As a Global Affairs major, I was really interested in finding a blog topic that had a global approach and perspective to peace education. Through searching on the web, I found this amazing organization called UNOY (The United Network of Young Peacebuilders). UNOY (prounounced ‘you know why’) is a global network of young people and youth organisations committed to establishing peaceful societies. They have been around since 1989 and are based in the Netherlands. they consist of 49 member organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America.
UNOY’s mission is ” to link up young people’s initiatives for peace in a global network of young peacebuilders, to help empower their capacities and to help increase the effectiveness of their actions” They achieve this goal by implementing a wide range of activities in each of their main areas: advocacy and campaigning, capacity building and gender. UNOY believes that young people are an essential part of peacebuilding because:
Some projects that UNOY has implemented in 2012 include, the Educating for Peace seminar that brings together members from all over the world, the Peace of Mind educational program for students, and training courses on peace building. Members even traveled to Colombia, Argentina, and Nepal where they were able to teach workshops on issues such as human rights, democracy and gender to youth there!
This organization caters to a wide range of peace educators and students alike. UNOY has created excellent resources that can be incorporated into a classroom or community setting for youth. The beauty of UNOY is that the wide array of projects it creates can be applied in a global AND local context. Most importantly, UNOY gives young people the opportunity to get involved!!! I would especially recommend checking out their volunteer programs if you’re interested in working on an international level 😉 Through its broad scope of activities and projects, UNOY teaches youth the necessary skills and tools needed to become peacemakers in their own communities.
A clip describing one of UNOY’s projects in collaboration with other international youth organizations:
I stumbled on the One World Youth Project website while looking online for information for another assignment. However, I was very happy I did after reading more about the project.
One World Youth Project (OWYP) was founded in 2004 by then 18 year-old Jess Rimington as a link between her high school in Massachusetts, USA and a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The project seeks to effectively respond to global change. Due to global change there is unprecedented migration and the world is experiencing a digital revolution. However, schools around the globe are not preparing youth for the interconnected world. OWYP feels that those prepared to operate within this reality will see this interconnection as an opportunity and those not prepared will see this changing landscape as a threat.
To prevent this threat, One World Youth Project links schools around the world to build mutual respect and understanding among students and provide them with global life skills needed for success in the interconnected 21st century. This is done by the organization establishing a link between education systems. With each partner university, OWYP establishes a service-learning program-a One World Hub-on their campus for the benefit of their students as well as the surrounding secondary school system. OWYP provides a series of trainings that prepare university students as facilitators of cultural exchange between local secondary school classrooms and other OWYP classrooms abroad. After this training, the university students lead a Global Citizenship curriculum in local secondary schools, preparing the younger generation for the interconnected 21st century.
The fact that the OWYP is tailored for college students to help 6th through 12th grade secondary school students is perfect. These secondary students will feel more at ease with the college students, and the college students also get a chance to learn. For a year in a formal education setting the secondary school students learn through deep reflection on intercultural communication, as well as local and global leadership.
Ways to use this resource:
The teacher is ultimately allowing a college student to come in once a week and facilitate this communication for a year (2 semesters). The secondary school students connect with other classrooms abroad through video, voice, letters and the Internet. While students move through the facilitated program once a week in their classroom, their partner peers in the abroad classroom do the same. This connection allows for deep reflection on and constant collaborative investigation of intercultural communication.
The first semesters curriculum focuses on giving students the tools to understand their own cultures and begin the process of exchanging and communicating across cultures. From there the lessons move to issues of global connections and development by introducing the ways in which goods and systems flow around the world and to the concept of the UN and the Millennium Development Goals. Using these tools, students will identify issues in their communities and create plans to address these issues.
As the students move into the second semester with OWYP, students will continue to learn about ways to communicate with people in other cultures by analyzing different forms and systems of communication. Then they will be prepared to participate in collaborative dialogues to create change by identifying key community players and exploring ways to engage them in conversations around community issues. As students move through the program, these plans will turn into actionable service learning projects.
I think it would also be beneficial if the college students that come to facilitate also have one on one time with the students too. They could interact in dialogue or the college student could facilitate experiential learning activities so that the secondary students are also learning from the older college student too.
If a teacher wanted to set up a One World hub at a University near their school, or to find out if one is already established, they could email info@oneworldyouthproject.org.
