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Follow the Fellows: She fought to be heard. Now she’s giving voice to others.

Jul 26, 2019 / No Comments

“I am sure there are people who might not consider me a ‘good girl,’” Mehwish, a 2019 GATHER Fellow, said recently in a phone interview.

In her country of Pakistan, she explained—as well as in many parts of the world—being a “good girl” in others’ eyes can mean kowtowing to demands, not making waves, and “saying yes to nonsense.”

That is not Mehwish.

“I don’t care what people think about me,” she said. “I cannot stand injustice and I cannot abide nonsense—regardless of whether it’s happening to me or my enemy.”

In a society where young women often have limited choices, Mehwish has been fighting to pave her own way since she was a teenager. Today, she’s become a source of knowledge and strength for others, and is dedicated to working with vulnerable communities, especially youth: educating them on their rights, empowering them to make good choices, and engaging them in the civil process so that they might be voices of change.

“Every young person should have a basic knowledge of life skills and legal rights, as well as courage and zest to speak about their community and achieve peace within their surroundings,” she said.

A LIGHT FOR OTHERS

Mehwish learned to be an independent thinker from her mother, a fortress of strength who raised Mehwish and her brother mostly alone. She taught Mehwish from an early age that girls, even young ones, had the same rights as boys, as well as the ability to question men, elders, and authority figures.

They were skills that would all too soon be put to the test. When Mehwish was 19, her mother died of cancer, and soon a battle began for Mehwish to fight off pressure from her extended family to marry young and to sign over her mother’s pension.

“It was a real hell for me, being a single 19-year-old woman,” she said. “And probably 90 percent of young women in my situation would have given up, just gone with the flow, and gotten married, but I said no, and I fought for my rights.”

Her mission now is to be the light to others that she wishes she would have had during those trying times. Through the Laureate Foundation, a non-governmental organization that Mehwish founded in 2008, she holds workshops, discussions, community dialogues, and trainings that aim to educate, empower, and encourage participants to become more actively involved in local elections and government.

In these programs, especially the dialogues, participants are able to learn to think critically, and to address problems that are core to the issues in their communities, like interfaith harmony, forced child marriages, and young people’s rights and roles in their societies. And while the people she works with vary greatly in age, education level, religious background, and socio-economic status, a large part of Mehwish’s attention is focused toward women and teenagers.

Researchers believe the rate of suicides and deliberate self harm among young people in Pakistan could be among the highest in the world, but it’s hard to know for sure: Organizations that track such things say it’s an under-studied, under-discussed topic in the country, possibly in part because of the criminalization of suicidal behavior in Pakistan.

“There is so much pressure on youth to succeed, yet they are given few chances to make decisions, to be heard, or to pursue avenues to contribute to society other than the ones their families expect of them,” she said. “The challenges I went through as a young girl have shown me it is imperative to enhance youth’s skills so they are capable of making the right choices, and participating in their communities in a way that ensures a peaceful society.”

LOOKING AHEAD

There tends to be an underlying urgency in Mehwish’s voice. She speaks directly and concisely, and in most pictures, she looks out from under a brightly colored hijab with a discerning, determined gaze that suggests she’s seen a lot for a young woman who only recently turned 30.

More than 2,500 people have passed through her programs already, including dozens of minority youths who have gone on to receive prestigious international scholarships, members of the transgender community who are leading movements for civil rights, and women who have taken control of their futures by starting businesses and continuing informal education. Now, she is using her time with GATHER to focus on the next goal: creating a more empathetic society. She hopes that in the long run, this will mean more opportunities for youth to participate in dialogues and lead change in their communities, and less room for intolerance, despair, and extremism.

Despite the success of her work so far, it hasn’t been easy making change in a society where many see her work as a challenge to the patriarchal order. She isn’t one to dwell on her hardships, however, and though she rarely shows cracks in her armor, she learned through her experiences with Seeds of Peace— first as a Delegation Leader in 2015, and now as a Fellow—the importance of allowing yourself to be vulnerable and to talk about your challenges.

