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Musical Arab-Jewish youth seek the key to coexistence
Christian Science Monitor

May 22, 2013 / No Comments

A Yale University alumnus and veteran of the school’s famed a capella groups has brought his talents to Jerusalem, where he launched an Arab-Jewish youth chorus.

JERUSALEM | The Harlem Shake craze has hit Jerusalem and the Arab and Jewish teens in Micah Hendler’s Jerusalem Youth Chorus want to make their own video. It’s not Mr. Hendler’s preferred music, but the students’ exuberance leaves him little choice.

“All right, if we’re going to make this video we’re going to have to get moving,” he says.

There are plenty of expats living in Jerusalem but Hendler is the only one who started an Arab-Jewish youth chorus five months after graduating college.

Hendler is a former counselor at the Seeds of Peace coexistence camp in Maine, proud alumnus of two a capella groups at Yale – the Duke’s Men and Whiffenpoofs – and a firm believer in the power of music to create communities and empower youth.

Supported by grants from Yale and the Jerusalem Foundation, Hendler moved to Jerusalem after graduating in 2012 to put his ideas into practice – he wrote his senior thesis on the successes and failures of other music-for-peace programs in Israel.

He selected 14 Arab and 14 Jewish students from 80 applicants; together they performed to a packed house at the Jerusalem YMCA Christmas concert two months after their first practice.

He’s trying to avoid two pitfalls of other programs he studied: enabling students to remain negative toward the group as a whole, even as they make friends with representatives of “the other,” or focusing so much on broad dialogue that the students don’t form any close friendships.

Hendler’s three-hour weekly practice includes time for bonding – the Harlem Shake video was preceded by collective giggles – and a 45-minute dialogue run by trained facilitators. The dialogue is strategically placed in the middle of the rehearsal so students don’t come late and miss it, as they did in other programs he studied.

Rudinah, an Arab girl from East Jerusalem, says she didn’t know there would be a dialogue portion before she joined the chorus, but that it’s one of her favorite parts. “The Jewish people here are so cool and friendly,” she says.

Likewise Shifa Woodbridge, a Jew who had never met an Arab before joining the chorus, is equally exuberant.

“It’s my favorite part,” she exclaimed when asked about the dialogue. “I love talking about it. It’s not weird,” she says.

Hendler recognizes that some doubt whether programs like his can make a difference or are simply invigorating those already in support of peace, but points to the first free time the students were given at their second rehearsal when Arabs and Jews spontaneously mingled without prompting as evidence that the program is useful.

“People were hanging out across every possible line, of their own free will. There aren’t that many places in the city, or country, or world really where that happens.”

Read Chelsea B. Sheasley’s article at The Christian Science Monitor â€șâ€ș

6 alumni making a difference for refugees

Jun 7, 2019 / No Comments

June is Refugee Awareness Month, a time to shine a spotlight on the thousands of families who flee from violence and unrest each day, and a time to foster empathy and build support for them in the new communities where they arrive.

Many in our community are working year-round to address the migrant crisis in a myriad of ways. Here are six Seeds of Peace alumni who are making a difference for refugees.

 

Salat (Syracuse Seed, 2012)

Salat was born in a refugee camp in Kenya after his parents escaped the Somali civil war, and lived there for 11 years. When he found out the United Nations had selected his family for resettlement in America, he thought he was headed to heaven on earth. But what Salat discovered upon arriving in the States was a country more hostile than he could have imagined.

“I was treated like a criminal based on my skin color,” he said. “I learned to avoid looking like a Muslim whenever there was an attack on American soil. l was made to feel that coming to America as a refugee who seeks asylum is the worst thing you can be.”

That changed when he came to Camp. “In the dialogue hut, I was given the space to unbottle all of the things I had bottled up over the years,” Salat said. “I was made to feel that I was enough, and that my difference was beautiful. It was the happiest three weeks of my life.”

Now, Salat is paying that experience forward. He is a board member of Refugee and Immigrant Self-Empowerment (RISE), a nonprofit that provides recently resettled Americans in Syracuse with the resources they need to become self-sufficient through employment, education, and economic empowerment. And his upcoming documentary, Leaving Home But Left Behind, chronicles his journey back to Kenya to reunite with his mother after 13 years. Through his experience, the film aims to help others understand what it means to be a refugee in America.

Read Salat’s Seed Story in its entirety â€șâ€ș

 

Lilly (GATHER Fellow, 2018)

Lilly’s connection to the plight of refugees was always personal.

“My parents were from Iran, but I grew up in America,” she said. “So I sometimes felt like I was both a part of and apart from two different worlds. The idea of what unites humanity and what makes us different appeals to me.”

Throughout Seeds of Peace’s GATHER Fellowship, Lilly developed an interactive Minecraft story that follows a young Syrian refugee as she tries to make her way to safety. By putting the player in this character’s shoes—the game begins among family and friends trying to live their daily lives in war-torn Aleppo—Lilly hopes to counteract the often-inflammatory rhetoric around refugees in the West with empathy and understanding.

Read more of our conversation with Lilly â€șâ€ș

 

Avigail (Israeli Seed, 2000)

Avigail has been a fierce defender of human rights for years. She channeled her passion for grassroots organizing into a career as a lawyer specializing in labor law—a role which has seen her advocate for vulnerable groups in Israel such as workers, youth, women, Palestinians, and the LGBT community. As the migrant crisis became more severe, she knew it was her duty to get involved.

“Something very essential that I experienced in Seeds of Peace was to be humble in the face of another person’s life and story. To listen very carefully. To see their pain as my pain, their tragedy as my tragedy as a human being,” she told us.

“It reached a point where we said we just could not be silent bystanders.”

Avigail is one of the co-founders of the International School of Peace (ISOP), an educational initiative just a short drive away from the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos. Headline after headline describes the camp as one of the worst places on earth, but for the 400-some students who fill its classes every day, the ISOP is a sanctuary.

There are no external structures on the island dedicated to education for these refugees. But thanks to the ISOP, these students—many of whom have never been to school before—are now receiving one.

Read about our meeting with Avigail at the ISOP â€șâ€ș

 

Anis (GATHER Fellow, 2018)

As a professor of Music and Politics and a member of the French Embassy’s Cultural Attache, Anis has always been fascinated by the intersection between music education and social change. But after face-to-face experiences with refugee children while volunteering in Greece, he realized there was another way he could put his expertise to use—one that could help those who need it most.

“Refugees are fed and accommodated, but what about their aspirations? Few initiatives exist to rebuild self-esteem, encourage social integration, and inspire hope in the future,” Anis said. “Nearly 28,000 refugee children live in Greece today. They deserve a childhood with confidence and the certainty of belonging.”

That’s why Anis co-founded El Sistema Greece, a program offering free music classes and concert performances to children in Greek refugee camps. These programs are also integrated with migrants and Greek citizens to foster social inclusion.

El Sistema Greece began with two dozen children in a single camp outside Athens. Now, the program has over 500 participants in camps across the country.

“On stage,” Anis told us, “everyone is united in a desire to excel, and we see the potential of a person, rather than a threat. These young artists are adding value to the community, not disrupting it 
 We are creating a community based on solidarity, hard work, and being part of a team.”