The end goal of OWYP is to create a just world built through the actions of empowered, discerning and empathetic generations of global citizens. OWYP hopes to accomplish this by facilitating intercultural communication between students of different backgrounds. This type of peace project supports one of the seven pillars of peace education, community building. This pillar focuses on finding things that unite and bind us together as a group, while at the same time respecting and celebrating our differences. Allowing students from different backgrounds to communicate across borders will create a new understanding of what makes them both different and similar. Students that engage in the program will become well-rounded citizens that are able to operate in a diverse world.
This past week was the Persian New Year. Nowruz literally meaning “a new day,” is an ancient international festival celebrating both the arrival of spring and the beginning of the New Year for those who celebrate it. It brings with it the season of blossoming and renewal, happiness, celebration, traditions, and reminds us of our rich and vibrant culture. Afghans, Azeris, Georgians, Iraqis, Kazakhs, Kurds, Persians, Russians, Tajiks, Tatars, Uzbeks, and Ukrainians and other people of the West, Central Asia and the Caucasus celebrate Nowruz.
Today, numerous nations, peoples and tribes welcome it as an occasion for reaching out not only to family and friends, but to the less privileged in their midst – it is truly a day for all humanity. Being a part of the Afghan youth, I have a keen interest in the youth of those back home. It is the youth of a nation that will determine its future, I believe as a global community we should be invested in the lives of Afghani youths so to produce a better livelihood for the people in Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan has had a negative effect on Afghan children, who have been exposed to extreme levels of violence and often see aggression as the primary means to resolve conflict. It should be in the best interest of the international community to improve the lives of children in Afghanistan, starting with equipping them with a proper education, especially peace education, to help them improve their livelihoods. Hence, I decided to write my blog of some of the organizations and projects I have heard about that promote peace education in Afghanistan and help those who are less fortunate.
Skateistan
Skateistan is a Kabul-based Afghan NGO, which is “non-political, independent, and inclusive of all ethnicities, religions and social backgrounds.”
Skateistan uses skateboarding, as a tool for empowerment in places skateboarding hasn’t existed before. It gives young people a voice and local people agency to shape projects according to their needs.
I first heard of Skateistan through social media. A friend had posted a video of Skateistan efforts in Afghanistan and it blew me away. It was an empowering video that showed how such a simple thing as skateboarding, which is so common to many youths around where I live, brought a smile to young girls and boys faces. It gave them an escape from the chaos that was occurring around them, and I was so happy to see these children actually be kids for just a few minutes.
Skateboarding in Afghanistan
Skateistan started in 2007 when two Australian skateboarders dropped their boards in Kabul. Soon enough, they were surrounded by the eager faces of children of all ages who wanted to learn how to skate. Stretching out the three boards they had brought with them, they developed a small skate school.
A group of young Afghans around the age of 18 to 22 became naturals at skateboarding, sharing the three boards and making it a popular sport amongst the youth. The founders’ success with their first students prompted them to think bigger. They brought more boards back to Kabul and established an indoor skateboarding venue allowing them to teach many more youth, and also be able to provide older girls with a private facility to continue skateboarding. On October 29, 2009, Skateistan completed construction of an all-inclusive skate park and educational facility on 5428 square meters of land donated by the Afghan National Olympic Committee.
Skateistan has emerged as Afghanistan’s first skateboarding school, and is dedicated to teaching both male and female students. It aims to build indoor and outdoor skateboarding facilities in which youth can come together to skateboard: “here, they forge bonds that transcend social barriers. Here, they’re enabled to affect change on issues that are important to them.”
How is this important to peace education?
This is important to peace education because it teaches students a new way of interacting with one another, teaching one another, and trusting one another. It gives them a safe haven in a land that has been tormented for years. It allows them to focus their energy on something positive and something that makes them happy.
The Afghan Education Peace Foundation
The Afghan Education Peace Foundation, (AEPF) a New York City based NGO, seeks to strengthen the security of the United States by rebuilding the economic and social infrastructure of Afghanistan. AEPF sponsors the education of Afghanistan’s best and brightest students in American high schools, community colleges and universities who will return to Afghanistan to contribute their new skills to the reconstruction. A stable and prosperous Afghanistan is key to American national security.