Doing so with her GATHER cohort, she said, has helped her move past some hurdles that have been holding her back, like not approaching certain people within the local government offices for fear of being harassed.

“After leaving the GATHER convening in April, I came back and talked to the people I had been avoiding in the past,” she said. “I entered the government offices with the mindset that it would go great, and it actually ended up very good. I found good people there.”

She isn’t one to dwell on her hardships, but believes they can be opportunities to learn, grow, and take action.

“The world around us can be harsh, but the reason I survived is because I developed the power to identify and analyze a situation, and then get out of it sooner rather than later,” she said. “And this is something I want to work on with my youth. You didn’t meet your parents expectations? That doesn’t mean you have to end your life—let’s explore more avenues you can go down. It is important to be able to travel through a difficult path if you want to create your own.”

This series highlights our 2019 GATHER Fellows. To learn more about the inspiring social change that Mehwish and our other Fellows are working towards, check out #FollowtheFellows on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Ned Lazarus Diary No. 2
Slate

Nov 6, 2001 / No Comments

We’re harboring a fugitive today. She’s a 17-year-old Palestinian from a small village in the northern West Bank, and she’s got to take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language, required for international students to be accepted to American universities) tomorrow if she wants to get out of that little village and do something with her adult life.

Our fugitive is one of those stereotype-smashing hijab girls. We get one or two at Seeds of Peace camp every summer, and each one is unforgettable. They are talented, outgoing, witty, tough, wise, like so many of the kids that make it to our camp—but the hijab girls make an especially deep impression, because they come wrapped in the symbols of our deepest preconceptions. We will get to her story in a second, but first, definition:

HIJAB—the head scarf worn by observant Muslim women. The hijab covers just the hair—it is not a veil. It is the common outdoor gear for Palestinian Muslim women; the oppressive, face-hiding, and full-body-covering burkhas of Talibanistan are happily not in fashion here.

Actually, before I go any further, I’d better present the standard disclaimer, in order that the audience will listen to me and not their own preconceptions. DISCLAIMER: MY BIAS ON THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT—I’ve learned through guiding five years of Arab-Jewish dialogue and observing countless holier-than-thou arguments that if you have an opinion on the “Middle East situation,” you probably won’t read to the end of this paragraph to listen to mine.

You could be pro-Arab or pro-Israeli; as long as you’re passionate about the issue, you probably prefer lecturing to listening, and your first instinct in any discussion is to jump to conclusions about which “side” everybody else is on (I don’t mean to jump to conclusions about you; it’s just what I’m used to every time I try to explain my job). Well, don’t. Hear me out. I’m presenting the conflict through the eyes of teen-agers on both sides trying to live through it, so that’s worth a listen. It’s not what you’re used to. Trust me.

My bias on the conflict is that I’m against it. Having studied it thoroughly and observed it firsthand for five years, I’ve come to the definite conclusion that I am anti-the-conflict. It is a toxic element in our atmosphere. It is hazardous to human beings; it kills and maims hundreds every year, twisting bodies and minds into grotesque shapes that do not resemble the dreams of parents who brought them into the world. It has poisoned the souls of millions of Jews and Arabs and by absorption is steadily poisoning the souls of their great religions.

So I am militantly anti-the-conflict. It’s not just an ideological thing. It’s personal. It’s flesh and blood. This conflict is a clear and present danger to hundreds of incredible young Palestinians and Israelis whom I have been honored to befriend, who have the potential to do wonders in their lifetimes, if they will be allowed to really live. We lost one of our brightest stars, an Arab-Israeli boy named Asel Asleh already, gunned down last October at age 17 (details in upcoming diaries). For now, just bear in mind that I, like too many Palestinians and Israelis, know what it means to see a life stolen by the hatred and violence generated by this conflict.

Asel, of blessed memory, wrote presciently at age 15 to his Arab and Jewish friends on our e-mail listserv, SeedsNet: “There’s two things left to say: Enjoy every minute of this life while you’re still breathing 
 and second, be somebody, and not just anybody.” Those are guiding principles of our work: to enrich the lives of young people, and inspire them to make a difference in the world.

