Yakjah Reconciliation and Development Network .

Yakjah is a Kashmiri word meaning ‘Together’. This initiative first started in 2002 as a group of Kashmiris, Hindu and Muslim based in New Delhi, who met for coffee on weekends. They discussed their personal experiences and perceptions of the conflict. Today the group has built a network of professionals from Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh (Indian Kashmir) and other parts of the country who come together to engage with children and youth from Jammu and Kashmir region. They raise funds through donations, sponsors and charity to organize camps, festivals and workshops as also collaborate with like-minded organizations for bringing the young people divided across deep ideological, political, ethnic and religious differences in Jammu and Kashmir.

Yakjah uses creative forms like theatre, films and art to open spaces for children and youth to express themselves, listen to each other, understand differences and learn to accept the reality and experiences of the other. Yakjah’s aim is not to resolve the conflict but to transform attitudes, change perceptions, rebuild relationships, invoke critical thinking, explore alternatives for responding to the conflict non-violently and learn to engage with diversity in the region so as to build pluristic structures. Every time Yakjah brings children and youth together for rediscovering each other, it opens spaces for a new culture of peace and co-existence.