World Faith is a youth-led global interfaith organization, which mobilizes religiously diverse young people to tackle community service and development needs locally. This strategy both curbs religious violence in conflict-prone communities through the shared value of service, and leverages religious youth as an asset in international development. This creates a model that de-incentivizes violence, contributes to the MDGs, and builds a world movement of interfaith action.

Problem

The challenge is twofold: religious violence is perpetrated by the youth, and religious youth are rarely engaged as an asset in development. For example, Nigeria’s 78 million youth are often identified as actors in violence, leaving hundreds dead in religious clashes (UNICEF, NYT). Yet, while Nigeria needs 25 million jobs over the next ten years to slow the trend of violence (British Council), the youth are often left out of both peace and development efforts. We see this as a global trend, and so we're building a global movement of religiously-diverse youth who are becoming assets in development while countering the narrative of violence.

Solution

Our mission is to reduce and mobilize against religiously-based violence. To this end, our goal is to build a network of 10,000 youth from 100 Chapters in at-risk communities over the next nine years. We can remove youth from the equation of religion and violence. We measure success by: calculating service hours to measure the exposure of youth serving together the number of volunteers in those projects. measurable outcomes of individual projects. Outcomes across projects, such as slum-based schools World Faith runs or supports in Nairobi and Delhi, serving a total of approximately 200 at-risk children. Capturing stories, video, and photos to portray changed lives through WF Chapters, from both volunteers and the recipients of the projects. In 2020, we see communities where humanization has raised the threshold for violence beyond reach, while religiously diverse youth volunteer towards development goals such as public health, education, or women’s empowerment.

Exemple

A Chapter, the core of World Faith programming, is a group of religiously diverse youth that work together to tackle local needs such as education, women’s empowerment, public health, and humanitarian response. For instance, World Faith Kenya leaders recognized that widows often buy fish from fisherman to sell in the market. Fishermen demand sex from these widows, which has caused a spike in HIV rates. Seeing a challenge that is economic, cultural, and health-related, the WF Kenya leaders created a community farm with 100 widows, which is now self-sustaining. They are just about to launch a second farm on this model. World Faith trains leaders in interfaith dialogue, social media, and goal setting. This year World Faith Nigeria developed a ten year plan to reduce religious violence by 90%, and WF Kenya developed an action plan with 25 youth activists in preparation for the upcoming election, a likely spark for violence. The World Faith Network provides a global context for local leaders to exchange ideas, contacts, and build partnerships, becoming a part of a world movement.

Marché

We’ve developed our innovative model by collaborating with the existing organizations, and by utilizing the Asset-Based Community Development approach (ABCD). While traditional development looks at the needs of a community and addresses them on an issue by issue basis, ABCD is focused on evaluating the assets of a community, and then leveraging them to address the pressing issues. We collaborate with many relevant organizations. The Interfaith Youth Core set the tone of youth-led interfaith work in America. The United nations Alliance of Civilizations has created a space in the international community for global intercultural work. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is mobilizing faith communities around anti-malaria efforts. We are chapter-based like United Religions Initiative, but focused on youth in action. Taking the best practices of each approach, we’ve pioneered the model of religious youth as an asset to development.