YOUNIB

YOUNIB was born in October 2012 in Sokodé, a city in central Togo with a strong Muslim majority. As a young religious of the Augustinians of the Assumption, I had been appointed by the local bishop, His Lordship Ambroise Djoliba, Ordinary Bishop of Sokodé, as chaplain of public and private schools. My ministry took me from school to school — animating, dancing (I am also a choreographer), organizing games and cultural events, counselling, and accompanying outings.

What I saw moved me. In every school, the young people — Christian, Muslim, traditional believer, and others — participated together without discrimination. There was a real fraternity among them, a brotherhood without borders. Religious division existed, but it was minimal. Most of it came not from the youth themselves, but from a few religious leaders whose ignorance and misleadership had infected them.

I remember visiting one school where a young Christian told me, “We have been told never to say ‘Alleluia’ because it is bad.” So I tried something. I lifted my voice in Arabic and called out, “Al-takbir…” The whole assembly — Muslim and Christian alike — shouted back joyfully, “Allahu Akbar!” I asked them: “Why is it that I, a Catholic priest, can say this in Arabic with ease, yet you cannot say ‘Alleluia’?” They answered, “Because that is just how it is.” Then I explained: ‘Alleluia’ in Hebrew and ‘Allahu Akbar’ in Arabic are saying the same thing — God is the Greatest. The same praise, in different languages. The young people were amazed. They received it with joy.

This was not an isolated moment. When I celebrated Mass in the schools, many Muslims attended. At my priestly ordination, thousands came — Christians and Muslims together — singing as one assembly. Some came forward afterwards to ask for blessings with my hands. Their hunger for fraternity, and for God, moved me deeply.

From those experiences, the vision of YOUNIB was born: not interreligious dialogue as a formal meeting of officials, but interreligious brotherhood lived between young people — in schools, in streets, in choirs, in walks, in real friendship. Our motto captures it in a single line: Youth Ever The Best and United for Peace — YET B UP.

It began with a choir. We formed an Islamic choir at one of the mosques in Sokodé, called AL FAROUK. From there it grew. In each school we built interreligious choirs — Christians, Muslims, and others singing together for peace and love. The movement went viral. We organized choir competitions at every level: locally (COCHOLYCOSO in Sokodé, COCHOLYCOKA in Kara, COCHOLYCOLO in Lomé), nationally (COCHOLYCOTO across Togo), and even internationally (COCHOLYCOAFRO across West Africa).

Once a year, we organized a peaceful walk. Thousands of young people from different schools and different religions gathered at a starting point, listened to a few words from invited religious leaders, and then marched together to a destination — with brass bands, dancing, joy. People who saw it would ask us, “Do you really think Christians and Muslims can live together peacefully?” And the youth would answer:

In early 2018, I embarked on mission to the USA then Kenya — another land of mission, another opportunity to plant the seed. We began YOUNIB in Njiru, an informal settlement on the eastern edge of Nairobi, within St Monica Catholic Parish under my own congregation, the Augustinians of the Assumption.

The first months were hard. The pressure was heavy, and at times we slowed down. But we never backed off. By God’s grace we kept going. His grace has been sufficient — through every ebb and flow.

Across nearly a decade and a half, YOUNIB has received the formal recognition and blessing of the Catholic Church at the local, national, and universal levels.

For three years, YOUNIB Kenya has provided mental health and psychosocial support services to thirty-five schools in Njiru Sub-County, with the support of international partners committed to the wellbeing of African youth. We accompany street children in rehabilitation centres. We run sanitary pad drive programmes in schools across the area, so that no girl is forced to miss class because of her body.

We have organized peace forums in secondary schools throughout Nairobi, and the Concert of Choirs of Secondary Schools of Nairobi for Peace (COCHOSESCHONA) — a continuation of the COCHO choir tradition first born in Togo — has gathered more than five thousand young participants in a single celebration of peace through song.

Through YOUNIB TV, our youth-led Catholic television platform now endorsed by the Archdiocese of Nairobi, we broadcast the message of interreligious brotherhood, youth dignity, and faith well beyond the walls of any single parish.

Our young members gather on Sundays. Their numbers ebb and flow — some weeks they are many, some weeks they are few — but YOUNIB endures because it is more than a Sunday meeting. It is a movement.

YOUNIB does not stand alone. We are a member organization of Living Peace International and of the Universal Circle of Ambassadors for Peace, Geneva, and we already count eight commissioned Peace Ambassadors among our YOUNIB Kenya members. We partner closely with Focolare Kenya in many of our activities, sharing a common conviction that unity among Christians and brotherhood across religions are at the heart of the Gospel.

YOUNIB has carried this witness internationally, participating in peace forums in Germany, in Porto, Portugal, and elsewhere — bringing the voice of African youth and the testimony of interreligious brotherhood to the wider world.

In Tulear, Madagascar, Fr. Orlando Ravelonirina, AA, a young Augustinian of the Assumption priest, discovered what we were doing in Nairobi. No one recruited him. No one assigned him. He saw, he was moved, and he chose to plant YOUNIB in his own land. Today YOUNIB Madagascar is alive and growing. YOUNIB volunteers from Kenya are now sent to Tulear to serve at the University of Tulear chaplaincy — teaching English and assisting in chaplaincy work alongside Fr. Orlando.

This is the future of YOUNIB: not branches placed by appointment, but branches born from passion. Wherever a young priest, sister, or lay believer sees what God is doing through this work and says “I want to do this here” — there YOUNIB will grow.

Creating a space where young people in crisis can be welcomed, where leaders can be formed, and where the work of interreligious brotherhood and mental health accompaniment can deepen beyond what a Sunday meeting allows.

We want to see the next generation of YOUNIB leaders raised up — clergy and lay together — formed in fidelity to the call.

If you are a young person looking for a place to belong, to serve, to grow — YOUNIB is for you.

If you are a priest, a sister, a religious, or a lay leader who has seen this story and feels something stir in your own heart — “I want to plant this here” — YOUNIB is looking for you.

If you are a school, a parish, a diocese, a congregation, or a network that wants to walk with us in the work of mental health, of street children, of girls in school, of interreligious peace — YOUNIB is open to you.

If you are a friend or a benefactor who believes that young people across religious lines can be brothers and sisters in deed — YOUNIB welcomes you.

What began with one priest and one choir in Sokodé in October 2012 is today a movement across four countries — Togo, Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar — in communion with the universal Church and with the global peace movement. By God’s grace it will become a network across Africa and beyond.