersonal skills, and this has made more confident, interactive, empathetic, and empowered.
She adds, “Through the Peace Cafés, CPJ has helped many female students, including me, to recognise their full potential. I personally feel very proud to be a part of this initiative.
I firmly believe this model must be replicated in other universities across Bangladesh. It is an opportunity for any educational institution to create its relevance for the community around it.”
Mahmuda Sultana Shorna, a student of English literature at Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University (JKKNIU) in Mymensingh who had received similar training, said, “I have always been an introvert. I never thought I could organize and lead any event, and here I am today, having organized and being part of over hundred awareness-raising events both online and offline for promoting peace, social cohesion, diversity, plurality, inclusivity, tolerance and non-discrimination on behalf of our Peace Café. I was elected as its president in 2020”.
Shorna says that she has significantly improved her speaking, organisational and leadership qualities through engaging in various activities undertaken by Peace Café. She now feels much more confident in her abilities and hopes to play a more active role in promoting peace and social cohesion.
She adds, “I often used to criticise the odd, violent and unjust mishaps around me, but could not do anything about it. Now, I can introduce myself to others not only as a dreamer, but also as a doer. However, it is only the beginning and I am confident that together with other Peace Café members we will be able to achieve much more in creating a gender-equal peaceful world in the near future.”
Through the Peace Café initiative, CPJ has trained over 1000 students and successfully engaged over 10,000 stakeholders in the form of students, faculty members, university authorities, national and local media, and community members by conducting various events and activities. They have also implemented 18 student-led community welfare initiatives.
Since the beginning of 2020, the Peace Café members have taken numerous initiatives to raise awareness in their communities about COVID-19 and relevant safety protocols.
It is well documented that this pandemic has adversely impacted the lives of many, especially underprivileged women. Apart from the distribution of masks, soap, food, and other essential items in underprivileged communities, Peace Café volunteers conducted many awareness campaigns and trained hundreds of women from these communities. The recipients of the training were then sent to implement similar campaigns in other communities.
Moving forward, CPJ aims to build on existing foundations and explore new avenues to bring youth voices to the centre through the Peace Café initiative. It intends to continue working with university students in Bangladesh and beyond to improve their skills and increase their involvement in local, national, and global discourse on pressing issues such as peace, social cohesion, climate change, gender equality, and human rights.