These are the spirit of Seeds of Peace. The founding principle, as repeated tirelessly by our president and founder John Wallach to every new group of Seeds, is to value equally human lives on both sides and to work to break the cycle of violence that destroys them.

That’s my bias. I am militantly pro the Israeli and Palestinian kids I work with, and militantly anti the threats to their freedom, safety, happiness and existence. That does put me at odds with a lot of elements on both sides, as both sides dedicate a staggering percentage of their national resources to threatening each other’s children.

If you feel your own bias rising as I criticize some Israeli or Arab policy or personage, it’s not because I hate one side and love the other. There’s a lot of people on both sides that I love, and some on both sides that I hate—but it’s not political or ethnic. My standard makes perfect sense in your basic human terms—I love people who bring something good into the lives of my kids, and I want to stop the people who are trying to hurt them.

NO! That’s more than 800 words already 
 it’s tough to meet this format. Guess I have to end with a preview: Meet stereotype-smashing hijab-wearing peace-making teen-age fugitive in Ned’s “Diary” tomorrow!

Read Ned Lazarus’ diary entry No. 2 at Slate »

Shoot Some Pool, Make Some Peace
The Los Angeles Times

May 16, 1998 / No Comments

BY ANDREW FRIEDMAN | Maybe if presidents and prime ministers shared hotel rooms, shot pool down in the lobby in between negotiating sessions, sneaked into one another’s rooms at night for some rowdy horseplay or sat in the hallways way past bedtime laughing about funny stories from camp last summer—maybe if they really cared about one another—there would be peace in the Middle East.

The 75 Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and American teenagers who convened recently in Villars, Switzerland, to negotiate the final status issues of the Middle East peace process had something going for them that their leaders, who met in London at the same time, didn’t. We had friendship.

When Hillary Rodham Clinton made her now-famous remarks supporting the creation of a Palestinian state, she was talking to us. But as momentous as her statement was, it was not the most significant event to transpire during the course of the Seeds of Peace-Novartis Middle East Youth Summit. The very fact that we could spend eight days together discussing, arguing, talking, cajoling and ultimately defining for ourselves the outlines of what permanent normalcy (“real” peace) might be, was far more revolutionary in its implications than the first lady’s remarks.

We had gathered in Switzerland to attempt to negotiate issues including refugees, Jerusalem and sovereignty—issues still too difficult for our elders to discuss. Each delegate was a graduate of Seeds of Peace, a foundation that brings young Arabs and Israelis and Americans together at a camp in Maine every summer. This first ever youth summit aimed at drafting a general agreement on the final status issues, tested to the maximum the strength of our friendships and the durability of our trust. It was a test of our commitment to one another and to peace. At camp, we had agreed to disagree; here, we needed to compromise and debate until we reached agreement. The summit gave us a rare opportunity to actually influence our leaders, to be a part of history-in-the-making. Yasser Arafat, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Clintons, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Jordan’s King Hussein have agreed to read our agreement. The pride and responsibility that came with this realization set the tone for the entire week of negotiations.

But the summit was not a sugar-coated performance. Some adults worried we’d leave feeling as disillusioned and disappointed with one another as the real negotiators do. None of us, though, was expecting Utopia. Everybody came prepared to deal with real issues and real emotions. If making personal peace was hard, making a peace treaty would be even harder.

In my committee’s discussions about the refugees, we spent the week haggling over proposals, tweaking, arguing some more, until we could finally reach a compromise. One of the last days of the negotiations, I was having a private discussion with the Palestinians, Egyptians and Jordanians. We were trying to persuade a Palestinian girl to compromise. An Egyptian girl movingly pleaded with her to understand that reality would never be able to live up to her dreams. That is a tragedy, but one we must all accept. The Palestinian girl sat there silently for a little while, then she started crying. Her tears represented a heart-wrenching letting go of her impossible dream in exchange for a less-desirable reality.

When we finally reached an agreement, we all cheered and hugged. I was excited and fearful for my summit peers about what we had accomplished: This truly is their future on the line. They all have a vested interest in the success of the peace process, because if it fails, it will be they who will again be forced into the cycles of hatred and violence. That’s what everybody is afraid of and that’s why we were all there.

