The Japanese idealist behind the last deradicalization NGO in Somalia

{"heading_1":"Nagai's Vision and Early Work","content_1":"Yosuke Nagai, then a 19-year-old, established a program for Somali students in 2011 to tackle the root causes of the insurgency by Al-Shabaab. His teachers initially advised him to avoid the project, but Nagai persisted, seeing it as a way to help.","content_2":"By 2013, Nagai had expanded his work to include Somali gang members, and in 2016, he began collaborating with Somalia's government on reintegrating former Al-Shabaab members. His program has since expanded to Yemen, the Palestinian territories, Indonesia, and other countries.","content_3":"Nagai's NGO, Accept International, is funded by donations in Japan and employs 17 people working in prisons and a center for defectors in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, plus 15 at a rehabilitation center in Dhusamareb, the capital of Galmudug state. The program focuses on vocational skills such as carpentry and basic education, with around a third of participants being illiterate."}