Today, more than millions of people live in my country affected by war and conflict — a majority of which are under the age of 30 and below. These numbers alone justify the inclusion and consideration of youths in policymaking and planning. But in practice, the meaningful participation of young people in peacebuilding has been hindered by discourses that overwhelmingly depict youths as victims or villains, and from my personal experience, who lost his a friend in a youth movement and the above reasons and others, I am interested to promote youths as active leaders and partners in peace-building processes and decision-makers. I believe if we empower youths, they can play a positive role in peacebuilding which is why I choose this sector to work.

1. My name is Belayneh, growing up in Ethiopia
and has more than fourteen years of experience
working with different organizations and specializing
in Social Psychology, Diplomacy, international rela-
tion, and peace and development studies are respon-
sible for conducting research, crafting projects, and
consulting government and non-governmental or-
ganizations. While knowing the risks associated with
working on sensitive issues, I remain determined to
advance my co-founded organization titled Ethiopia
People’s Friendship Association (EPFA). EPFA focus-
es on empowering youth and peace-building across
Ethiopia. I developed a deeper understanding of
peacekeeping in practice. As my next steps, I plan to
cooperate more directly with the African Union and
share and contribute to peacebuilding, such as better
understanding Rwanda’s genocide and related peace
and reconciliation practices. I am committed to con-
tributing to a more peaceful world; one in which all
live in social cohesion and harmony across society
without fear and in freedom.
Today, more than millions of people live in my
country affected by war and conflict — a majority of
which are under the age of 30 and below. These num-
bers alone justify the inclusion and consideration of
youths in policymaking and planning. But in prac-
tice, the meaningful participation of young people in
peacebuilding has been hindered by discourses that
overwhelmingly depict youths as victims or villains,
and from my personal experience, who lost his
friend in a youth movement and above reasons and
others, I am interested to promote youths as active
leaders and partners in peace-building processes and
decision-makers. I believe if we empower youths,
they can play a positive role in peacebuilding which
is why I choose this sector to work.
For the last three years, I was working with the for-
mer Prime Minister and Former First lady. After leav-
ing office in March 2017 through Ethiopia’s first-ever
peaceful power transition; the former Prime Minis-
ter H.E Hailemariam Dessalegn and the former First
Lady Roman Tesfaye established the ‘Hailemariam
&Roman Foundation’ (HRF) as an international
non-governmental organization. The foundation is
an expression of its commitment to continue serv-
ing the Ethiopian people and particularly the under-
served segment of society by leveraging its unique
platform and wide international and local networks.
The foundation functions as a catalytic agent by lev-
eraging its distinctiveness: credibility and trust, con-
vening potential, access at the highest and grassroots
levels, and deep understanding and awareness of the
situations on the ground in inspiring developmental
actors and creating community awareness at local
and international levels to exert concerted efforts to-
wards attaining dramatic results in its focus area. And

2. I remain determined to advance my co-founded or-
ganization titled Ethiopia People’s Friendship Asso-
ciation (EPFA).EPFA one of the local NGOs works
to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance
and the rule of law, and promote and protect human
rights and fundamental freedoms, with due regard to
the rights and responsibilities of the regional states of
Ethiopia.
I
ammotivatedbyseveralthings.Firstandforemost,
I am motivated by meeting deadlines, targets, or
goals. I believe I am at my best at work when I
have responsibility for important deadlines because
this gives me a great sense of achievement. I am also
motivated by learning new things. Meeting deadlines
is not possible because I have difficulty saying “No”
to an extra assignment that needs much of my time.
One time my boss give me an assignment with a giv-
en time framework but at the same time, my initia-
tive EFPA give me another assignment that needs my
big effort to achieve. But I can’t meet both deadlines
because both assignments need much effort, and be-
cause of this, I clashed with my boss and my collagen-
ous. From that event onwards I learn that delegating
some assignments and empowering an individual to
exercise autonomy is very crucial. I encouraged the
team members to share their insights and how they
could apply the methods to specific deals that were
currently in their pipelines.
In my opinion, these programs have several very
important benefits, from these benefits they in-
crease my morale and retention, improve produc-
tivity, promote better decision-making, build better
teams, and help me to be a better future leader in my
organization and a positive working atmosphere.
I will develop and explore my own competence with
regard to the dimensions of difference, especially as
it relates to others participants in the program. The
program helps me to create connections and net-
works to strengthen relationships to help achieve
my organization’s goals and share experiences with
leadership program participants. Networking is
one of the great benefits of attending the program.
I will get the opportunity to mix and mingle with
like-minded people. I will be able to formulate and
implement effective leadership strategies and de-
velop the capabilities needed to increase my team’s
work skills.
I have extensive experience in youth lead associa-
tions/organizations and youth economic, social, and
political empowerment. For the last ten-plus years, I
worked in the area of youth and their association and
I have experience serving the public as a government
official which gives me to understand of the basic
leadership problems we encounter as a country, which
can benefit or be shared with participants of this lead-
ership program.

