The American University of Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State were first runners up in the Facebook Peer to Peer Global Digital Challenge which held in Washington D.C, USA.
Their campaign called Women Against Violent Extremism (WAVE) empowers and mobilises women to challenge violent extremism.
In their campaign, they created a mobilisation tool called #WAVE1000Women Initiative.
This initiative mobilises women with the use of WhatsApp groups, which resulted in reaching over 1,000 women across Nigeria. The team’s campaign also created a hashtag called #SchoolGirlsNotSucideBombers.
Under the Peer to Peer Facebook Global Digital Challenge, students from universities and colleges around the world were enlisted to stop the radicalization of young people by terrorist organisations using social media platforms.
In total, 160 students entered the competition but only four universities were selected as finalists to present their campaigns in Washington D.C to a panel of judges who are experts in international security.
The first prize went to University of Dhakka, Bangledesh #ThinkTwiceActWise. Universidad CEU San Pablo #Rewind was third while Xavier University #IAmMindanao was fourth.