Read our alumni profile of Anis â€șâ€ș

 

Pooja (GATHER Fellow, 2018)

Pooja is based in India, and runs her own program targeted to refugee youth. In 2015, she saw an image of a Syrian boy’s body washed ashore in Greece. She expected the disturbing scene to be a galvanizing moment, only to find it met with indifference by those around her. So she decided to take change into her own hands.

That year, she founded Letters of Love, an organization that connects children in refugee camps with pen pals to foster empathy, connection, and emotional support. “The core idea of my work,” she explained, “is to shake the inertia of apathy people have about grave humanitarian issues. To inspire others to help make a difference in this daunting crisis, we must first inspire empathy.”

Since then, Letters of Love has sent over 33,000 letters to Syrian, Iraqi, Palestinian, Yazidi, and Rohingya refugee children, and built a network of over 8,000 student ambassadors working to foster empathy in their schools and communities.

Learn more about Pooja’s work â€șâ€ș

 

Abu Tareq (Palestinian Delegation Leader, 2007)

Abu Tareq views education as a way for people to transform the world around them. Earlier in his career, he was a principal at schools throughout the West Bank. He watched the students around him upend narratives of what their lives should look like.

Now, Abu Tareq operates an education center for children at his home in the al-Arroub refugee camp, where he has emerged as a community leader—and an emissary of peace. His program has run in the winter and summer in al-Arroub for years, providing youth with conflict mediation and communication skills, as well as helping them overcome trauma and develop resilience.

In al-Arroub, having a place for children to go when school is out can be the difference between life and death. “The victims [of the conflict] are mostly kids,” he explained. “They think throwing stones at settlers is a kind of play. But the result can be the loss of their lives, for nothing. It’s a very unuseful way to ask for freedom, for the right to live and travel out of the camp.”

For so many children, Abu Tareq’s program is a respite from the harsh realities of their circumstances. “The students are free to dance, to play, to move freely,” he said. “This is my aim: to provide a little light in such big darkness.”

Hear Abu Tareq’s story on INSPIRED, our audio documentary series:

Do you know of any alumni we didn’t include who deserve a spotlight? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

What We’re Reading: Pride Month

Jun 25, 2019 / No Comments

Fifty years ago this month, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. The landmark moment ignited long-simmering tensions that would soon spread to demonstrations throughout the country, marking the beginning of the modern gay rights movement in the United States.

June is Pride Month in the United States, commemorating Stonewall and celebrating the contributions of LGBTQIA+ people to society, not just in the US, but around the world. So this month, we are highlighting works that explore and build understanding toward issues related to this community. Here’s what our staff have been reading:

Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
At the heart of this collection of Lorde’s most powerful essays and speeches is her identity and experiences as a black queer woman. She was one of the first activists and writers to engage with the subject of intersectionality, and the theme plays a major role in Sister Outsider. Through a blend of personal stories and her unique version of activism, Lorde tackles the issues of sexism, homophobia, classism, and ageism, arguing for a society that not only is inclusive, but also celebrates individual differences. What I personally find most inspiring about Sister Outsider is Lorde’s refusal to apologize—for her identity, for her beliefs, for her anger at the status quo. This beautifully written collection of shorter pieces makes for a relatively quick and easy read, but if you only have time for one or two, I suggest “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” and “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” — Molly Gump, Development Intern

Sister Outsider is a great book for many reasons, but one of my favorites is how relevant it is to dialogue. It engages with power, anger, identity, and emotion, and not only does Lorde tell her story as a queer women of color—that in and of itself is a radical act—but it addresses how we navigate power in dialogue. — Kiran Thadhani, Director of Global Programs

The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
This time machine of a book, which chronicles the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in Chicago, brought back memories that were somewhat at a distance from the life I led in the mid-to-late 80s. I didn’t know anybody who was gay when I was in high school. Not that homosexuality didn’t exist amongst teens in Miami. Rather, people were still closeted. I look at schools today, at my own kids’ peers and their understanding of what it means to be human, and I’m left thinking that we’ve progressed so much in 30 years. Yes, there are still shameful things happening today, but they stand out as shameful against a society that has become infinitely more accepting of the many ways people love and live. And that gives me hope for what can be 30 years from now, for the LGBT community, as well as other groups that are still marginalized and underrepresented, undervalued. The arc of justice … keep bending. — Deb Levy, Director of Communications

Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion, edited by Ryan Conrad
Against Equality is a collection of essays and articles written by queer activists and scholars that challenges us to think about what queer liberation actually looks like. Is it marriage and military service and hate crime laws? These authors say no. Instead, they point to the ways in which these goals reinforce the power of marriage, the military, and the prison system, when what we ought to be doing is removing these oppressive structures from our lives. This collection is split into three sections which deal with these exact goals of the gay rights movement. The authors in this book are not interested in a straight world where we are included. They are interested in a queer world, a free world, where people do no have to look or act straight in order to be free. This is an excellent introduction to leftist queer thought and offers some history of how the radical queer liberation movement became the assimilationist gay rights movement in the US. The authors in this book are courageous in their rejection of what straight society has deemed good and respectable, and deeply inspiring in their commitment to the freedom of our community. — Greg Barker, Manager of Facilitation Programs

Jughead Vol. 1-2, by Chip Zdarsky and Erica Henderson; Ryan North and Derek Charm
In 2015, the entire Archie Comics line was rebooted. Jughead, best friend of the eponymous Archie, was revealed to be asexual. One year later, the character received his own spinoff, which explored something truly remarkable about this development: the radical normalcy of it all. In these stories, Jughead is an ordinary teenager doing ordinary things (well, for the world of Riverdale, at least). His asexuality, as with the sexual orientation of his gay classmate Kevin, is beyond simply being accepted by his peers—to them, it’s a complete non-issue. Even more, Jughead is laconic and detached … he’s the cool kid of Riverdale High. Many kids don’t know what asexuality is or that it could be a possibility for them, much less that it’s an entire queer identity of its own. What makes Jughead a milestone is how it extends that representation to an all-ages title, where it’s even more important that readers can see themselves in what they’re reading. — Chris Luggiero, Communications Associate

The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson
Like the people it portrays, The Argonauts defies easy classification. Part memoir, part work of literary criticism—Maggie Nelson calls her writing “autotheory” early in the book—this genre-bending story “is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer) family making.” At its core is the author’s love for, and relationship with, a genderfluid person. As Nelson’s pregnancy and the process of motherhood brings her on a journey of self-discovery, her partner embarks on his own, undergoing testosterone therapy and eventually gender confirmation surgery. In her review for The Los Angeles Times, Sara Marcus writes that The Argonauts comes “away and back again to central questions about deviance and normalcy, family-making and love,” asking, “How does anyone decide what’s normal and what’s radical? What kinds of experience do we close ourselves off to when we think we already know?” — Mirna Ansari, Middle East Programs Coordinator

Tomorrow Will Be Different, by Sarah McBride
At 22, Sarah McBride came out as trans in her college’s student newspaper. One year later, she successfully fought against employment and housing discrimination based on gender identity in Delaware, advocating in the face of national hostility. Upon signing the Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act of 2013 into law, the governor thanked her personally for her efforts. In Tomorrow Will Be Different, McBride tells her entire story, from getting engaged in politics years before her transition to becoming the first openly trans woman to speak at a major US political convention in 2016. She speaks on both the progress of, and challenges faced by, the trans community with a clear-eyed optimism and enthusiasm many of our leaders could learn from. Even the death of her husband from cancer four days after their marriage—a saga she covers in heartbreaking detail—fails to bring her down into the cynicism that marks our politics today. Tomorrow Will Be Different is also remarkable for its portrait of youth activism, and I hope her story provides a roadmap for other young leaders looking to get involved in the issues they care about. — Eliza O’Neil, US/UK Programs Manager

What would you add to this list? Any recommendations for future editions of What We’re Reading? Let us know in the comments below, or send your picks to lori@seedsofpeace.org.

