By Gina McGalliard
Some believe that violence stemming from ethnic or religious conflict is a part of human nature, and those who attempt to eradicate it are unrealistic idealists. However, those at Seeds of Peace, a Maine-based organization that brings together young people from conflict-ridden areas around the world, have a different idea.
In bringing adolescents together from rival groups such as Palestinians and Jews, Indians and Pakistanis to their Maine summer camp, the nonprofit Seeds of Peace seeks to put a human face on what was previously a stereotyped and faceless enemy.
Campers learn skills in negotiation, conflict resolution, and communication in order to plant “seeds” of peace. The hope is that when they grow up and become leaders and active members of their communities, they will be equipped to find peaceful rather than violent solutions to long-standing conflicts. Campers are chosen based on their leadership potential, said Eric Kapenga, the organization’s communications director. The selection process is competitive: last year more than 8,000 people applied for just 300 spots.
Seeds of Peace was founded in 1993, by journalist John Wallach, who served as the foreign editor of the Hearst Newspapers, and regularly appeared on CNN, Meet the Press, and Week in Review. He also had the distinction of being the BBC’s first visiting foreign affairs correspondent in 1980, and received the Edwin Hood award (the highest honor given by the National Press Club) for his reporting on the Iran-Contra affair.
“During a Washington D.C. cocktail reception, John Wallach proposed that the Egyptian, Palestinian, and Israeli ambassadors in attendance send delegations of their best and brightest youth to the U.S.,” said Kapenga, who was a Seeds of Peace camp counselor for several summers. “Put on the spot, they all agreed, and to keep them to their commitment, he wrote a story about it the next day.”
That summer the first Seeds of Peace International Camp began with 46 Palestinian, Israeli, and Egyptian teenagers. Although a small start, the organization was privileged to receive an invitation from President Clinton to attend the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords between Yasser Arafat and Yitzak Rabin. A year later Seeds of Peace added a Moroccan delegation, thus doubling in size with teenagers coming from Jordan, Tunisia, and the Balkans. In 2001, at the urging of the U.S. State Department, Seeds of Peace formed a program for Indian and Pakistani youth, which included diverse groups such as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, and Christians.
In 2002, they added an Afghan delegation, starting with twelve teenagers and two adult delegation leaders. Due to the recent upheavals in Afghan society, the Afghan program initially centered on sharing personal experiences rather than participation in dialogue sessions. However, Afghan delegates, including representatives from the Tajik, Pashtun, and Hazaras ethnic groups, did begin dialogue sessions in 2009. The Maine camp also includes an American delegation, which in addition to meeting the international campers, also learns about local racial conflicts in Maine, a state with a recent upsurge in its number of immigrants from Asia and Africa. Maine is home to one of the largest refugee resettlements in the country.
Fundamental to the camp experience are the dialogue sessions, where participants, under the guidance of a trained facilitator, share personal stories, and experiences, examine previously held stereotypes, and discuss issues affecting their region. This is a new experience for many, coming from places where interaction with the “other” is highly unusual or even nonexistent.
Rather than espouse specific political views or solutions to conflicts, Seeds of Peace instead fosters communication and mutual respect as a way of finding common ground.
“Conflict is inevitable. There will always be people who disagree, but in progressive societies that choose to move away from violent conflict, people will use these disagreements to transform conflicts through compromise,” says Leila Hunter, an American Seed who has served as part of the Maine delegation, worked in Peer Support, and returning this summer as a camp counselor.
“In my opinion, Seeds of Peace is essentially a program that gives kids an outlet to get involved with change. They come to camp with so many ideas of who they should be and who they should represent, but at camp, it usually gets broken down to how an individual can choose to work.
Dialogue is important because the ugly stuff gets out in a controlled environment, but the violent conflict isn’t going to stop simply because people say things. In the beginning kids aren’t even listening to what other people are saying, they’re just thinking of a retort.”
Campers also participate in activities such as swimming, sports, art, and music. According to Hunter, this is even more important than dialogue. “[Seeds of Peace] further develops the concept of global peace because these campers actually learn to live [with] and trust one another,” says Hunter. “They don’t just go into dialogue like their leaders; they actually live with their so called enemies. They play, learn, talk, sleep, and eat with their enemies. Seeds of Peace becomes a makeshift home.”
From its small beginnings in the early nineties, Seeds of Peace has blossomed into an organization that has a global presence, with offices in Cairo, Jerusalem, Lahore, Ramallah, Tel Aviv, Amman, Gaza, Kabul, Mumbai, and Otisfield. Recognizing that the camp experience is only the beginning of the conflict resolution work, Seeds of Peace holds community service projects, outreach, seminars, and summits to continue what began in Maine.
The global reach of Seeds of Peace allows the creation of programs, run by Seeds, that directly affects those in conflict-ridden regions. For instance in 2009, Seeds of Peace formed the Women’s Leadership Training Program for Greater Economic Participation in the Middle East, which is designed to increase the economic participation of women. The program was led by 15 Seeds of Peace graduates, ages 18 to 28, from Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Other examples of international projects include On Your Own Merit, which trains underprivileged Israeli mothers for the workplace, and the Cairo-based Egyptian Women’s Advancement Community, which provides young women with the skills to become entrepreneurs. Cross Border workshops have also been formed, such as the weeklong Women’s Leadership Workshop held in April 2009 in Amman, Jordan.
In South Asia, graduates of Seeds of Peace participate in homestays, in which Afghan and Pakistani Seeds, who met at camp, will visit each other’s homes for a weeklong stay. They are also trained to make joint presentations to their schoolmates about their experiences. The Afghan year-round program also has many success stories, such as one Seed who persuaded her neighbor’s father to allow his daughter to attend school, and another Seed who started a project with local Afghan boys to challenge the violence that is so commonplace in Afghan culture.
In an effort to reach even younger children, Seeds of Peace also partnered with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces Sesame Street, to form Sesame Seeds. Comprised of 20 Seeds of Peace graduates, the program is evenly split between Palestinians and Israelis, to work in kindergartens to spread the message of peaceful coexistence between the two groups.
On the other end of the age spectrum are the adult delegation leaders, who may be educators or community leaders in their own countries that accompany the teenaged Seeds to camp. Because the mission of Seeds of Peace may garner a negative reaction in the countries the Seeds are from, delegation leaders have been instrumental in creating awareness for the value of dialogue and peaceful conflict resolution.
As Seeds of Peace continues to expand and plant more and more “seeds” around the world, and as these seeds continue to take root and bloom, one can remain hopeful that violence and hatred of others based on differences may indeed become a thing of the past. As stated in the charter on Uprooting Hatred and Terror, written jointly in 2001 by more than 120 Seeds, “We entered camp full of stereotypes and prejudices against our enemy; after three exhilarating weeks of coexistence, we returned home with an understanding of the other side and acceptance of our common humanity. We learned that we are strong together.”