Youth Peace Space · Kivu · Art and peace
Youth Peace Space: when art turns pain into peace
In eastern DRC, thirty years of armed conflict have left visible and invisible wounds. With Youth Peace Space, UJUZI-SS wants to make art a place where young people heal, talk to each other and build peace together.
A story born from loss
The project starts from a true story. An artist from Kivu lost his younger brother, who was murdered. To cope with the trauma, he began to paint, at first just to keep going. Little by little, painting became his way of healing what words could not express.
For him, the results have been positive. From this experience came a conviction: what helped him can help other young people.
Art, far more than decoration
As an artist in Kivu, creative sensitivity is a powerful weapon to transform suffering into collective action: the visual, the symbol and the public space.
Art is not merely about embellishment or bearing witness. It can become a catalyst for resilience, a space for healing trauma, and a driver of community innovation. It heals, externalises trauma, and unites people around a shared narrative.
What we are building
We are working to turn this personal experience into a collective project: a space where young people can create, express what they have lived through, and carry messages of peace into public space.
Youth Peace Space builds on our approach to peaceful coexistence, inspired by Nonflict®. We also want to bring it to life at the CRSN-Lwiro library, as part of the Lwiro-Biblos project.
Join Youth Peace Space
Artists, psychologists and psychosocial support professionals, peace organisations, patrons and partners: let’s build together a space where art becomes a path to peace.