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Parents of Israeli and Palestinian Seeds, Educators continue dialogue series

Feb 11, 2016 / No Comments

JERUSALEM | Parents of Seeds have been meeting monthly as part of a dialogue series that parallels the dialogue program held at the Seeds of Peace Camp.

During the meetings, which are held separately for Jewish and Arab parents of Israeli Seeds, and for parents of Palestinian Seeds in the West Bank, participants discuss topics related to the experiences of their children, as well as topics related to the conflict in their daily life.

For example, 11 Palestinian parents met with Seed and dialogue facilitator Bashar on January 13, who spoke with the group about his experience with Seeds of Peace and life as a Palestinian living in Israel. On February 11, seven Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli parents met with Seeds of Peace staff in Kfar Saba to discuss issues around the identity of Palestinian living in Israel.

“This is the first time for me to think about the Palestinian identity of Arabs in Israel from such a broad point of view,” said one parent.

“For me it is important to be here. I expect from myself the same I expect from my son, and if he is engaging in dialogue with Palestinians, so should I,” said another.

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

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

What We’re Reading: Love, leaders, courage, and justice in Black America

Feb 25, 2019 / No Comments

The former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass is often quoted as saying that “once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

Regardless of time, location, class, or race, reading has long been a gateway to knowledge, understanding, and empowerment—which is why so many societies throughout history have banned books or reading among groups of people they wished to oppress.

At Seeds of Peace, we’re in the business of empowering, so it should come as no surprise that there are many voracious readers here on staff. We are constantly talking about, reading about, and sharing ideas about dialogue, leadership, empathy, and people working to change the status quo. And because we think many members of the Seeds of Peace community also hold this passion, we’re starting a new series, “What We’re Reading,” that gives a window into this ongoing conversation.

Each month, we’ll share staff recommendations of several timely or theme-related books, articles, reports, and more that in some way reflect the Seeds of Peace mission. And though some works might touch on political topics, they are not meant to endorse a certain view or take any side. Rather, we are looking to share works that will hopefully educate, inspire, stimulate conversations, and/or build empathy.

February is Black History Month in America, so we’re kicking off the series with a focus on African-American authors, culture, and history. These works examine struggles involving race, gender, sexuality, and economic inequality; show the links between conflicts in America and conflicts abroad; and put us in the shoes of people chasing dreams, speaking truth to power, falling in love, and, all too often, trying to find a place in a system that was set up to exclude or oppress them.

We hope you find new ideas and experiences in these works, and if so, we’d love to hear about it. Are there other books you would recommend? Let us know in the comments section, and happy reading!

The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman
Set in the 1920s, this story from Thurman, a renowned contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, follows the life of a very dark-skinned black woman who leaves her home in Idaho for Los Angeles, then New York City, in hopes of finding a community where she will be accepted. It is not a quick, how-to guide to overcoming racism and discrimination, but it is a quick read that will help the reader understand different perspectives of how something as basic as the shade of your skin can literally dictate and change a person’s life. The U.S., and other parts of the world, have had “reform” and “change” in the 90 years since this book was published, but some problems linger; and the underlying theme of discrimination and colorism still rings true throughout many communities today. This novel makes you question whether we are making a difference at all, or if we are just renaming our societal problems so there seems to be change. — Imani Jean-Gilles, Communications Intern

Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools by Jonathan Kozol
In 1964 Kozol entered the Boston Public School system as a fourth grade teacher at one of its most overcrowded and dilapidated schools. Here, he discovered an institutional apartheid, a where teachers beat and neglected black students, often referring to them as “animals” and worse. Death, a 1967 National Book Award winner, was the definitive book on poor public education in Boston. More importantly, it really told the truth about public school for Black students in large cities in the U.S. — Tim Wilson, Senior Advisor & Director, Maine Seeds Programs

Racing to Justice by John A. Powell
This book and other works from Powell are a gift and true lesson to people working to build a future where belonging is at the center of our systems, structures, relationships, and identities. Racing to Justice emphasizes that how we talk, do, and live race has vast impact on our imagined futures. If race isn’t central to how we understand our current or future social constructions, we will continue to perpetuate “inequality, mass incarceration, full participation in our political and cultural structures, and—perhaps most critically—with our most fundamental questions about who we are.” — Kiran Thadhani, Director of Global Programs

