The Youth Ambassadors of Peace (YAP), in partnership with the Gambia National Commission for UNESCO and NATCOM recently organised a two-day national conference on the theme ‘Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue’ held at  TANGO.  Speaking at the occasion, Lamin M. Sanyang, president of YAP, said since many countries around the world, including the Gambia are becoming increasingly multicultural, living together peacefully in such a multicultural context remains elusive.

He said the Youth Ambassadors of Peace intends to stimulate discussions, engage communities to reflect on issues of inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue and propose actions to be taken locally and globally. “Every human society has its own particular culture or socio-cultural system,” he added.

According to him, an individual’s attitude, values, ideals and beliefs are greatly influenced by the culture or cultures in which he/she lives. He further observed that cultural change takes place as a result of ecological, socioeconomic, political, religious or other fundamental factors affecting a society.

“The conference,” he said is therefore “designed to explore cutting-edge issues in today’s religiously plural societies and common concerns and fractions with people of other faiths and cultures”. Maimuna Sidibeh, the senior programme officer at UNESCO, also spoke at the event.