What Afghan Education Peace Foundation Plans to Envision in the coming years…
v Eliminating ideological extremism and acts of terrorism
v Reinforcing U.S. national security by ensuring the political, social and economic stability of Afghanistan and the region
v Equipping Afghan students with the skills they need to contribute to the reconstruction
v Creating the future business and political leaders of Afghanistan
v Promoting gender equality in education and the role of women in Afghanistan’s future
v Broadening the global view of Afghan students and dispelling myths about the West and Westerners
v Broadening American students’ perception of Afghanistan and its people
v Building, nurturing and enhancing cross cultural dialogue between the United States and Afghanistan
v Promoting Afghanistan’s economic prosperity, a higher quality of life, and greater connectedness with the global economy
Advancing Peace Education in Afghanistan
The United State Institute of Peace (USIP) Grant Program has supported Help the Afghan Children (HTAC) to administer a peace education program at seven middle schools in Samangan Province in northern Afghanistan. The program has been able to educated a total of 2,800 male and female students, trained 315 teachers, and delivered a comprehensive community approach to peace education using performance metrics and paired comparison data to promote long-term impact and project sustainability.
The results of such an effort have been tremendous. The average number of observable conflicts, such as fighting, harassment, and bullying, between students has decreased from 3,457 per month to 345 per month, a 93 percent reduction. Additionally, the average number of observed potential conflicts resolved peacefully between students increased from 100 per month to 2,960 per month. Furthermore, the number of teachers observed consistently modeling peace education behaviors increased by 95 percent. While the immediate effects of training are evident in how children behave in school, the Institute is investing in behavioral change that improves the odds that Afghan youth will apply non-violent strategies to resolve conflicts over the longer term, ultimately contributing to a more peaceful society.
Peace education has wide-ranging impacts across the local community, particularly on the parents of participating students. Seven hundred and fifty parents attended a training session to learn the tenets of peace education and how to implement these values at home, providing students a comprehensive learning environment and a community support structure.
To address long-term sustainability, HTAC also began developing a Peace Education Model that identifies key characteristics and features for the expansion of peace education across Afghanistan. HTAC’s important and diligent work has earned them the support of the Afghanistan Ministry of Education, which will become an integral partner in future endeavors.
I recently learned about Bridges To Understanding through another popular organization, Teachers Without Borders (TWB). This year TWB has decided to adopt Bridges To Understanding’s youth programs and educational curriculums since the non-profit organization, founded in 2001, will be dissolving (http://www.teacherswithoutborders.org/programs/teacher-programs/peace-education/bridges-understanding). The Bridges To Understanding’s vision was to “empower and unite youth worldwide, enhance cross-cultural understanding and build global citizenship using digital technology and the art of storytelling” (http://www.facebook.com/bridgesworld?sk=info).
I thought it was interesting to see how Bridges’ two core curriculum-based programs, the Bridges Ambassador Program and the Bridges Global Citizens Program, connected students across the globe in a way most educators (especially those in a public education system) would never accomplish in the traditional classroom setting. The Bridges group laid the groundwork for a “network of established partner schools and community organizations in Seattle, Peru, Guatemala, South Africa, India and Cambodia where [their curriculums] have been adapted to insure cultural relevancy” (http://www.facebook.com/bridgesworld?sk=info). The first curriculum, the Ambassador Program, teaches children how to create digital stories about their daily lives, local culture/traditions and community. With the help of Bridges staff, teachers lead discussion forums on conflict and resolution as well as environmental sustainability issues through both a local and a global lens. The second curriculum, the Global Citizens Program, works on a more international approach by bringing together partner schools around the world into a classroom-to-classroom discussion forum to talk about important global issues. This allows students to view others’ videos while sharing their own stories, photography and ideas (http://www.bridges2understanding.org/programs/programs.html).
Contextually, this peer-to-peer learning can be implemented at any age level. In our global environment, the use of digital technology is something many young children are learning far more quickly than in the past generation. I think both science and humanities teachers should be encouraging technology-based curriculums such as this one into their classrooms since it not only broadens the children’s skill set for the future workplace (arguable one goal of education), but also gives them the opportunity to explore a vast amount of new information available online. Technology is typically applied in science classes, but by introducing online discussion forums into humanities classes, students are able to personally clarify the local context of the broad cultural content they learn. By giving youth a protected informal setting, educators can eliminate some of the psychological barriers preventing students from asking questions in the formal classroom setting while increasing the perceived self-importance of other individual youth who take pride in speaking about their culture; perhaps, for many, this is the first time a foreigner has taken an interest in their lives.