The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
Here’s a novel, (a small piece of furniture, really, at 630+ pages) that blew me away with its intensity, authenticity, raw emotion, and human truths. It’s the story of an African-American woman and a Jewish German immigrant man who meet at the 1939 Marian Anderson concert on the National Mall in Washington, DC. They fall in love, get married (breaking laws at the time—both civic and ‘moral’), and have three children. This book gave me a glimpse into America’s recent past and the human toll of systems of oppression the way no history class ever has, and put me inside the shoes of someone who struggled with identity over the course of a lifetime … a lifetime that spans multiple social movements and mores. — Deb Levy, Director of Communications

Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
Danez Smith is a black queer poet, and I think one of the most important young poets of whom I am aware. This book, a National Book Award for Poetry finalist, begins with “Summer Somewhere,” which imagines black men who have been killed in acts of violence popping up in an afterworld that is a perpetual summer day on the block. Here is a poet who loves black men—in a society that does not—and this love and care saturates the poems. There’s beauty, brutality, genius, and humor, often all at once (see Dinosaurs in the Hood). The entire book is a gift, and the gift is his imagination; it’s as though he said “there’s no good place for us, so I’ll write one.” — Greg Barker, Manager, Facilitation Programs (P.S. The Poetry Foundation has compiled an outstanding collection of poems, articles, and podcasts celebrating Black History Month.)

Overlooked: Black History Month The New York Times
This special edition of the The Times’s belated-obituaries series shines a light on remarkable black men and women who in some way shaped our world or blazed trails for future generations. From a gender-bending star of the Harlem Renaissance, to slave-turned-millionaire abolitionist, these are lives worth studying, celebrating, emulating, and remembering for their accomplishments, as well as for identifying the systems that prevented many of them from ever achieving the fame or stature they deserved in their lifetimes. — Lori Holcomb-Holland, Communications and Development Manager

Meet Saumya: Doing the most good with 3,900 weekends

Oct 31, 2021 / No Comments

How much good can one person do, how much love can one person spread, in the course of a lifetime? Saumya, a 2018 Indian Seed, is well on her way to finding out.

The 17-year-old said she calculated some time ago that she probably has around 3,900 weekends left on earth. The realization was a motivator, but also put much into perspective: What did she want to do with this precious time?

In many ways, she’s already done more than most. In the eighth grade she attended the Seeds of Peace Interfaith Camp in India, a choice that set her on a path to attending Camp in Maine in 2018, becoming a dialogue facilitator, and using a few of her favorite tools—particularly dialogue, art, dancing, and a lot of love—to becoming a champion of female empowerment and youth education.

“Through dialogue with Seeds of Peace, I began to see small things in the ways that women were treated, whether they had professional lives or worked from home. Seeing the hypocrisy inspired me to do something, and I started by going back to my roots.”

Thus was born Project Sachetna (birth or renewal in Hindi), a weeklong, in-person program that Saumya and her sister Sanmyukta (2019 Indian Seed) founded in 2018 for girls in the rural community where her father grew up. Using primarily dialogue and arts and crafts, they sought to bring a message of empowerment to girls who were only a few years younger than them.

“Most of the kids go to school for the free lunch, and most of the girls get married after 10th grade,” Saumya said. “There’s not much a future for them if they want something else, but we wanted to show them they did have a choice, and that their voices mattered.”

The program was scheduled for a week during the students’ vacation, and Saumya was told not to expect much in terms of attendance.

“The first few days started with around 20 girls, but the numbers kept increasing. They were showing up an hour early, and before long, boys began coming as well, intrigued by what the girls were learning. By the end of the week, the number had more than doubled,” Saumya said.

She has since been selected for a number of prestigious fellowships that allow youth to explore and express ideas around intersections of topics like feminism, equality, and leadership. Most recently, she was invited by Teach for India to participate in a project examining the repercussions of the pandemic on education in India. Organizing community dialogues, creating toolkits that countered misinformation, and even speaking on national television, she advocated for the millions of students—some 60 percent of children—without internet access who were suffering from a lack of education during the pandemic.