Planting Seeds of Peace in Miami
Miami Herald

Jul 14, 2016 / No Comments

Seeds of Peace bridges cultural divisions between teens from Middle East and U.S. at summer camp in Maine

Miami-raised former counselor organizing first Miami events to support the group

Leaders say Seeds’ efforts more important than ever at time of heightened division in U.S. and beyond

At a time when social division and turmoil are rising in the United States, a summer camp that bridges seemingly intractable divisions between teens of different religions and races has become newly relevant.

Called Seeds of Peace, it is a program in Maine that has brought together young Israelis and Palestinians, as well as teenagers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the Balkans and the United States, for 23 years.

This summer, Seeds of Peace is expanding its U.S. program to add teens from Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City to those it has long hosted from Maine and upstate New York, aiming to inculcate empathy and understanding as the country struggles with cultural and political discord that seems more bitter than anything seen here in decades.

And this week a young Miamian who reconciled his own divided background by working as a counselor at the camp is organizing the first Seeds of Peace events in Miami.

Misha Mehrel, 26, has put together a stand-up comedy night in Wynwood on July 20 and a walk across the Venetian Causeway on July 23. His hope is to raise awareness of and as much money as possible for a program that he says can be transformative.

“These kids are put into an environment of love, encouragement, challenge that has pushed them to . . . hopefully make decisions to grow and bond instead of to hate,” Mehrel says. “It shows you that if they can do this, I can.”

The family settled in Miami when Mehrel was 3. Several years ago he seemed well on his way to a successful film career in New York, working as an editor and production assistant for the likes of HBO and director Baz Luhrmann, when he found himself longing to do something more substantial and fulfilling. He decided to follow his older sister, who had been a counselor at the Seeds camp.

“Seeds was a way to get out of this image-conscious, career-driven life I was living and doing something that was less about me,” Mehrel says. “But I think I was also attracted to the whole concept because of the division in myself.”

Overcoming division is the mission of Seeds of Peace, which was launched by journalist and writer John Wallach in 1993, bringing 46 teens from Israel, Palestine, Egypt and the United States to Otisfield, Maine. The project got an immediate burst of attention when then-President Bill Clinton invited the first campers to the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords, where they posed for photos with Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The program mixes traditional summer camp activities like sailing and soccer with intensive group talk sessions in which the teens work through their differences and anger. They play on Frisbee teams together, and kids from opposite sides of warring adult conflicts help each other through risky trust-building exercises in which an Israeli teen might help his blindfolded Palestinian counterpart climb a rock wall or cross a high wire.

“The idea is to give these kids a chance to make up their own minds, teach them leadership skills and how to be their own person, instead of another cog in the narrative they’ve been fed for years,” Mehrel says.

In 2000, spurred by requests from local education leaders, the camp started a second program for teenagers from Maine, which is overwhelmingly white and Christian, and their counterparts from African, Asian and Muslim refugee families from places like Somalia and Cambodia who were being placed in Maine by a federal government program. Later they added kids from Syracuse, New York, a once predominantly white community with a growing minority and immigrant population.

“There were a lot of tensions with the instant diversity,” says Eric Kapenga, communications director for Seeds of Peace. “It was almost the same program as for students from the Middle East.” There were fraught dialogues about race, religion, gender, sexuality and immigration. One girl from a small town in northern Maine wrote that every time she saw a Muslim girl in a hijab she was afraid, because she only saw violent Muslim terrorists on TV. A Somalian girl who had come to Syracuse at age 12 was traumatized by years of bullying.

Over the past two years, the growth of racial tensions, with the furor over police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement, and an election season marked by angry debates over race, immigration, Muslims, and LGBTQ rights, led Seeds of Peace to expand its American session to teens from larger cities beyond Maine and Syracuse.

“For too long as Americans we’ve said we don’t have conflict here,” says Sarah Brajtbord, who manages Seeds of Peace’s U.S.-based programs. “The reality is we live in communities deeply divided by conflict. . . . We need to be bringing people together and engaging each other.”

“Each camper has their own issues, their own stories, their own experiences. . . . It’s raising those questions, and being able to answer them. Who am I? Who are you? Who are we collectively? How do these different parts of us look when we come together?”

Jennifer Dertouzos, a close friend of Mehrel’s family and a dedicated volunteer for social causes who is co-organizing the Miami Seeds events, says the violent events of this summer such as the massacre in Orlando, the killing of black men by police in Baton Rouge and Minnesota and the sniper attack on police in Dallas have made people sympathetic to their efforts. Trinity Cathedral, located at the foot of the Venetian Causeway, is allowing them to gather in its parking lot for free before Saturday’s walk, and Wynwood Cafe is hosting the comedy night for a minimal fee. Local businesses like Eternity Coffee Roasters, 305 Yoga, iRun and Oh! Granola are providing coupons, free classes and products for walk participants.

“It’s good timing because people want to channel their energy toward peace or the greater good,” Dertouzos says. “It’s of the moment.”

This difficult moment also makes the struggle that Seeds of Peace faces a daunting one. As conflict has grown in the Middle East, the group faces new obstacles in bringing teens from those areas; the Hamas government in Gaza, for instance, does not assist with placing Palestinian campers the way previous administrations did. This summer’s expanded American session is small, with just 27 kids from the larger cities, out of a total of 127. And Mehrel, after spending the past two years in Miami, is taking a teaching job in Connecticut in August, leaving future Miami efforts on the group’s behalf in doubt.

But Brajtbord insists their endeavors are more important than ever.

“Conflict is a moment either for breakdown or breakthrough,” she says. “Now is the time to stop talking about doing things and start trying to do them. . . . It’s only going to get worse as the election unfolds. So why should we not try to do this now?”

And she takes reassurance from the teenage Seeds the camp nourishes each summer.

“They have the courage to do what adults and political leaders are not doing — to engage with one another, confront differences and accept it as a natural part of who we are and what our country is,” Brajtbord says. “That not only gives hope but fuels change.”

