ABSTRACT
The American University of Nigeria's Adamawa Peace Initiative (AUN-API) was established in 2012 at the height of countrywide strikes sparked by the removal of fuel subsidies in the country. Soon thereafter the Boko Haram uprising gained momentum in our region. AUN-API focuses on teaching and training vulnerable youth to give them employable skills, to build unity and tolerance, and to offer hope. In 2014 AUN-API began large-scale humanitarian work in response to Boko Haram terrorism, and at the height of the humanitarian crisis was feeding and caring for over 270,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had settled in Yola, Adamawa state. AUN-API has trained over 15,000 local youth in various development programs. AUN is also educating twenty-three of the Chibok students who escaped from their Boko Haram captors in 2014. This preventative model might be applicable in many areas of the world suffering from violence due to poverty, war, and extremist ideologies.
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Margee M. Ensign
Dr. Margee M. Ensign earned her PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on issues related to international and political development including peace building, genocide, reconciliation, and political development. Her latest publications include Rwanda: History and Hope (UP of America, 2011) and most recently she was a co-editor of Confronting Genocide in Rwanda: Dehumanization, Denial, and Strategies for Prevention (Apidama Ediciones Ltd., 2015). She is the President of the American University of Nigeria and Chairperson of the Adamawa Peace Initiative.