So whether the next summit of the “real” leaders is next week or next year, I hope they will look to our example. My advice to President Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu is simple: Next time you meet, why don’t the three of you share a room? You might learn something about one another you didn’t know. You might discover that your assumptions about one another have been wrong all along. You might even make a friend. And you might even decide that your friendship is worth a little compromise.

We did.

Father, son hike to Mt. Everest Base Camp in support of Seeds of Peace programs

May 10, 2011 / 1 Comment

LONDON | Nyv (age 12) and his father Ori just spent 18 days in the Himalayas, hiking to the base of Mt. Everest. In doing so, the pair raised over $6,000 for Seeds of Peace.

“We believe that the work that Seeds of Peace is doing and the personal dedication of each Seed and supporter globally will enable us to reach the ultimate goal of making this world a better place,” says Ori.

Ori helped organize McKinsey & Company’s New Partner Orientation week during which Graduate Seeds teamed up with the New Partners. After that experience, “we felt in our family that we want to get more involved in peacemaking and with Seeds of Peace,” says Ori.

Nyv and Ori began their uphill trek to the Everest Base Camp on April 16, hiking by themselves for 10 days without guides, porters or support. “We were hoping to strengthen our relationship, test our mental and physical endurance and make it our own memorable adventure.”

When they reached the Base Camp (17,590 ft.), the pair placed the Seeds of Peace flag alongside the many national symbols at the site.

The next day, they summitted the Kala Pattar peak (18,514 ft.).

Seeds of Peace alumni rally for October riots victims
The Jerusalem Post

Jan 3, 2008 / No Comments

Demonstration was signal to Arab community of Israel that Jews just as outraged by Mazuz’s decision, one protester said

JERUSALEM | Some 40 people demonstrated in front of the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem on Tuesday, demanding that it reopen the investigation into the October 2000 riots, in which 13 Israeli-Arab civilians were killed by police.

The protest was organized by graduates of the Seeds of Peace movement, which lost one of its members, Asil Asala, in the riots. According to eyewitnesses, Asala, who did not participate in the clashes, had been wearing the movement’s T-shirt when he was chased by police and shot. He was 17 at the time.

Noa Epstein, a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem—as well as a member of the youth movement during Asala’s year—said the demonstration was a signal to the Arab community of Israel that Jews were just as outraged by Mazuz’s decision.

“It is unthinkable that you have 13 people in their graves, 13 Israeli citizens shot by Israeli police, and no one is held responsible,” Epstein said.

The demonstrators also sent letters to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, writing that if the victims of the shooting had been Jews, the investigation would not have been closed.

“We are losing the moral ground to claim Israel is a democracy,” they wrote. “We ask the prime minister and the attorney-general, how do you intend to deal with the mounting frustration in the Arab sector? Can’t you see that it’s tearing the country apart?” Epstein said.

She said they had many questions about the investigation of the deaths.

“The officer who most probably shot Asil refused to undergo a polygraph test, so they just let him go,” she said. “We realize that there are many more problems in the investigation, such as the refusal of the families to have the bodies exhumed, but we believe that much more can still be done.”

Mazuz made the decision last week to close the investigation against the policemen involved.

“The incident involved the use of operational judgment in an emergency situation,” Mazuz wrote in his ruling. He also said forensic evidence was legally insufficient to press charges.

Critics pointed out that the criminal investigation had started only after the commission of inquiry submitted its findings—two years after the events.

Read Dimi Reider’s article at The Jerusalem Post »

Keeping the peace: Group says youths are the keys to world harmony
Chicago Tribune

Jan 20, 2003 / No Comments

BY VERENA DOBNIK | Julia Frazier has an indelible memory of summer camp—standing on a large seesaw, 10 people at each end, balancing so a glass of water in the middle didn’t spill. The exercise was meant to show the teenagers, who came from around the world, what it takes to negotiate peace between warring factions.