Read Jordan Levin’s article at the Miami Herald »
 

Seeds of Peace UK screens ‘SEEDS’ documentary, holds panel discussion

Dec 2, 2009 / No Comments

LONDON | On December 2, Seeds of Peace UK and the International Community Committee Film Club at the American School in London (ASL) screened the film “SEEDS”. The showing was followed by a panel of three Seeds, Patrick Cirenza (ASL ’11, Camp ’07, ’09), Sarah Khatib, (Jordanian, Camp ’00-’02) and Vivek Jois (ASL ’11, Camp ’09).

Following the powerful film, the Seeds who spoke of how Camp had changed their lives. As Patrick said, “Seeds of Peace is truly unique. I don’t know of a single other place in the world where teenagers of so many nationalities can have such a free exchange of ideas and culture. I believe to my core that Seeds of Peace changed me, changed the others who went to Camp, and is going to change the world.”

Vivek Jois spoke about his background: “As a British citizen, of Indian origin and educated at an American international school, Seeds of Peace provided the perfect way to express my internationalism. I feel indebted to Seeds of Peace because I truly believe that there is no other cause as big, no other experience as difficult, and no other place that can make people follow the true calling of their hearts over their blind loyalties.”

Remarks by Seeds

Patrick Cirenza

Patrick attended the Seeds of Peace Camp in 2009 and is currently enrolled at the American School in London.

When I knew I was going to Seeds of Peace I decided I was going to very prepared for the dialogue sessions. I read numerous books, read my news from Al-Jazeera English, and even learned a few phrases in Hebrew and Arabic.

I thought I was ready.

I wasn’t.

On the first day of orientation Tim Wilson, one of the founders of the Camp, talked to the American delegation in one of his famously to-the-point speeches.

He looked us all in the eye and said, “You know nothing, but you sure as hell will learn quick.”

Shaken, but resolved I began Camp.

My Israeli-Palestinian dialogue sessions are some of my most vivid memories of Camp. The first week was uncomfortable, to say the least. Trying to get a room full of unacquainted teenagers to discuss their personal beliefs and experiences in any situation is near impossible. Decades of conflict certainly didn’t help. I still wonder to this day how the facilitators got us talking. But when we did, the fireworks began to go off. Once they began, there was no stopping them.

Everything I had so carefully learned over the past couple months went straight out the window. All I could do was sit there and listen as they argued. I simply wasn’t able to relate to anything they talked about. I was completely out of my depth.

A girl from Sderot, “I didn’t go to school for two months because Kassam rockets were hitting my school and my bus route.”

I remember sitting there thinking, closest experience I have to that is a snow day.

A Palestinian boy said, “I was sitting in my basement with my family when my house was bulldozed on top of us.”

My jaw just dropped. My mind was blank.

The story I will remember the most, the one I will probably never forget is that of Janan. She was an older girl in the dialogue and usually quite quiet but responded to the question “What does the Occupation mean to you?”

She began her story by looking at the floor “I was sitting in class one day chatting with my best friend when an Israeli soldier burst into the room and opened fire. My best friend was hit and she died in my arms. There had been an IDF raid on school, which was suspected of hiding a cache of weapons. There were no weapons.”

Then she looked the Israelis right in the eye and said “this is what the Occupation means to me.”

While her story is tragic what was even more so was the manner in which she told it. She was numb, devoid of emotion. The conflict was a part of her life. She was born in it and, as she told me later with much conviction, she was going to die in it.

Stories like hers were just a currency at Seeds of Peace to exchange in dialogue in order to prove who had suffered more.

But it wasn’t always tense at Camp. Cultural boundaries were often stripped down in oddest of fashions, often in manners that would never occur in a dialogue room.

We attended a baseball game; as resident American I was expected to explain the rules to this truly bizarre game. After about 15 minutes of trying to expound the virtues of baseball and comparing it to every other sport on the planet. Israelis, Palestinians, Indians, and Pakistanis were united in telling me just how stupid they thought it was.

I made the mistake of insulting hummous one meal. Israeli and Palestinian alike leapt to defend the cause of one of their favorite foods. I never did it again.

I remember one American girl burst into tears when an innocently curious Pakistani boy asked, “Aren’t all Americans supposed to be fat?” a sentiment to which many other non-Americans seemed to concur with.

Seeds of Peace is a truly unique in that sense. I don’t know of a single other place in the world where teenagers of so many nationalities can have such a free exchange of ideas and culture. I know I walked out of that camp both vowing that I would return and with an entirely new view of my life and the world.

Since Seeds of Peace, I have taken up Arabic, attempted to start a youth interfaith council and raised money for organization by doing everything from growing my beard to racing in a triathlon.

The only reason I am sitting before you today is because I believe to my core that Seeds of Peace changed me, changed the others who went to Camp, and is going to change the world.

Vivek Jois

Vivek attended the Seeds of Peace Camp in 2009 and is currently enrolled at the American School in London.

I’m going to start today by telling you a little more about myself. I was born in London, a British citizen by birth. When I was 4, my parents, both admirers of the American education system, decided to send me to The American School in London, and I’ve remained here for the last 13 years.

To me, London is something special—it’s what I like to call, “the gateway of the world.” We’ve got America to the left, and the Middle East and Asia to the right.

I’ve watched the world change over the past 16 years of my life, and I’ve watched the international affairs brew, from the Kargil War between India and Pakistan to the Second Intifada, to the United States’ invasion of Iraq.

I’ve been the perfect outsider, as one might say: I’ve seen different societies interact with each other, in sometimes both positive and negative ways. But it wasn’t until this past summer that I asked myself the question: Who Am I? Because, clearly, I’m British by birth, American by education, and Indian by heritage. There’s no way I’m escaping my tri-national background—it follows me around everywhere.

But the real question to be asked here is, “Does it matter?”

The answer, realistically, in any case, is no. I, not being a citizen of the US, was a part of the American Delegation this summer, and it didn’t matter. Sure, I have an American accent so you might think I would fit in with everyone else in the delegation, but really, that’s not the case. The general concept of a delegation is one based on regional connections—which are why you have the Israeli, Palestinian, Indian, Pakistani, and other regional delegations at Camp.

But the American Delegation is not founded on regional ties—this year, we had one girl from an international school in Morocco, and Patrick and I from London. The American Delegation is founded based on common systematic thought—the Western upbringing, for students in westernized education systems, like all of you students here. In fact, it would be incredible if there were more Seeds from the UK—we could add so much more from our experience of being at the center of all the major world societies.

Let me just sum it up: anyone can apply for Seeds of Peace. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from when you arrive at Camp—all that matters is who you become after those three incredible weeks in Maine.

To go into my next point, I would just like to say how much I enjoyed Camp this summer. It was an enlightening experience, in which I got to spend three weeks in the middle of the scenic New England forest, isolated from the world outside. It definitely changed me—but when I returned, and soon as I left the gates of Camp, I had to face reality once again.

I received a lot of interrogation from my friends and teachers upon returning to London. All of them had tons of questions as to what I did, what I saw, what I learnt at Camp.

But what I found is that every few people I talked to asked me the same question, “Isn’t Seeds of Peace a Jewish organization?” That is, to say, is Seeds of Peace intended towards students of a Jewish background?