The Bridges organization has added a resource called the Bridges Passport Program for educators to help implement their curriculums with ease. This program provides educators with access to “ten youth-produced digital stories, with accompanying story guides, for classes to explore rich multicultural content” in the context of any existing curriculum (http://www.bridges2understanding.org/programs/programs.html). After the merger with Teachers Without Borders, educators can also access both of the Bridges’ curriculums through the TWB website. The only logistical setback would be that individual classrooms would need access to either a computer, camera or a TV to view and create the digital stories. I would suggest taking the last class of each week to focus on a global issue presented within the content youth learned in class that week. Educators can alternate between using a story guide to watch and discuss an international student’s video one week and having their students create videos to post online the next week. If there are time restraints on watching videos or creating videos which is probably more likely, educators should encourage students to meet outside of school to discuss possible global issues in their local community and think of ways they can incorporate these themes into both a video and the lessons they are learning in class. The application to already existing class material is key.
This resource is geared heavily towards conflict resolution and human rights education; hence, it would fit well into humanities classes. Pedagogically-speaking, educators would use this to build trust across cultures and community building. This resource allows students to explore alternative perspectives on global history and learn how they can reframe it to incorporate means of peace. Bridges To Understanding specifically works to “develop students’ cross-cultural understanding, as they discover differences and similarities in the challenges faced by their peers in other countries” (http://www.facebook.com/bridgesworld?sk=info). This requires students to not only become leaders to actively discuss issues in their community, but also active listeners to other students’ problems. On a practical level, they must also become familiar with technology. I believe the Northern Virginia public school system would make an excellent candidate as well as George Mason University for implementation of these programs since we have public access to many forms of technology.
Actor turned filmmaker Jeremy Gilley founded Peace One Day after realizing that there was no starting point for peace, no day of global unity, no day for intercultural cooperation, and no day for when humanity came together. Gilley felt that if we united as one then that might be the key to humanity’s survival. He started his advocacy for his Peace Day by writing letters to every state leader, their ambassadors, Nobel peace laureates, NGOs, faith based organizations, and other various organizations. Then in 1999 his dream of Peace One Day came true. In 1999 all the member states of the United Nations adopted the 21st of September as Peace Day. This day is recognized as an annual global ceasefire and non-violence day.
Jeremy Gilley’s Peace One Day is recognized every year, but unfortunately the day hasn’t gotten the full attention it deserves. Gilley was to make a statement with Kofi Annan on September 11, 2001 to advocate for his event, but because of the attack on the World Trade Center the statement never happened. However, the events on September 11, 2001 made Gilley work even harder. He was even more empowered and inspired to move forward with Peace One Day. This led to Gilley, along with actor Jude Law, to start work for peace in Afghanistan. Because of the pair advocating for Peace Day the Taliban sent him letter and said they would observe the day, and not engage in violence. The Taliban doing this led to 1.6 million people vaccinated for polio and violence on that day was down by 70%.
Due to this success Gilley has initiated a new plan for 2012, a Global Truce Day. This day will show younger generations that we can make a stop to violence with small acts of non-violence in our everyday lives. Gilley wants to utilize all kinds of resources from dance to social media and globally network with government, intergovernmental, and education leaders.
Gilley’s idea of utilizing education into his plan for 2012’s Global Truce Day helped persuade me to write this blog post about his event. Gilley wants to get young people to be the driving force to inspire individual action, so he has complied an educational resource for teachers to implement non-violence and other peace concepts into the classroom.
I can see this educational resource implemented in almost every formal grade level classroom. The students would need a little background on what conflict is, so because of this, starting at the fourth or fifth grade level would probably be best. However, this could fluctuate determined on how the students are influenced by conflict in their everyday lives. By implementing these resources in a classroom setting these children can practice non-violence in their schools, and also bring what they learn outside of the school setting and teach others.
Ways to use this resource:
Gilley includes many different types of lessons in his educational resource. This comprehensive resource includes 21 one-hour lesson plans for exploring issues of peace, nonviolence, and the protection of the environment, with extended projects for Peace Day on September 21st. I think this resource would be best integrated by first starting with showing Gilley’s documentary for one day of class, doing the lesson that corresponds to that, then moving on to the individual lessons maybe once a month until the actual Peace Day on the 21st. The students could help plan how they want their school to recognize and celebrate the event. In addition to using Gilley’s lesson plans I think it would be important for each teacher to incorporate their own discussion in their classrooms on non-violence, and other peace education areas. This would help each individual classroom relate to what types of conflict are going on in their societies.
The goal of each lesson, whether it be with Gilley’s lesson plans or the teacher’s, would be to spread knowledge about ways to bring about peace in small ways. These can be from their knowledge on non-violence to their knowledge of eco-resolution. Each lesson will more than likely encourage a student to go out and spread what they learned to another, and therefore spread the movement of peace.
“We should oppose violence in all situations and of course there’s no better way of bringing that about than through the power of education.”-Jeremy Gilley
Peace Learner 