“If everyone took even a tiny step, it would upset the balance. We had to choose one person to take that step, support that person and balance as a team. Every person matters—big or small,” said Frazier, a 17-year-old high school senior who attends the Masters School in this Hudson River community north of New York City.

The seesaw test was staged in the woods of Otisfield, Maine, as part of a summer camp run by Seeds of Peace, a private, nonprofit organization founded by the late author and journalist John Wallach. Since 1993, Seeds has brought together about 2,000 youths from warring lands—Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, Cypriot Turks and Greeks, Bosnian Muslims and Serbs, and tribal members from Afghanistan.

Two events this month reinforce its international reputation. Aaron David Miller, the U.S. State Department’s senior adviser for Arab-Israeli negotiations, was named president of the New York- based group. “Seeds of Peace reflects the type of effort so desperately needed in the Middle East,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said in announcing Miller’s departure.

Comedian Janeane Garofalo was the host of a benefit auction in Manhattan, where former President Bill Clinton noted that there have been 120 Middle East suicide bombings in the past two years. The Canadian pop band Barenaked Ladies was given the first MTV Seeds of Peace Award.

Seeds members have been touched directly by both war and peace. Asel Asleh, a 17-year-old Palestinian, was wearing a Seeds of Peace T-shirt when killed by Israeli soldiers during a rock- throwing protest in Israel two years ago. Similar shirts were worn by Seeds members invited to the White House in 1993, when Clinton hosted the signing of a Middle East peace accord between Israel’s then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat—a pact that did not endure.

John Wallach, a son of Holocaust survivors, founded Seeds after years as a foreign correspondent covering the strife and failed diplomacy of the Middle East, hoping the camp could help bright young people from the region find the keys to peace. Seeds alumni “go home very, very different from when they arrive. I think they now know the enemy. . . The enemy is now human,” Wallach said before his death last July.

Seeds of Peace announces new program initiatives developed at Action Summit

Sep 27, 2006 / No Comments

Organization also makes $1.2 million commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative to launch conflict resolution institute

NEW YORK | Seeds of Peace announced a number of new initiatives today that were a direct result of the Action Summit held earlier this month at the Manhattanville College in New York. Thirty Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, and Jordanian Seeds graduates, whose involvement with Seeds of Peace stretches over a decade, spent four days together developing programs and networking initiatives to enable and foster more communication and cooperation between Arabs and Israelis as well as to increase the impact and effectiveness of Seeds of Peace in the Middle East and world communities at large.

“We are pleased with the very clear and tight action plan the Seeds generated,” said Janet Wallach, president of Seeds of Peace. “These programs will be implemented by the Seeds themselves and will offer tremendous opportunities to enhance their leadership skills and to engage each other and their communities personally and professionally.”

Recognizing the need for programs that engage and empower Seeds now involved in professional careers, summit participants developed a series of initiatives to increase the potential of economic cooperation and professional networking opportunities between each other. Highlights include:

Connecting Israeli and Palestinian Schools

Israeli and Palestinian Seeds who received training in professional dialogue facilitation through an Seeds of Peace-sponsored conflict mediation course will engage students in Israeli and Palestinian schools in Jerusalem through regular dialogue sessions and recreational activities. This will enable the Seeds to practice their facilitation skills while also contributing to community outreach projects.

Business Forum

Israeli and Palestinian Seeds will provide local business professionals in both communities with the opportunity to network and engage each other in the service of economic cooperation. Speakers will be invited to address specific topics of interest to both the business community and the Seeds.

Professional Development Seminars

Creating groups of Arab and Israeli Seeds who share professional interests, educational sessions will be held on subjects such as law, education, business, and religion.

Political Educational Seminars

Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, and Jordanian Seeds will design a seminar series in each of their countries to gain in depth understanding of their own political systems, historical peace treaties and critical issues concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. The culmination of the program will be a multinational event that enables the group to share their learnings and capture their findings in a joint document.

Community Outreach

In order to multiply the impact of Seeds of Peace in the societies of our alumni, Israeli and Arab Seeds will conduct extensive outreach programs to engage their families, friends, and community members. Specific programs include school and college presentations parent dialogue groups, and partnerships with local businesses, and community service organizations.