I personally feel that this stigma is incorrect. Yes, half of the American Delegation happened to be from a Jewish background, and the Israeli Delegation was the biggest at Camp, but what does that say about the organization’s tendency towards one group or another? Nothing. The conflict facing Israel is so current that it is only natural that people who feel a tie to one of the countries involved would want to do this in search of the truth in the matters pertaining to the “other side.”

Let me assure you, that no matter how many Seeds were from a Jewish background, there was equal representation from other delegations and points of view across the globe.

We had students from Palestinian backgrounds in the American Delegation, as well as others like myself from different and mixed cultural compositions.

I would like to conclude today by telling you about one day at Camp. It was during our daily two-hour dialogue session, and I was in a dialogue group of Middle Eastern kids. Our facilitators split us into two groups at random, not based on where we’re from or whatever. We then went to separate parts of the room. One facilitator came over to my group, and we were told to assume that we have a dying mother in hospital, and in order to survive, she needs the juice of a certain orange. Okay, easy enough, no one had difficulty imagining that.

Then, we were told that this certain orange was in the hands of the other group, across the room. What went through my mind in that instant was: Oh no. The other side needs the orange juice too. This is going to be difficult. Then we were each paired up with one person from the other group, and were told to negotiate the orange for ourselves.

So I sat down opposite Laila, the girl I was paired up with, knowing this was going to be hard if she needed that orange juice for her own reasons, as I had been told. But as we talked about it, she informed me about what her group had been told to assume: they needed the rind of the orange.

It was a key moment in my experience, because it highlighted the point of the Seeds of Peace: if you don’t talk to your supposed enemy, you make assumptions about their demands and needs, much like I assumed that Laila needed the orange’s juice as well. But it is only through talking to the other side, talking to the person who has been made your enemy by society, that you finally gain an understanding of what they have been told, and can thus make an honest decision on the peaceable outcome of a situation. This is the only way that our ultimate goal can be achieved.

The orange is what generations on either side of a conflict have called their Promised Land; when in fact, they have not realized yet that they can coexist if they were to just understand people from the other side—the people that their society terms as “the enemy.”

This is fully what the Seeds of Peace has taught me, and I hope, with the induction of many more future Seeds, we will be able to continue this process for the goodwill of our global community.

Sarah Khatib

Sarah attended the Seeds of Peace Camp in 2000-2002 as a member of the Jordanian Delegation. She is currently completing a Masters of Law at SOAS.

It is easy to manipulate nations into hating their enemies. It not at all easy to give the enemy a face, but this is what Seeds of Peace did for me and many others, and it continues to do so till this very day. The term “enemy” was not only toned down into “the other side,” but for me now the enemy has a face and a name; be it Elad, Rita, Hagar, Khen or Rony and whoever else I have met at Camp.

Seeds of Peace is a revolution against this manipulation. It is an international revolution for which I can find no counterpart. Tell me where else in the world could I have gone at the age of thirteen not only to familiarize myself with Israelis, Americans, and Greeks, etc., but give them a face after unmasking them every day at Camp.

In my personal statement for my master’s application I wrote “in the summers of 2000, 2001, 2002 I was one of the participants sharing space and dining with Israelis, Palestinians, Cypriot and Turkish teenagers, some of whom became my close friends. During camp time, we all took part in co–existence sessions. We all, at a very early age, sat down and talked about real life conflict issues and tried—hard—to reach common grounds, something only ten years prior to that my father was doing at Wadi Araba where the Israeli–Jordanian peace talks were concluded.” I do not think that any of us who participated in Seeds of Peace would have become the individuals we are now and who we will be tomorrow if the transitional force brought about by Seeds of Peace was absent.

Even at the peak of conflicts, I learned to narrow down my anger and frustration. During the horrific events in Gaza last year, it was common to hear people saying “the Israelis are ruthless, they have no hearts.” I was saying, but the Israeli government is ruthless and irrational, thinking that this is the way to deal with the conflict. It is not by any means easy to talk about peace in a time of war, of course it seems easier and inevitable for me to give up on my convictions; then I look at my Camp pictures and say “what a minute, but peace did happen, it happens every summer in Maine.” I have seen it with my own eyes, I felt it, and I lived it.

Ten years later, I need to admit that some things do as a matter of fact change. In one of my classes the tutor asked “what is the difference between a dispute and a conflict”? I said well it’s quite clear, your course is titled “dispute resolution and conflict management,” and therefore, disputes can be resolved, where conflicts can only be managed. The tutor nodded and smiled as if I made a point that was too clear, but was one that she failed to notice. It was then and there that I realized how far I have come from my time at Camp; now a bit more cynical but with a sense of realism. I know that I have not given up on my principles, I merely modified them.

Seeds of Peace rooted in me this notion of “selflessness”. We all develop our own narratives, and one of my own narratives is the idea of “transferability,” as in how transferable are the things that I learn? I think to myself why do not the parties of the conflict submit to arbitration or go to court to have their differences dealt with by a neutral third party? I know such ideas some ridiculous to many, but this is how I want to apply my area of specialization to conflicts; this is the selflessness that Seeds of Peace taught me, how could what I learn and posses help others? I really believe that at some point I will be able to pay Seeds of Peace back, if not in a strict sense then to assist in the concrete realization of our hopes and aspirations.

For so many years I was hoping that I would get the chance to talk about my experience at Camp and with Seeds of Peace. Now that I have this chance, I thought for a long time about the things I could talk about, but all my lawyering skills cannot come into play. Seeds of Peace raised me up; it taught me to differentiate between the right and wrong, between the moral and the immoral, between the norm and the exception, regardless of how blurred the lines between such can be. This is a virtue that I value, for it is one that makes Seeds all over the world stand out in their communities and countries, and it is one that makes as all as Seeds stand out in the world.

Janet Wallach named next Seeds of Peace president

Feb 16, 2006 / No Comments

NEW YORK | On the night of its unique and spectacular Young Leadership Committee fundraising event in New York, Seeds of Peace officially announced that Janet Wallach, the widow of Seeds of Peace founder the late John Wallach, will take over as President of the international nonprofit organization.

“Seeds of Peace has been an important part of my life since my husband, John, created it in 1993.  Under his direction as well as that of past president, Aaron Miller, I have been honored to remain integrally involved in the organization’s growth—helping it to become one of the most internationally recognized institutions working for peace in the Middle East and other conflict regions,” said Janet Wallach. “I look forward to contributing to Seeds of Peace in a more official capacity as Seeds of Peace expands in its second decade; with over 3,000 graduates—many of whom are now young adults trained and positioned to become leaders, Seeds of Peace is needed more than ever.”

During the three years Mr. Miller served as President of Seeds of Peace, Janet Wallach remained in the New York office as Executive Vice President. Miller, who transitioned to the role of Senior Advisor, is currently at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars working on his new book “America and the Much Too Promised Land: The Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace” (Bantam/Dell, 2008). After an extensive executive search, Seeds of Peace chose Wallach as the natural successor to Miller.

