On a hot sunny day in Limbe, in southwest Cameroon, hundreds of students watched as teachers and members from The Association for Community Awareness (ASCOA) slowly folded the corners of small pieces of paper, giving them a bird-like shape. They were taking part in the Peace Crane Project, a peacebuilding initiative that invites students worldwide to fold paper cranes, write messages of peace, and exchange them with students in another country.
Launched in 2012 as part of the United Nations International Day of Peace, the project was inspired by twelve-year-old Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who died of radiation-induced leukaemia in 1955, ten years after the atomic bomb had fallen near her home in Hiroshima. Sadako’s goal to fold 1,000 paper cranes in hopes her wishes would come true turned the act of crane folding into a symbol of peace around the world.
In Cameroon, the Peace Crane Project is one of ASCOA’s activities to promote peacebuilding and empower youths to make a difference in their communities. 

“It’s in the way of harmony. We come together to fight for peace, not for war, to love each other. By coming together in one opinion, that also brings peace. So whatever happens, I’ve learnt that peace is the best way to solve those situations”, said Lydia Faith, one of the student participants.

Since 2016, Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions have been rocked by violence after separatist groups called for an independent state. The conflict has killed over 3,000 people and displaced 600,000. In the Anglophone areas, 800,000 children are out of school, and one in three of the four million people need aid. Another conflict involving Boko Haram insurgents in the Lake Chad basin, has killed 2,000 Cameroonians and displaced 250,000.