Mentorship Program

To create strong linkages between Seeds aged 14 to 27, older and younger Seeds will be paired together through a mentorship program emphasizing community involvement.

In addition to the new program initiatives derived from the Action Summit, Seeds of Peace was a participant in the Clinton Global Initiative where they announced the launch of the John P. Wallach Institute for Conflict Resolution, a $1.2 million initiative to provide advanced negotiation and mediation training to university-aged Israeli and Palestinian Seeds. The institute’s mission will be to empower an emerging generation of Israeli and Palestinian youth to lead their communities toward peace. Program curriculum will cover human rights, gender issues, religion and democracy, and program participants will do outreach work using Seeds’ communication technologies to expand their reach.

About Seeds of Peace

Seeds of Peace empowers leaders of the next generation. Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated over 3,000 teenagers and young adults from several regions of conflict and has reached several thousand more in their communities through initiatives such as the International Camp in Maine, numerous regional workshops, educational and professional courses, and adult educator programs, as well as the extensive Seeds network. Participants develop empathy, respect, and confidence, and gain critical leadership, negotiation and conflict resolution skills. Many are now in positions of influence such as on the team of advisors to President Abbas, assistant to a member of the Knesset, or working at the World Bank, the United Nations and in TV and radio broadcasting.

Founded by the late John Wallach, former Hearst correspondent and author, Seeds of Peace is internationally recognized for its unique model of long-term engagement with its youth participants, its official support and endorsement by the government leadership of its participating delegations, and its ability to operate continuously to bring youth from regions of conflict together to commit to a model of coexistence and a path to peace.

Contact: Amgad Naguib, GolinHarris

Reflecting on the power of virtual camp to expand dialogue beyond the dialogue hut

Aug 27, 2020 / 1 Comment

It was awe-inspiring, and yet sort of unsatisfying. We saw familiar and new faces of Seeds from around the world, but in a 5-by-5-inch grid from often fuzzy screens as the Zoom-based session of the 2020 Seeds of Peace virtual camp began.

A short while later, lying around each of us on our kitchen tables, beds, and bedroom floors were eight small scraps of paper, upon each we had previously written an important part of our identity (such as race, sexuality, or religion). As guided by our facilitators, we discarded the pieces one by one until we each held just one piece of ourselves.

What was left prompted a profound dialogue on identities and our values. Even though we have both been on almost-daily Zoom calls since COVID-19 entered our lives in March, we had never experienced something on a digital platform that felt so connected to our own space. And that was just the first day.

For the week in August that made up the virtual camp, we engaged in deep and vulnerable dialogue sessions, complex discussions regarding race, and workshops on public policy and design thinking. Having previously attended Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine, all of the participants were familiar with delving into deep topics, and then moving on to the other aspects of Camp—the songs, the games, the bunks, the lake—a combination that makes for an unforgettable experience.

But what felt so awing about virtual camp was the conclusion of it all. There were no hugs or shared physical space after dialogue sessions where we could regroup and decompress together. And when it ended, there was no running across The Field to wave goodbye to departing buses, or savoring the last dewy lineup with each bunk’s arms around each other. On the final day of virtual camp, it simply wasn’t the same clicking out of the Zoom tab and closing our laptops shut.

And yet, we were left wanting more.

Upon a few FaceTime calls afterwards, we connected and reflected on how magical this week was. A lot of the magic had to do with the fact that when we were engaging in deep dialogues and workshops, we were at home—a few of us in bed, many of us at a desk, or perhaps outside. Virtual camp has empowered us, and we’re sure a greater part of the Seeds community as well, through radically empathetic dialogue—all of which happened over Zoom.

Zoom is the same platform that many of us engaged with in the months of remote learning for school. We think it’s safe to assume that virtual video platforms, including Zoom, are familiar with all of us at this point. Yet in this familiar space, we have never engaged in deeper or more challenging dialogue. This feat is an excellent example that dialogue exists beyond Dialogue Alley and The Trophy Room, and we have a responsibility to extract it from that one place, especially now that we see it is possible.

