James Musembi Mwania
Age 28 – Kenya
I was born in Machakos , Kenya.
I come from a family of five children, three brothers and one sister. We live together with my parents. I grew up in a small village in Machakos Kenya. A village which has experienced peace for years due to the values promoted by my clan. Since when I was a small boy I became passionate with communication and that made me study communication. My parents wanted me to become a teacher but I didn’t want. The reason was because initially I wanted to communicate through the radio. However when i was in high school my perspective on how to use communication changed. I saw the need to use communication as a tool towards promoting peace and fraternity. Above all I was interested in working with the young people and the less fortunate in the society especially people from the slums in my country. This is because once there is no peace and fraternity, the people who suffer most are children, women and mostly the ones living in the slums. This was experienced very well in Kenya in 2007 when there was post election violence.
After finishing part of my studies as a journalist I was not able to find a job as a journalist. Finally I found myself involved in agribusiness specializing with natural honey. A job I have come to like a lot., However, I have found myself doing a lot as a communicator when it comes to coordinating the youth groups am involved in.
During my studies I found myself interested in working with and for young people. Then I joined a movement of young people called Youth for a United World. Young people passionate about universal brotherhood.
Currently am volunteering at the international center of the Focolare Movement, particularly working for the branch of young people. An experience which above all is to promote universal brotherhood. Am gaining a lot of experience which I will bring back in Kenya and in the whole of the African continent towards promoting peace and fraternity.
My activities in favor of peace and fraternity.
Towards favoring and promoting peace, I have been and still am engaged in various events and programs, this includes:
1). Involved in formation of young people members of the Focolare movement who are involved in carrying out events and activities geared towards promoting a more united world. This young people are drawn from different religion, economic and social backgrounds.
We participate in activities like planting of trees, cleaning cities, organizing peace concerts and many more events geared towards promoting peace and fraternity.
2). In Kenya am the coordinator of a project called sharing with Africa, a project aiming at promoting peace and fraternity. In the project, young people share experiences on how they are building bridges towards fraternity.
3). Finally together with other young people in Kenya we started a group of young professionals from different professions like politics, communication, business, education etc to share together how we can use our professions towards promoting peace and fraternity.
Peace for me is when people are able to resolve their differences without violence and can work together to improve the quality of their lives and of others.
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