“These are not just statistics, there are actually humans behind them,” she told a newscaster. “If we can put resources into reopening restaurants and reopening bars, why are we not putting the same resources into re-opening our schools?”

While Saumya is motivated to make the most of her time on earth, she said her focus is on empowering others to make changes in their own lives and communities.

“I want to do remarkable work that sustains my soul, but it’s not about fame or money,” she said, “If I’m able to help out even one person, I’ll feel like this is a life well lived.”

Follow the Fellows: A north star for Arab women

Nov 12, 2019 / No Comments

“One thing I dislike the most is being told I can’t.”

That fire is what compelled Mariam to hike Mount Kilimanjaro at the age of 17, surprising the rest of her tour group who said that they had never seen an Arab woman on the climb before. And it’s the same burning energy that fuels her desire to create a platform that changes the narrative for what it means to be a woman in Egyptian society.

Mariam, a 2010 Egyptian Seed and a 2019 GATHER Fellow, has always been passionate about female empowerment and gender equality. Although she grew up in a supportive family and didn’t have to battle many of the same inequities as her peers, she acknowledges the almost invisible ways that gender roles played out in her relationships. “When I was going through college,” she said, “there wasn’t this expectation or pressure on me to find a job and make a career for myself, when there was the same for my brother because he was expected to ‘open a home.’”

Mariam spoke of how women in Egypt, and Arab society in general, are “constantly being told that they can’t.” They can’t go after their dreams; they can’t abandon their duties as homemakers or mothers or wives. “Ambition tends to be a scarlet letter in some ways over here.”

Even though there are anti-discrimination laws in Egypt that forbid employers from making hiring and firing decisions based on gender, Mariam said these laws aren’t truly applied. While a company won’t admit that it didn’t hire a woman solely because she’s a woman, that female candidate is still battling perceptions of not being fully committed to her work. “And there are job advertisements that say ‘males only.’ There may be ‘females only,’ but that’s usually for secretary work. Very 1950s,” she said, referring to the way many societies around the world were at that time.

So how did Mariam come to reject these deeply ingrained beliefs? “Growing up in the age of the Internet, you saw all these inspiring women doing some really amazing stuff—like Rana el Kaliouby, who uses AI to make technology more emotionally aware, or Leila Janah who uses data services to expand opportunities to low-income women and youth. And it was hard not to be inspired by that. There’s a lot of power in the Internet, technology and social media.”

It’s this power that Mariam is harnessing through a platform she has developed called Zahera, which means ‘to flourish’ in Arabic. It’s an online community for ambitious women, as Mariam describes it, that provides educational tools—articles, interviews, online courses, expert advice—in Arabic. “I wanted to build a community where women can have candid conversations on the pressure that comes with being a working woman. Basically, just create a space that really speaks in their language, where you can be inspired and encouraged and emboldened.”

What Mariam wants to do is change the narrative. “I think Arab women are perceived as timid and prude and obedient,” she said, “and one of the goals of Zahera is to highlight women from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life, women who are challenging old-fashioned rules and traditions every day.”

As she points out, most of the online content that is currently targeted towards Arab women tends to be clustered around traditional topics such as fashion, parenting, cooking. Mariam doesn’t see information about how to negotiate a salary or maternity leave policies or dealing with gender-based violence or harassment in the workplace.

“I feel like this time is pivotal,” Mariam said. “There are protests happening in Palestine, there are widespread calls for gender equity, and we need to tap into that. That’s what Zahera aims to do.” She also noted how dangerous it is for women to even be in public spaces in Egypt. “The streets aren’t made for you. The sexual harassment levels here are staggering, at just over 99 percent of women having experienced some sort of harassment.”