Both of us, Danielle and Martine, are passionate about bringing dialogue into our own communities and have done so through creating and leading local programs, online classes, and student organizations.

Throughout this summer, Danielle co-created and co-facilitated an online class about anti-racism that was attended by fifth- through seventh-grade students from across the U.S., and recently co-facilitated her school’s leadership retreat to train other students on identity-based work, particularly grounded in dialogue. Up next, she is constructing an antiracism class by and for teens from around the world.

Martine has been working on a summer project with the Living Room Conversations organization to connect high school students, including many Seeds, through 90-minute facilitated Zoom conversations on topics such as refugee resettlement and race and incarceration. Martine is designing a program with the organization that will bring about a dozen teens together regularly to engage in dialogue and other empowerment workshops.

Many skills that we have learned through our time as Seeds, especially while attending virtual camp, have guided us in these endeavors and challenged us to think more deeply about our local work. In learning about Liz Anderson’s Human Centered Design model, we brainstormed how to more effectively advocate for local issues, including Los Angeles’ public transportation system and Syracuse’s schools. This session implored us to go further than simply talking about issues impacting us and our community. By analyzing the rules of brainstorming and specific how-might-we questions, we were able to understand how to collectively work towards solving these issues at the local level.

Upon leaving Camp last summer we both knew that we had gone through a transformative experience, and there was a lot of work to do in our hometowns and beyond. But when COVID-19 struck our lives, we also felt like it had interrupted our community work, or perhaps made it nearly impossible to do. Virtual camp grounded and re-energized us in this work towards a more dialogue-based and empathic future—a future that we now know we not only can plan for during the coronavirus, but that we must plan for as we reimagine what a post-COVID-19 world will look like.

Danielle is a rising senior at Westridge School in Southern California, where she is the current co-head of Student Voices, an organization for diversity, equity, and inclusion; and as well as founder and co-head of Filipinx Affinity, a student-led social justice space for Filipinx members of her school.

Martine is a rising junior at Nottingham High School in Syracuse, New York. She is committed to reimaging the spaces that students more commonly interact with and that have been heavily impacted by COVID-19. With the Syracuse delegation of Seeds of Peace, she advocates for education justice through the implementation of dialogue in the classroom, especially as we enter a new era of learning this fall.

29 Seeds attend advanced leadership program in Cyprus

Aug 29, 2016 / No Comments

KAMPOS, CYPRUS | Seeds from the Middle East, South Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States took part in an eight-day advanced leadership program held in a village in the Troodos Mountains on the island of Cyprus.

This is the first time this program, which is also held every summer at the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine, has been held outside of Camp for all delegations.

The 29 high-school age Seeds who attended the August 20-28 Paradigm Shifters program took part in advanced leadership and “Unleashing Change” sessions that integrate dialogue and workshops. The Seeds covered topics including active and applied leadership and leadership styles, active listening, collaborative problem solving, and peer support and understanding. Nine facilitators from around the world helped lead the program.

During the Unleashing Change sessions, Seeds took part in dialogue and workshops dedicated to the exploration of identities, communities, and global issues and concepts. They also gave presentations on issues affecting their communities and shared ways to engage them effectively. Seeds also received tools to better understand cultural modes of communication, community action, and organizing within their local context.

“It was incredible to see how engaged and challenged the kids were in discussing community issues from around the world,” said Seeds of Peace’s Orlando Arellano, who organized the Paradigm Shifters program.

“Jumping from Brexit, to Black Lives Matter, to occupation, to Kashmir, to the refugee crisis, the diversity of this group really provided a next-level, mature dialogue that allowed Seeds to both connect and confront the most pressing issues of our time.”

In addition to the dialogue session, the Seeds took part in the Unleashing Change program, which explores a range of topics including community action and organizing as well as issues around community and identity. Participants also acquired tools and skills for action-oriented thinking and communication.

“We witnessed tremendous discussions and growth that not only stimulated hope, but a call to action,” said Arellano.

