“The trauma became so close to me became too personal to me leading me to feeling the determination to even do more. I was on the brink of crashing out and falling out of my initially chosen path of peace. But something in me kept on telling me: stay strong and stay calm, in fact, do more to support people who are going through the pain like what you going through. In 2004 I started forming this initiative called the African Youth Initiative Network, primarily to help me have a legitimate background talk to fellow young people in the community to promote peace.”

Victor Ochen spent 21 years as a refugee. He has turned his traumatic experience as a victim of war in northern Uganda into an instructive manual on how to help other young people avoid conflict and embrace peace.

HagueTalks speaker Victor Ochen is a grassroot activist, a human rights advocate and a peace builder. Challenged by the hardships of war and poverty, he is a lead example on tolerance and nonviolence activism; he works creatively to address the root cause of conflict in Africa.