Mariam has a nickname, which is the female word for ‘star’ in Arabic. She sees it as her purpose in life to light the way for others. That doesn’t mean being front and center; rather, just forging a path for others to follow, amplifying their voices along the way. She wants to pass the mic, so to speak. And she taps into her professional network, having worked on international development projects for a few years already, to find women from all areas of Egypt—Cairo and Alexandria, but also Upper Egypt and the Delta. She’s especially keen to reach places that aren’t highlighted enough, where more conservative mindsets are deeply rooted. Because there are artists and scientists and women winning awards in these places, who are bravely challenging the rules and traditions and paving the way for other women.

“There’s this perception that women cannot work with other women. And it just angers me so much,” she said, referring to a recent poll on a woman’s Facebook group that asked if women would prefer to have a male or female manager. Almost all of the respondents preferred a male manager. “It made me wonder: how do you, as a woman, expect to be a manager someday? I feel like my success is seeing other women succeed.”

She talks about bringing more women ‘to the table,’ but notes that it’s not enough to reserve one space for a female perspective. “We don’t want to remove you from the table; just create more seats.”

Mariam is appreciative of the GATHER Fellowship in that it forced her to focus on her own personal development, apart from gaining technical skills. She calls it a ‘judgment-free zone’ that taught her to take care of herself and look inside. “Don’t go on autopilot, be more reflective,” she shared. “This field can be very draining, and GATHER teaches us that it is important not to pour from an empty cup.”

For Mariam, hiking is that meditative process that helps her clear her head. And while not every hike takes her up the highest mountain on the continent at nearly 6,000 meters above sea level, the idea is the same: “You don’t think of the overwhelming factors in front of you. You just put one leg in front of the other until you reach the summit.”

Going on adventures and trying new things that might seem uncomfortable—like hiking Mount Kilimanjaro—is what anchors her in times of doubt and insecurity. She acknowledges that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and to shy away from doing something bold. But her call to other women is to get out of their comfort zone.

“Just do one thing you’re really really proud of,” Mariam said. “Maybe two. Because they’re going to turn into three and then they’re going to just keep coming.”

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

Seeds holds first National Integration Camp for youth from across Pakistan

Mar 29, 2012 / 7 Comments

LAHORE | Fifty students and ten educators from the four provincial capitals of Pakistan——Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta——as well as from Islamabad gathered for five days to tackle stereotypes and learn about the similarities and differences between their cultures.

The National Integration Camp (NIC), held at the Divisional Public School in Model Town and managed by youth members of Seeds of Peace Pakistan, featured programming designed to maximize interaction between students and teachers from each provincial delegation.

Facilitated dialogue sessions focusing upon various issues that exist among the provinces as well as upon potential solutions to those issues took place alongside group challenge and sports games.

Students’ Program

Students delved right into crucial topics, discussing the values they thought ought to be present in an ideal country and the link they perceived between the provision of free education and national safety and prosperity.

Dialogue sessions on Day 2 focused specifically on cross-province education; students from each region presented about their cultures and described the social, political, and economic issues their province faces. The evening brought additional presentations with a broader focus that incorporated individual as well as inter-provincial issues; before performances that garnered media coverage from a local TV channel, participants discussed the notion and implications of interdependence.

Alongside basketball matches and preparations for a talent show, students spent their third day at NIC in dialogue about important issues such as the continuing effects of the feudal system, potential changes in provincial structuring, and the water dispute between provinces, particularly with regard to water conservation and methods to use water to combat Pakistan’s ongoing energy crisis.

Campers reflected upon their experiences during the program so far on the fourth day, discussing the power of youth in helping build a strong nation and how they would use their new knowledge and understanding when they returned home. The Flag Lowering Ceremony took place at Wahga Border and proved to be an emotional experience for all participants.

The fifth day’s focus was on follow-up programs, an essential component of the National Integration Camp. All five delegations came up with two innovative yet practical ideas that, when implemented with Seeds of Peace’s help, would help bring about national change regarding the issues they had learned about over the previous four days. These included awareness campaigns, social work projects, outreach programs, workshops, and camps mimicking the NIC model.

Participants’ reflections and comments on exit surveys showed the impact that the camp has already had on their thinking and commitment to interprovincial social endeavors.

