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Jeremiah Kemboi a 32 year old marathon runner taking part in the UNDP/UNV "Emergency Volunteer Scheme"

A new and innovative volunteer scheme that brings together national leaders in various professions such as sports, music, media and education as well as faith organisations, is changing lives in post-election Kenya.

Jeremiah Kemboi, a 32 year old marathon runner, is one of such volunteer leaders participating in the Emergency Volunteer Scheme (EVS), a UNDP/UN Volunteers (UNV) peace-building programme designed to promote post-election community dialogue in collaboration with the government.

At the end of a training, which involved 120 neighbourhood volunteers from 24 to 26 April, Jeremiah said: “I believe that dialoguing with fellow athletes at the ChirChir Training camp near Timboroa, will contribute to promoting peace and reconciliation. I look forward to using my skills as a team leader to urge athletes to broker peace among the villages and the Internally Displaced Persons from Nyakinyua farm close to my village Usamala.”

The 120 neighbourhood volunteers come from Uasin Gishu, Nakuru and Kerico districts in Kenya. The scheme is one of the initiatives contributing to the promotion of conflict resolution, peace building and supporting the delivery of services in Kenya after the post-election crisis.

To ensure massive media outreach, 30 print and electronic journalists representing community, state and national media from Uasin Gishu district (Eldoret Bureau), Kericho and Nakuru have been engaged and participated in the inaugural training. In addition, representatives from the Ministry of Information and Communication in Rift valley, Eldoret and Nakuru also partook in the training.

The initiative focuses on orientation, training and sensitization; to ensure the neighborhood volunteers and community members are able to attain a sustainable process of self healing while harnessing reconciliation within the affected neighborhoods.

The two day inaugural training, which was run by specialised trainers from the three districts, elicited expectations from the neighbourhood volunteers and also relayed delivery obligations such as non-partisanship in the course of executing their duties. The training also focussed on empowering the volunteers with skills to facilitate the promotion of a culture of peace and nationhood.

As the scheme rolls out, a continuous training approach shall be adopted - to further enhance the volunteers’ skills in conflict resolution and transformation, handling trauma and peace-building, community security and control of proliferation of small/crude arms as well as handling humanitarian response and early recovery.

With their new skills, the volunteers will promote dialogue, sensitisation and training in the neighbourhoods, to support efforts at ending violence as well as anger management in order to contribute to the process of peace building and community healing. The volunteers will also provide counselling services to the affected members of the communities and support humanitarian relief activities.