Recently, some members of Youth for Peace from Rome and Genoa participated in a Summer School with the Community of Balaka in Malawi, which involved about 200 children and adolescents from the Nutritional Centre. The days were filled with friendship, commitment and solidarity, and culminated in a large peace rally that crossed the streets of the city.
Everyone was involved in the preparation, no one excluded. The children made writings and drawings on the theme of peace, while the teenagers prepared banners with the names of all the countries hit by the war and violence, which were taken up high during the march.
Amidst colourful banners, loud songs and chants, the parade passed through huts, shops and local residents, telling with enthusiasm of a dream of peace inspired by Floribert Bwana Chui, whose story had been at the centre of the previous days' activities.
The long procession, guided by the banner “NDIFE OMANGA MTENDERE” (“We are builders of peace”), reached a small stage, where some young people made a declaration of commitment to contribute, each according to their abilities and age, to building peace “ at home, in schools, and in the streets of every city and village.”
‘Floribert taught us,’ they declared, ‘that violence is never an option, there is always another way. Our path starts in Balaka and wants to reach every place still at war.'