Showing how the camp could lead to unified efforts to create national-level change, Ayesha of Lahore said that she came to understand not only “how pointless stereotypes about provinces are” but also “the problems other provinces are suffering from.” Altogether, 81 percent of the campers acknowledged that NIC had changed their views about people from other provinces; 81 percent considered that a friendly relationship between provinces is highly possible; and 90 percent wanted to continue participating in activities such as NIC in the future.

Educators’ Program

The 10 educators who had accompanied students to the National Integration Camp also focused on illustrating similarities between people from each province and learning to dismantle existing stereotypes.

They spent the first day discussing their hopes and the things they wished to learn from each other as well as the problems and issues that Pakistan currently faces. Educators analyzed the problems and effects of provincialism that are particular to each region on the second day, and the third day brought presentations of cultural knowledge during which they described their customs, values, and festivals for their professional peers.

On the fourth day, the educators undertook the difficult task of discussing stereotypes that existed about residents of each province and clearing out any lingering misconceptions.

Following a wrap-up session on the last day, the educators rejoined their respective delegations, assisting them with the planning of follow-up programs.
 
EVENT PHOTOS

July 2020 Notes from the Field Newsletter

Jul 29, 2020 / No Comments

Dear Seeds of Peace Community,

Since I was 12 years old, I’ve spent every summer at camp, first at my Scout camp in Pennsylvania and for the last decade at youth peace camps in the US and the Middle East. This year, I was hoping to visit the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine for the very first time.

I’ve heard so many stories about Camp as the transformative focal point of the Seeds of Peace journey. For thousands of youth around the world, the dialogue huts, group challenge course, bunks, and dining hall have been places of growth and discovery.

Most of all, I’ve heard about “the Field”—a reference to Rumi’s poem and the literal and metaphorical space where young leaders meet across lines of difference.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a Field.
I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi (1207-1273)

In the Field, Seeds develop understanding and respect for one another—even those they’ve been taught to hate or fear. In the Field, they gain the skills and confidence to work side by side in creating a “world as it could be.”

I’m excited to be in Maine next summer when it’s safe to gather in person again. But the Field extends far beyond Camp to the many places where Seeds live and work for change.

I’m proud to introduce this Notes From The Field newsletter. At least once a month, we’ll share organizational updates and stories from across the Seeds of Peace community to keep you connected to our work, and to one another, as we rise to meet this challenging moment in our world.

With hope,
Josh
Fr. Josh Thomas | Executive Director, Seeds of Peace

2019 Seeds reflect on Camp

What does it mean to be a Seed? In this video created by Seeds, they give their honest, heartfelt, and certainly raggedy (a term used in dialogue sessions that means going beyond the superficial and getting real) takes on topics. These include meeting with the “other,” their best and most difficult moments at Camp, and why they wanted to come to Camp in the first place.


Maine Seed Gracia speaks at a Juneteenth rally in Portland (photo courtesy Fred Bever/Maine Public)

Alumni respond to BLM, COVID-19

Here are a few ways Seeds of Peace alumni have been supporting the Black Lives Matter movement as well as responding to the Coronavirus pandemic in their communities over the past few months:

Black Lives Matter

Shelby (2003 American Seed) co-authored an opinion piece in the Portland Press Herald calling for legal reforms that would make it easier to hold police officers more accountable for their actions.

Gracia and Christina (2017 Maine Seeds) organized a Juneteenth celebration and protest in Portland, Maine, that was attended by around 1,000 people.

Micah (2004 American Seed) is working with conductors in the Washington, D.C., area to start a local branch of Justice Choir, and co-organized the “Juneteenth Solidarity Sing for Black Lives.”

Over 130 Seeds and their peers in seven countries have attended online Seeds of Peace programming centered around racial justice, racism, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Read about more Seeds working for racial equality and justice â€șâ€ș

COVID-19 Pandemic

Charlie (2019 American Seed) is helping those in his community who are homeless by providing them with basic hygiene supplies. By teaming up with local businesses, he was able to donate 200 individual Ziplock bags with soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and homemade hand sanitizer.