3. A
full scholarship to pursue a Professional De-
velopment Certificate in Peace and Conflict
Resolution at the Rotary Peace Center at
Chulalongkorn University was awarded on 10 June
2022, in Bangkok, Thailand. New Generation Change
Fellows Program training at United States Institute of
Peace and honorary Certification from CWAS Essay
Competition 2018 “China& Africa-China friendship
in my Eyes”, Third Prize Award.
Deputy CEO Role
C
ontribute to the strategic and operational di-
rection of the organization executive manage-
ment and works towards the achievement of
the EPFA’s strategic objectives, working to balance
short term results with long term sustainability. Pro-
viding recommendations for the formulation of the
strategic direction and targets of the organization and
making resource allocation decisions and supporting
initiatives that further the EPFA’s achievement of its
strategic objectives.

4. N
owadays, peace-building is not an easy task
in Ethiopia. Since we are in a civil war gov-
ernment created a situation that we called it‘’
Peace is War situation’’. If you talk about peace gov-
ernment sees you as a supporter and member of the
Rebel group(TPLF), and the lower administration of
the government follows only the top leaders say and
do. In a situation like this peace-building process or
my activities/work will be in trouble, and become un-
safe. The people who I believe can play a great role in
the Peacebuilding process of my country, just follow
what the government says to get something in return.
Another challenge was you see children and mothers
killed and injured by barrel bombs in Tigray and Wel-
lage, torture, rape, displacement, and daily destruc-
tion, but you are unable to do something, which is
painful. In most cases, the government is responsible
to bring Negative peace but in Ethiopia’s context the
opposite is true, the government is the source of in-
stability and absence of peace in the country because
the rolling part is still under internal power struggles.
Last but not least the international community prefers
to be quiet because of the lack of attention to Ethio-
pia’s civil war or undermanning the present danger in
the country, which have a domino effect in the region.
The economic problem of the country caused to de-
crease in the number of donors for the peace-building
project rather than their contribution goes to the civil
war.
M
y closer friends and family members ask me
questions, and I am safe to work in these
sensitive areas. And, always show me that
my work has prone to dangers and that anything can
happen to me at any time, nothing is predictable, but I
am waking up every day not only to make my dream a
reality but to also contribute to making peace a reality
in my country and a cross the world. Recently, War
begin between the federal government and Tigray Re-
gional state, which cause so many death and people
displaced from their place to others. To implement
my Youth Peace Ambassador initiative I asked differ-
ent governmental and non-government organizations
but the answer was negative and similar. For a long
time, the religious leader was the one who make Peace
when conflict rises among us, but the recent conflict
shows that things become different the religious lead-
er become a war advocator and follow what the fed-
eral government tells them to do so. From the above
situation, I learn that still our society needs education
and awareness about many issues and needs some
skill to say no to the evil act of any part or group.
M
y First experience working with Rotarians
was when I work with the Ethiopia First
lady as a school feeding program Senior
Expert and advisor. At that time we have school feed-
ing programs all over Addis Ababa primary schools,
but some of the schools have water supply problems,
but the courage of Rotarians help us to build a water
supply for the school. From my experience, they are
highly interested to support others without discrim-
ination and striving to achieve their goals and make
the world a better place to live.