Janet Wallach is a journalist and the author of eight books—writing extensively about the Middle East. Her most well-known book, “Desert Queen; The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell” (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1996), has been translated into twelve languages and was praised by The Boston Globe for being “as timely as today’s headlines.” “Wallach comfortably commands the political and diplomatic history of the Middle East,” said the Chicago Tribune.

Janet Wallach has spent much of her life living and working in the Middle East, and has also co-authored “Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder” (Carol Publishing, 1991, updated 1997); “The New Palestinians” (Prima, 1992), and “Still Small Voices” (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988).  Her most recent book, “Seraglio” (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2003) is an historical novel that was called “both serious and enchanting” by Publisher’s Weekly.  Janet Wallach has been a frequent contributor to The Washington Post Magazine as well as a contributor to Smithsonian Magazine and other periodicals. She has written cover story profiles of Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon; Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; Reza Pahlavi, putative heir to the throne of Iran; Palestinian envoy Hassan Abdul Rahman; Saudi entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi; First Lady of Egypt Jihan Sadat; and the British official Gertrude Bell.

The official announcement of Janet Wallach as President took place at the Seeds of Peace fundraiser A Journey Through the Peace Market on Thursday, February 16th.  This star-studded fundraiser featured “Best New Artist” and 3-time Grammy winner, John Legend as well as 40 Israeli, Palestinian, Indian, Pakistani and Afghan Seeds of Peace program graduates.

With recent events and leadership transitions in the Middle East, Seeds of Peace has recently been highlighted as a critical organization to the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it is investing in a new generation of leaders who are capable of understanding and reaching out to the “enemy.” Former President Bill Clinton spoke to this at the World Economic Forum in Davos just weeks ago when he praised the work of Seeds of Peace and discussed the importance of finding ways to help people understand the other side.

Seeds of Peace is dedicated to empowering young people from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence.  Since 1993, it has graduated over 3,000 teenagers from its internationally-recognized program that begins at its Camp in Maine and continues through its Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem. More information can be found at www.seedsofpeace.org.

VIDEO: Former Celt praises Seeds of Peace campers
WMTW (ABC/Portland)

Aug 8, 2014 / No Comments

Visit part of NBA day

NBA players, including the Boston Celtics’ Marcus Smart and former player Brian Scalabrine, paid a visit to Seeds of Peace camp on Friday.

More than 180 campers from around the world attended the NBA Day event. More than half of the campers are Israeli or Palestinian.

One goal of Seeds of Peace is to have an open dialogue between youth from around the world.

Scalabrine, who is now working as a basketball analyst, has visited the camp before, but he says this year is different.

“What we provide is basically an opportunity for them to have fun for a day and get away from the idea that back in their country there’s a war going on, and we’re not saying that we’re trying to ignore that. What we are saying is that it’s OK to have fun for a day, and here as NBA players, we can be here supporting you and admiring your courage,” Scalabrine said.

Read Mike Reagan’s story at WMTW.com â€șâ€ș

A New Hope through Seeds of Peace
Afghanistan Votes

Dec 22, 2009 / No Comments

BY SHABNAM HASSANZADA | KABUL It is clear to everyone that the last two decades of war have had negative effects on Afghanistan and Afghans. Thousands of people were killed. Millions left Afghanistan to immigrate to foreign countries. The economic, political, social, cultural and educational foundations were destroyed.

I am an Afghan who was born in war, grew up in war and lived in war for a long period of my life. From the time I opened my eyes to this world, I saw and remembered war. The very first sounds I heard were of guns and fighting. The first smells were of dead bodies and blood.

I was born at the very end of Dr. Najibullah’s Government. My father was a police officer working in the Ministry of Interior. I was a three-month old baby when I lost my father. When he died, I was with my mother, elder sister, grandma and aunts (my father’s mother and sisters) in Kabul city.

I passed my childhood at home, no fun, and no school, not like ordinary kids in other countries who were having a real taste of a colorful life. Of course, it was not only me who had the black and white life; there were millions of kids like me in this land. As a child, I never knew what it meant to go to school. I only heard about school from my family. But my family used to teach me at home because my mother and aunts were educated; they were teachers.

Finally this dark period ended and a new hope rose up. The Taliban disappeared, a new government settled in Afghanistan and, like other Afghan girls, I joined school and started studying.

It was at the end of 2002 that I was selected as the best student of the academic year in my school. I had passed the 7th grade and was soon to begin the 8th. I was on my winter holidays and it was morning when I received a call from the principal of my school. She told me that I needed to go to Ministry of Education in the afternoon because there was a competition among the best students of Kabul and a few other cities in Afghanistan. “We have selected you as the representative of our school”, and I said, “Yes Madam, thank you.”

It was at 2 pm that about 300 students, who were the top students of the academic year in their schools, gathered at the Ministry. Then I discovered that it was not only a competition to choose the best among us, but it was the competition for a one month scholarship to USA.

We all went through a long process of interviews and written exams. In the end, only 12 among the 300 were selected for the one month scholarship in USA for the 2003 Seeds of Peace Summer camp, a program of peace for teenagers from countries that had been in conflict for decades.

SEEDS OF PEACE:

‘Seeds of Peace’ is a non-profit, non-political organization that helps teenagers from regions of conflict to learn the skills of making peace, in a safe environment—an environment where they can air their views and learn the leadership and conflict resolution techniques required to end the cycle of war.

In 2003, for my first encounter with the Seeds of Peace organization I traveled to the USA to attend their summer camp in the state of Maine. When I entered the gate with my delegation from Afghanistan, I stopped to look at the flags representing all the participating countries, as well as the very special flag of ‘Seeds of Peace’.

We had different programs daily at the camp however we soon start to live together, eating and sleeping under one roof, although we were from different ethnic groups, different backgrounds, cultures and religions. It was not an easy process to get on with one another but in all our activities we learned to see others, not as enemies but as human beings who shared a similar wants and needs—Peace.

An important part of the daily program was to practice co-existence with countries we had been in conflict with. Afghans and Americans were in the same group because September 11th had changed and affected both countries. In these dialogue sessions, we learned to listen to others in the hope that they too would listen to us. As members of a group who shared a vision, we discussed what we were willing to do for peace.

At the ‘Seeds of Peace’ camp, I met teenagers from other countries who had experienced the same pain as I, who had lost family members, who had had that same kind of black and white life. As a girl, who had felt that she had little value in a country like Afghanistan, I learned to trust myself and to know that I am as worthy a human being as a boy. There was no gender discrimination at the camp. My experience there gave me the energy to change my life and believe that peace is achievable when our enemy becomes our friend.

After returning home I was not that girl who only wanted to study. I had seen the world beyond myself. I knew that I had to move on. This was the time. I have had enough experience. I have a vision. I want to know who I am. I want to see the world and I also want to know my own country and my own people. I want to see all the colors of life that I have not seen before.

When I came home from the ‘Seeds of Peace’ camp, I first told my story to my family and friends and then my schoolmates. Since that time, I have attended many seeds of peace activities in my country, in South Asia and in other seeds of peace countries. We have meetings here in Kabul; we do volunteer work; we bring new youth into the group.

So now I am an Ambassador of Peace and I will be that forever because this Seeds of Peace Organization has given me a new birth and a vision for life.