Keya (2018 Indian Seed) and Alina (2019 Indian Seed) launched community COVID-19 support campaigns. Keya raised funds to buy 25,000 washable cloth face masks for people living in Mumbai’s slums. She was involved in the process from design to distribution, and exceeded her goal by raising enough to buy 32,100 masks.

Meanwhile, Alina raised over $13,000 (her original goal was around $660) for Habitat for Humanity, which supplied 45,176 Family Essential Kits (with items like flour, rice and oil), and 20,438 Hygiene Kits (handsoap, disinfectant, masks, sanitary napkins, etc.) to approximately 60,000 families.

Nas (2019 GATHER Fellow) raised over $127,000 as of July 16 and has provided thousands of meals for frontline health care workers and the food insecure through the Migrant Kitchen, a social impact catering company that employees refugees at livable wages.

#ChangeTakesAllofUs

Change comes in many packages. It’s an Afghan teacher using education to upend generational cycles of poverty, a young Black woman organizing for racial justice in the whitest state in America, and a Palestinian doctor fighting to ensure that all patients receive equal care.

All next week, we will bring you the voices of a unique tapestry of changemakers through #ChangeTakesAllofUs, a social media campaign featuring Seeds, Fellows, Educators, and staff members as they re-imagine approaches to the world’s most pressing issues.

Here’s a preview of the campaign â€șâ€ș

These are voices not just from dreamers, but from doers: people who are working in the fields of health care, education, social justice, law, politics, journalism, the arts, and NGOs to build more free and inclusive systems in their corners of the world. History shows us that social change happens when leaders work across all sectors of society to challenge, re-imagine, and then build new systems.

Across political, economic, generational, and cultural divides, the voices we’ll share will demonstrate that #ChangeTakesAllofUs, including you.

Throughout this campaign we’ll offer opportunities to sign up for virtual discussions with our alumni, engage with changemakers, share your story, and learn about ways you can support or join Seeds of Peace programs.

Follow Seeds of Peace on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to hear their stories and join us in re-imagining the world as it could be.

Upcoming events

‱ Educators Course (July 20-August 13): Educating in a Diverse Democracy.
‱ Virtual Camp (August 9-16): We’re taking Camp online! Stay tuned for an update in the next newsletter.
 

 

The Israel-Hamas war has not quashed their compassion, their empathy, their hope | National Public Radio

Nov 5, 2023 / No Comments

A bullet in his spine, hope in his heart

By Ari Daniel
Yousef Bashir has a permanent physical reminder of the stakes of the long-running conflict between Israel and Gaza — a bullet lodged in his spine.

Bashir grew up in Gaza. In 2000, during the Second Intifada, when he was 11, Israeli soldiers occupied the second and third floors of his family home. As for why they did so, “the short answer is because they could,” Bashir says. The house was isolated from the rest of the neighborhood and it gave the soldiers a lookout that let them “see all the way to the sea.”

The soldiers “demolished our greenhouses,” he says, “and pretty much every night, moved the entire family to sleep in the living room while they controlled the rest of the house.”

Bashir says he had to ask the soldiers for permission to use the bathroom.

In the face of that difficult time, Bashir recalls his father explaining that “we should not allow them to turn us into hateful, vengeful people. I’ve watched my dad insist that the only way forward for both sides is peace. And it isn’t only just because it is the right thing to do, but if we are to move forward and become doctors and engineers and husbands and fathers and productive members of the international community, we must do all we can to preserve our humanity.”

His father drew on the Quran. “Never let hatred for any people lead you to deviate from being just to them,” he quoted in Arabic.

Bashir says his father told him “it is one thing to lose one’s home and one’s land and even a loved one. But it is another thing — the most tragic thing — when one loses their humanity.”

It wasn’t always easy for Bashir to agree with his father. For instance, one summer, the soldiers prevented Bashir and his family from going to the beach, which was 15 minutes away. Bashir snapped. But his father said to him, “imagine you are at the beach, imagine the air, the breeze, the waves, the ocean, the sand, imagine, imagine what would you be doing?” Bashir couldn’t quite put himself on the shore in his mind that day, but ever since he’s practiced his ability to imagine. And it’s helped him imagine a different reality for himself and his people to this day.