Seeds from every delegation represented at Camp the last few summers took part in the program, including Maine and Syracuse. For many of the Americans, it was their first time outside the United States.

The program was held at a school in the village of Kampos, and participants spent time learning about the conflict in Cyprus, touring the divided city of Nicosia and the United Nations buffer zone. The Seeds were hosted by the Home for Cooperation, an organization that builds bridges between the north and south sides of the island. They also took part in workshops led by the Cyprus Association for Historical Dialogue and Research. Cypriot Seeds helped organize much of the week’s logistics and local partnerships.
 
CYPRUS PROGRAM PHOTOS

58 Maine Seeds address challenges facing state’s education system

Mar 9, 2014 / No Comments

PORTLAND, MAINE | High school student leaders from across the state met March 8 to find solutions to challenges facing Maine’s education system as part of the Seeds of Peace Maine Youth Summit on Education in Portland.

The goal of the 2nd Annual Youth Summit was to empower Maine youth to communicate their educational needs while also providing a forum in which they could discuss the issues with influential policy makers.

The students hailed from 14 public and private high schools across the state and included a mix of recent immigrants and multi-generational locals. A total of 58 Seeds took part, as well as eight non-Seed students, 10 local educators, and number of other community partners.

In preparation for the summit, the student facilitators spent months choosing and researching relevant topics, including Maine’s school standards, resources for students with learning disabilities, English Language Learner programs, and the economics of public education. The students structured the day-long program to provide opportunities for Maine Seeds to lead presentations as well as partake in the group discussions that followed.

One important element of the summit was to provide students with a platform to share the challenges they face on a daily basis. Students gave presentations on subjects they viewed as most relevant to their personal experiences, including the economics of education, standards-based learning, and learning disabilities. Each presentation gave a critical overview of the issues, and provided solutions for moving forward. Following the presentations, the students led discussion groups panels, allowing participants to further explore solutions and ask questions.

In testament to the attention among local lawmakers garnered by the Summit, several Maine Congressional officials addressed the students at the Summit by video, letter, or via representative.

Senator Susan Collins said in her video message, “I can assure you that education leaders and policymakers will read your report with great interest and appreciation,” she said.

“You are making a difference that will benefit the young people of Maine for years to come. Making a difference is what Seeds of Peace is all about.”

Edie Smith, State Director for Sen. Angus King, and Maine gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler also joined the students, high school principals, and superintendents at the Summit. These state and local leaders fully participated in the conversations, giving them an opportunity to interact directly with the students.

“I wanted to show others what it felt like to be considered an outsider and to be labeled as something different and foreign,” said Sahra, a 2013 Seed who presented on English Language learning. “I wanted to represent a community that isn’t well represented in the Maine educational system.”

“[The Summit] taught me that I could say something despite being worried about offending someone who thought differently. It deepened my leadership skills as well as heightened my knowledge. It was truly amazing seeing everyone go on stage and present on a topic that they felt passionate about and wanted to be apart of fixing it.”

Seeds from previous years were impressed with the dedication of the students. “It was amazing to see such an eclectic mix of young people with sterling qualities work to solve our social issues,” said Lars, a 2000 Maine Seed and facilitator at the Summit.

The topics and research findings discussed at the Summit will be sent to Maine lawmakers and school administrators. The Maine Seeds will continue their important work by reviewing the conclusions of the day and updating the previous charters. In the fall, Maine Seeds will formally present the new 2014 Youth Charter to the governor, to leaders of the Legislature, and to Maine’s congressional delegation.

“I think it’s important for kids to hear people like Eliot Cutler speak and know that there are important people looking at this [Charter] and scrutinizing it,” said Meredith, a senior who led the 2013 Youth Summit.

By providing students with a platform to voice their concerns through this annual event, Seeds of Peace will continue to engage Maine youth as civic leaders in their own communities.

“I learned that we as a generation need to be the change and we need to make those changes as well,” said Sahra. “We are the ones who will be impacted by all of these issues in the future.”

Read Nell Gluckman’s article about the Summit in The Bangor Daily News â€șâ€ș
 
2014 MAINE YOUTH SUMMIT