Involvement in African peace project changed law grad's outlook

Published on: Mon, 06/27/2011
Last Modified: Mon, 06/27/2011 - 12:47pm

Adam Hummel is the first to admit that he had lofty ambitions when he founded a peace-building project in Kenya.

“I thought that I could have a hand in picking up where the Kenyan government had seemingly dropped the ball—grassroots initiatives designed to unite the population,” says the 2011 Windsor Law grad.

He visited the country in 2009 with about $1500 raised from friends and family and a vague ideological framework into which he would try to fit his projects.

“After analyzing the successes and failures of other peace initiatives, I decided that my approach had to involve asking the locals what they wanted to see, and help them do that,” Hummel says. “I was not interested in going over to Africa to try and impose my own brand of peace on these small villages.”

Under the banner of the Youth Ambassadors for Peace, he organized several projects, including:

an annual soccer tournament played between teams from three tribes—the Luo, Kisii and Kalenjin;
youth-led clubs in local high schools which teach the message of peace at a younger level;
a chicken farm, in which local youths buy chickens and donate the eggs to people in their three communities who have recently been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

“The successes are entirely the result of the committed youths on the ground,” Hummel writes in a special student edition of the Centre for Studies in Social Justice newsletter.

“Involvement in this project has changed my outlook on life, and has made me more hopeful about the future of both Africa and the world in general,” Hummel says. “It has shown me that when people realize they have the ability to take action, they then acknowledge the responsibility to take action, and from there, anything is possible.”

Since graduation, Hummel has accepted an articling position with the Toronto law firm Davis LLP. Learn more about his project at www.kenyapeaceproject.com.

Read the current edition of the Centre for Studies in Social Justice newsletter, guest edited by Rahul Radhakrishnan, on the centre’s Web site.

Adam Hummel (centre) with some of the Kenyan students who participate in his Youth Ambassadors for Peace programs.