Peace and tolerance are the core lessons that Bashir was taught as a boy — “as a person, as a Muslim, as an Arab, as a Palestinian,” he says. “I became peaceful in Gaza. I became peaceful when my house was besieged and when my family was shot at, when my farms were demolished. And I think that is a miracle.”

Without those important lessons, Bashir isn’t sure whether he would have survived his youth. “My dad saved my life,” he says.

Roughly a week after he turned 15 years old, just outside his home, a soldier fired the bullet that embedded itself in the center of Bashir’s back, in his spine. “I was lucky to survive,” he says. “I collapsed to the ground. I was looking to figure out what was happening because I felt no pain. I saw no blood, but I could not speak and I definitely could not feel my legs.”

“I think I was shot only because I was Palestinian,” he reflects.

“Quite frankly,” he admits, “I did want to die because it was not normal for a child to be subjected to that way of living. But at the same time, I’m just 15. Why should I go now?”

Bashir was rushed to a hospital in Tel HaShomer, Israel. Up until that point, he’d only met Israeli settlers and soldiers. But now he was meeting Israeli doctors trying to repair him.

“I don’t think Israel intended to show me their human side,” Bashir says. “But I think some higher power wanted me to see that.” He recalls an Israeli nurse who frequently rushed to his side, explaining to some of the other health workers that he was shot for no justifiable reason. All this made Bashir understand his father’s perspective better.

He also came to recognize that he’s from a very particular part of the world. “I come from the Holy Land,” he says. “The land of Jesus and Muhammad and Moses, the [land of the] Jews, Christians and Muslims.”

Bashir was in a wheelchair for two years, but he did learn to walk again. He still does physical therapy and takes regular shots of cortisone to relieve the pain.

Today, half his lifetime later, 34-year-old Bashir lives in Washington, D.C.. where he’s finishing his Ph.D. in international affairs at Johns Hopkins University. The residual bullet causes him ongoing discomfort — “a 24/7 ordeal for me,” he says. “When I watch movies, when I hang out, when I sleep, when I play, when I do just about anything.”

To Bashir, it’s a constant reminder of the conflict — and why the fighting must stop.

“I am here,” he says. “I still believe. I’m still committed. Despite the pain that I will experience tomorrow, I am convinced that [peace is] the only way forward.”

The present moment, however, is a difficult test of Bashir’s conviction.

“With every image, with every video, with every report I see of innocent Palestinians being killed and targeted,” he says, “I get very close to screaming in my apartment. And breaking.” Bashir’s voice cracks.

And then he remembers his father who insisted on peace.

“It’s bad enough,” says Bashir. “My people lack freedom and a state and so much more. I think to be deprived of [our humanity] is just unacceptable. And so in preserving my humanity, in my mind, I am somehow still giving my people and the world a chance for a better life.”

The right to live in peace and security, Bashir argues, “belongs to the Palestinians just as much as it belongs to the Israelis.”

Read Ari Daniel’s op-ed at National Public Radio â€șâ€ș

Ned Lazarus Diary No. 3
Slate

Nov 7, 2001 / No Comments

“Don’t you have any better music?” Ten different things about that sentence caused me to do a double take. The unmistakably American accent. The unmistakably female voice. The completely comfortable English. The apparent distaste for the standard Arabic Top 40 cassette that usually thrills Palestinian kids, and the subsequent conclusions that this girl was passionate about music and about some different kind of music than her peers. The lack of “Sir,” “Mister,” or “Excuse me, teacher,” anywhere in the sentence. The direct, almost obnoxious tone. The simple fact that this mysterious young Gazan female had the confidence to ask this question at all, a brazen act with a total stranger. When I turned around to see who it was, I multiplied my double take. She had a bright face wrapped in a colorful scarf, and she was the first hijab girl to smash my stereotypes, and later, tragically, to break my heart.