Featured Go-Getter: Ben Losman
Make Mama Proud

Jan 10, 2010 / No Comments

Ben Losman

‱ Communications Manager and Facilitation Trainer
‱ Ashoka’s Youth Venture, UnLtd India, and Seeds of Peace
‱ BS, Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, Marketing and International Business, 2006
‱ Current City: Mumbai, India

BY LEON LINDSTROM | Let’s straighten this out: you went to a business school—as an undergrad—so you could go into the NGO world? You’re not the first person to decide on management education as a tool for public service, but did you really settle on that plan as a high-schooler?

Ben LosmanI can’t claim credit for such sage foresight—chalk it up to advice from my dad. In high school, I had no idea what I wanted my career path to look like. I found it unfair and constricting that we had to choose so early. My social conscience was strong but vague; I knew I wanted to do “good,” but didn’t know how. Volunteering had always been a big part of my life, and with that, I’d come to see that good intentions aren’t enough to make real impact. My dad is an entrepreneur. His advice: “get a good head for business on your shoulders so you can enter the non-profit sector and actually be competent and effective.” As a suburban high school hippie who, at the time, saw all corporations as part of the evil empire, this made sense to me.

Do you have a sense for what your undergrad background did for you, relative to, say, what the liberal-arts universities of some of the other folks on this site did for their graduates?

My business education was solid, but textbook—it didn’t push me to think too far outside of the box. Now that I’ve been working for a few years, I realize that the main focus of instruction should have been on creative problem solving.

Institutionally, there was little attempt to spark a social conscience within the student body—there were plenty of student clubs that volunteered in the local community, but there was no academic discourse on the role business plays in social change. In my eyes, this was a wasted opportunity.

And here’s where I have to make a disclaimer—UMD has made huge strides since I graduated, particularly through a partnership with Ashoka U, a program that seeks to transform the campus into an ecosystem that fosters changemaking.

My business undergrad gave me a prestigious diploma, a textbook understanding of business, and some good connections. But the classes that were the most important to my intellectual development were a) Dissecting Shakespeare’s Use of Language and b) Advanced African Drumming.

The first job out of college: occasionally rewarding, usually frustrating. How was yours?

Mostly frustrating. The organization was divided by annoying internal politics, my work often seemed pointless (I had tight deadlines for deliverables that were of no value to clients), and it dawned on me that much of what we did as an environmental organization was greenwashing. The culture stifled new ideas from junior staff. I shouldn’t have put in eight months there, but someone had told me that it’d look bad on my resume to leave my first full-time job before working the better part of a year. And I had become close with other junior staff. Plus, all my other friends were unhappy with their respective jobs, so it seemed natural to commiserate when we got together to watch The Wire. But that all ended one glorious day—the day I found out I’d been accepted as a counselor at Seeds of Peace.

Tell us about Seeds of Peace and where that’s taken you.

Seeds of Peace brings together young people from across international conflict lines to experience cross-cultural dialogue and coexistence. The flagship program is its summer camp in Maine; teenagers from the Middle East (Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan) and South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) come together to spend the summer living with the people that, in many cases, they’ve been taught to distrust or hate. They play sports and make art together, sleep in the same cabins, and complain about the food together. Part of every day is dedicated to small-group dialogue focused on their respective conflicts, which is facilitated by experts in mediation.

My first summer with Seeds of Peace shook me to the core. I grew up in a liberal American Jewish household; before camp, I was confident that I understood the conflicts in the Middle East and South Asia—and that I held progressive viewpoints. The intense conversations and interactions I had with the campers quickly made me realize that I had no grasp of the reality on the ground. As the campers began to examine their own identities and develop intimate cross-conflict relationships, my respect for these young people grew into something that continues to guide me in my career and life path.

After my first summer at Seeds, I began working for Ashoka’s Youth Venture, an organization that enables young people to lead their own projects and initiatives for social change, at Ashoka’s headquarters in DC. At the core of this approach is the belief that young people can and will create systemic change when provided the opportunity and support. I saw parallels to Seeds of Peace and began working on a partnership.

In 2008, I returned to Seeds camp and ran “I, Changemaker,” a workshop series with the South Asians based on the concept of youth social entrepreneurship as a means towards peacebuilding. Together, the Indians and Pakistanis examined the social issues they all face in their respective communities and explored ways in which they could unite and make change happen. Throughout the course of the series, the Seeds mapped out their own social ventures, several of which had team members from both sides of the border.

After camp, I moved to Bombay to work with Ashoka’s Youth Venture India. In addition to the Seeds partnership, I took on responsibilities within Youth Venture’s marketing, strategy, and programming. I’ve never learned so much so quickly—not only from the team I worked with, but from the young people we support.

As I began working with Seeds alumni on the ground in Bombay, I realized that few of them actually planned on launching the social ventures they had designed over the summer. They had been too far removed from their home communities when making their detailed plans—they lacked the community groundwork that is critical for developing a social venture.

This was a key learning for me when Seeds of Peace invited me back to lead the program for the returning campers in 2009. Instead of focusing exclusively on planning social ventures, my team and I expanded the concept of changemaking to something much broader. The campers set goals for making change happen at camp (a supportive environment with all resources available), within themselves (to grow into the people they want to become), and in their home communities. They returned home with measurable, achievable goals—something accessible and personally meaningful to them. Now I’m back in Bombay again working with Ashoka’s Youth Venture India, Seeds of Peace, and another organization called UnLtd India. Youth Venture enables young people to take their first steps into the world of leading social change; UnLtd supports people who have already taken that step and now are ready to scale and sustain. The close relationship between Youth Venture and UnLtd has given birth to a pipeline of Venturers who, in looking to scale their projects, go on to become UnLtd investees.

You seem to have worked for Seeds of Peace in a few capacities—and taken advantage of some opportunities to connect to work with other organizations as well. Was there a master plan here, or did it just happen?

As the last weeks of my first summer at Seeds drew to a close, I began to panic. Camp had made me realize that I could—and needed to—love my work, create impact, and be a part of something bigger than myself. I had no idea how I could find another job that excited and fulfilled me year-round. So I sat down with one of my friends, a former Seeds counselor who had been at the same point a few years ahead of me. She helped me broadly identify my interest areas—which were (and still are) youth empowerment, conflict resolution, environmental sustainability, and social entrepreneurship (which, though I didn’t know what it meant, sounded cool).

The next step was to explore, connect to, and contact as many organizations and companies working in these areas as possible. I started asking other Seeds staff for guidance; it was amazing to be surrounded by so many brilliant, passionate people with similar interests—having access to their networks opened my eyes to amazing work around the world that I might not otherwise have known about. Ultimately, I found Youth Venture when I moved back to the DC area. That led to the partnership with Seeds, which led to the opening at Youth Venture India, which led to the position at UnLtd India.

The short answer to the question is that I had no master plan, just a gut drive to explore and learn from inspirational people and situations. Because I was embedded in networks of perpetual idea-generators and I stayed flexible, I was able to find opportunities to dive head-first into things that piqued my passion.

In your various escapades, what have you come across that has impressed you?

The central belief of Ashoka is that everyone can be a changemaker; you simply have to give yourself permission to make change happen and then act upon it. I’ve had the privilege of meeting people who arrived at and acted upon this self-belief years ago; these are the social entrepreneurs who are now creating systemic social change across the world, whether by making Tanzania safe from mines using sniffer rats (Bart Weejens of Apopo) or revolutionizing care for the patients in Calcutta’s state-run mental institutions (Ratna Ray of Anjali).

But for me, it’s sometimes more impressive to witness the birth of the self-belief that enables people to lead change. That’s one of the main reasons I work with young people.

Bombay is a city deeply divided along class, communalist, and political lines. Youth Venture reaches out to young people from all over the city and has created a community of changemakers—young people who are taking action within their own spheres of influence. So at any given YV workshop, you’ll see a cross-section of the city—young leaders from the slums working alongside students from prestigious universities and people who never finished grade school because they had to bring in money to feed their family. The fact that each Venturer is making change happen within his/her own community acts as a social equalizer. This is the only venue I’ve seen for people to come together across this city’s divisions and connect to each other as equals.

Equally as amazing are the Youth Venturers we support in Songadh, a rural tribal area in Gujurat. Their Ventures are focused on fulfilling the basic needs of their villages, and what they’ve accomplished is incredible. Many of them have mobilized their community members and negotiated with the government to electrify their villages, build dams to harvest rainwater, and create roads where there were none before—often creating jobs for their fellow villagers in the process. Youth Venture offered resources and knowledge, but more than anything, these young people just needed to know that someone believed in their capacity to lead change—that was the spark that enabled them to take action.

What have you become good at?

Challenging the work we do by asking uncomfortable questions—are we imposing change on the groups we work with, or are we enabling them to unlock their own agency for making change? Are we treating the people we work with as beneficiaries, or are we setting up sustainable systems so that, eventually, these people can take the reins?

I’ve also become fascinated by groups and group dynamics. I’m developing my skills as a facilitator.

Looking down the road, what are you working toward?

I feel like I’ve found my path. Within Bombay, I want to create more spaces for people to come together across social divisions through dialogue, music, and sports.

Ultimately, I think an MBA will give me the foundation I need to support young changemakers—much of it comes from common sense and networks, but I want to have the technical knowledge to help people scale and sustain their initiatives at my fingertips.

Do you have any lessons for folks that getting out of school and either thinking about what to do or trying to do it?

When recruiting new Youth Venturers, we ask young people two major questions: (1) What burns you about society? and (2) Do you have the courage to stand up and do something about it?

Start with the first question. Identify your passions and interests (it helps to do this with someone who knows you well); create a broad list of topics and issues that you can read and say to yourself, “I’d be excited to dedicate myself to at least one of these things.” Then start exploring the work that’s being done to address those issues. Using your issues as anchor points, cast a wide net—ask friends, family, professors, etc. for leads, ideas, and connections. Search for organizations and companies doing interesting work (idealist.org is my go-to starting point). Don’t filter the results by geography; you might find amazing work in a place to which you’d never move—use this as a stepping stone to discover new ideas and connections.

That’s the hard part. Once you start finding people doing work that excites you, reach out to them and strike up a conversation, even if they’re not offering any immediate job openings. Stay flexible, curious, and eager to get in over your head.

Once you choose to dedicate yourself to something, there will inevitably be days you question your choice. If you experience too many of these days in a row (if your work is making you compromise yourself and what you value), find something better, pack up, and leave—don’t rationalize away your gut instinct. At the same time, though, genuine challenges are often potential opportunities for you to grow. Clear your head, talk to someone you respect, and decide whether you’re facing a compromise of self or a challenge to be tackled.

Are you makin’ mama proud?

Just asked her over gChat, her response: “smiley face heart exclamation point.” I think that’s a yes.

Equipping young leaders in India with skills to effect change

Mar 3, 2019 / 2 Comments

MUMBAI | Seeds of Peace’s nine-month Young Leaders Peace Fellowship has introduced 27 Indian teens to the next level of peace education.

Once a month, the fellows—a mix of Indian Seeds from recent years of Camp and new members of the Seeds of Peace community—met for eight-hour sessions deepening their understanding of conflict. Topics ranged from mindfulness and active listening, to honing mediation and negotiation skills, to exploring how different forms of identity can cause conflict.

“One of the main goals of the Fellowship is to create, in the long run, a stream of young influencers who will facilitate peace and conflict resolution in any walk of life they choose,” said Director of Indian Programs Sagar Gangurde. Another goal is to foster essential skills such as communication, critical thinking, empathy, negotiation, leadership, and teamwork.

Sagar believes these are skills that India’s education system does not equip students with. And he’s far from alone in thinking so: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry conducted a survey which found that the vast majority of Indian graduates lacked adequate soft skills to be employable.

Rishi, an Indian Seed and GATHER Fellow, agreed.

“The Indian education system, as well as its curriculum—largely based on rote learning methods—was designed to prepare learners for now-outdated job roles,” he said.

Rishi is currently developing X Billion Skills Lab, a learning platform that teaches Indian youth these important skills.

Dev, a participant in the Young Leaders Peace Fellowship, saw the program as an entry point to Seeds of Peace.

“I was afraid of opening up to people I had never met before,” he said. “I feared they might judge me for who I am, or my opinions. But everyone was so open-minded 
 I could share things from my personal life which I haven’t shared with anyone else, not even my childhood friends. This space is so safe and non-judgmental.”

One lesson she learned from the program was how to view conflicts from multiple sides in order to form opinions impartially. “Whether it’s petty fights with my sister, or something much larger,” she said, “two groups will never be able to reach a consensus if they don’t understand and acknowledge the perspective and need of the other group.”

Rhea, a participant who had never been in dialogue before, was surprised by the experience.

“Today was easily one of my best days to date, as it was spent with people who accept me for who I am and don’t question why I do what I do.”

Another participant, Ishaan, said, “The skills I learned gave me the voice and the courage to speak my mind and be unafraid of laying down my cards, unafraid of conflicts, and unafraid of change.”

Sagar shared an experience he felt encapsulated the entire Fellowship. During one exercise, students created “vision boards” articulating how they wanted to lead change and what peace looked like to each of them. In some ways, it was the culmination of everything they had processed so far.

Initially, Sagar said he had been worried that the students might not be able to fully articulate their thoughts and wondered if what they had learned had truly resonated. The Fellowship was, after all, a new experience for them—one that required untangling the way schools have conditioned them to approach tasks.

But this tension gave way to genuine inspiration as he saw the students vision boards come to life. “I was personally thrilled by the effort the participants had put in 
 presenting their vision with so much passion,” he said. “It was wonderful to see them engaged.”

Now that the Fellowship has come to a close, these young leaders are paying what they’ve learned forward. Dev, for example, is leading sessions on conflict transformation with students at his school.

In the meantime, a new cohort of 2019 Young Leaders Peace Fellows has just begun, and we’re so excited to see them in action! We look forward to rounding back with Sagar and watching these teens come into their own as changemakers.