It was midnight, the day before camp, June 1998. The 15 Gazan members of the new Palestinian delegation and I were cruising to Israel’s Ben Gurion airport in the modern ship of the desert, the Ford Transit van. We had successfully navigated the barbed-wire labyrinth that is the Erez border crossing from Gaza to Israel, in a record-fast time of just over two hours. Each Palestinian kid had already presented his ID to three different Israeli soldiers and turned his bags over for a thorough search; three more ID checks and one more exhaustive search awaited them at the airport. But this was routine. That sentence out of the back of the van came out of nowhere—certainly didn’t sound like it came out of Gaza.

Gaza was, back then, the most thoroughly sealed off section of the Palestinian Authority. Unlike the West Bank, which in the peace process days was only occasionally roadblocked in every direction, no one entered or left Gaza without an Israeli-issued permit, which was difficult for most and impossible for many to obtain. Gaza was consequently the poorest part of Palestine, the most religiously conservative, and the least likely to produce such a sentence.

I had grown accustomed on camp flight night to meeting Gazan Seeds who were especially excited about their upcoming trip to America, it often being their first time out of Gaza—but who were also shy and fastidiously respectful of their strange, over-friendly American escort. Until they got used to over-friendly Americans after a few days at camp, the girls often barely spoke to me at all. But this girl, wrapped in the symbol of Islamic piety—that despite my relatively extensive experience with Palestinians, clearly triggered a lot of assumptions in my mind—wasn’t just talking, she was initiating conversation, and she was pissed off I hadn’t brought anything from Pearl Jam.

She didn’t initiate conversations just with me; she was a smash hit at camp, a crack hitter on the softball field, a powerful Palestinian voice in the coexistence discussions, and especially popular with those Israeli girls who were fellow devotees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She’s not your typical hijab girl—but she’s not alone. Several more such Seeds followed in her footsteps, leaving me and their Israeli acquaintances with eyes and minds more wide open. Alas, in the eyes of her parents, the original dazzling hijab Seed had indeed gone a little too far on her trip to America. Her parents discouraged and eventually disallowed all contact with Seeds of Peace and Israeli friends.

But next summer two new hijab girls with no previous American experience came and smashed stereotypes by simple force of personality. One of those is our famous fugitive from yesterday—we’ll call her Salma. She’s from the closest to Gaza you can get in the West Bank, a traditional Muslim family in a rural hamlet between Nablus and Jenin. She speaks remarkable English for someone from her area, the best in her school with no competition. She was the leading Palestinian girl in the third camp session of 1999, returning home proud of representing her people and having won the hearts and respect of many Israeli teens. Unlike our Gazan original, Salma didn’t break my heart either upon coming back.

Salma stayed in close touch and remained as active as she possibly could, even during the intifada when Israeli soldiers and settlers have repeatedly shot up and shut down her village, often cutting off electricity and water and imposing curfews. She described the events and her continued hope for peace in the Olive Branch, and appreciated the concerned phone call she received from an Israeli Seed, consciously distinguishing between her friend and the soldiers that afflict her and her family.

Salma is a fugitive because, as a West Bank Palestinian, she is not legally permitted in Jerusalem. But she has to take the TOEFL here, in order to apply to university in the United States. Her abilities and her aspirations are greater than what’s available to her at home, and we want to help Salma get where she could easily go if a million obstacles weren’t in her way.

Even to get the point where we could help her, she literally had to climb mountains. The Israeli army has encircled and separated all the Palestinian cities in the West Bank throughout most of this year, more tightly than ever after the assassination by Palestinians of an Israeli minister three weeks ago. Salma hiked one and a half hours over the mountains surrounding Nablus and crossed five checkpoints in three different taxis before we picked her up. Her car was the last one to pass between Nablus and Ramallah before a firefight on that road killed one Israeli soldier and three Palestinian gunmen and closed the road once again to any Palestinian transportation.

So, my moral of today’s story: It takes endurance, chutzpah, courage, cleverness, good luck, and the intervention of a major international organization for ordinary Palestinians to travel pretty much anywhere right now, and before the intifada it wasn’t that much better. For those who have concluded that I am radically pro-Palestinian, I’m just telling the story of one girl’s trip to take a test. And tomorrow, we’ll meet the Israeli teen from a settlement who declared in the most permanent possible way that she’s a Seed of Peace.

Read Ned Lazarus’ diary entry No. 3 at Slate »