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GATHER Fellows London Blog

Oct 16, 2015 / No Comments

Seeds of Peace’s first class of GATHER Fellows convened last week in London for the New Fellows Retreat.

Over the course of five days, this intensive leadership accelerator offered the 2015 GATHER Fellows a multitude of experiences and opportunities by drawing on London’s diverse offerings, resources and status as a hub for social change.

Mohamed Rahmy, Director of Seeds of Peace Graduate Programs, shares highlights from the week.

From beginning to end, using Impact Hub Westminster as our base camp, the New Fellows Retreat was a journey through which Fellows, guided by their own personal and professional needs and varying stages of project development, picked up various resources along the way in the form of skills, connections, and new learnings that serve as a requisite to their personal and their project’s growth and development.

On the first day, we started with Street Wisdom, led and facilitated by inspiring social artist David Pearl and a team of passionate volunteers. Street Wisdom encouraged Fellows to ask questions about their future and engage in an interactive exercise that helped them identify personal and professional goals, while seeking intuitive, creative and inspiring answers from the most unconventional places to do so: the streets of London.

David Pearl – GATHER

David Pearl leading a group of Fellows on the streets of London as part of Street Wisdom.

By the end of the activity (check out David’s blog), participants had come to realize that a new door of opportunities for personal and professional betterment was opened for them, and that new avenues to seek advice, reassurance, feedback or even straight-on answers to some of life’s questions exist and are easily accessible. Fellows felt energized and warmed up for what was to follow.

TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS

Building off previous successful engagements with the GATHER initiative in Jordan and Jerusalem, Serial Entrepreneur and Brown University Professor Danny Warshay led a workshop for the GATHER Fellows that kicked off with the “think-big” and “envision forests not seedlings” mantras and approaches as a key ingredient to a future-focused and innovative entrepreneurial thinking, before honing in on one of the most critical skills in entrepreneurship: bottom-up research. The workshop guided the Fellows on how to identify and validate unmet needs in an attempt to better strategize their approaches and thus scale the impact of their work.

Emanating from the importance of storytelling and the necessity of communicating a compelling narrative about the ‘alternative’ world these brave change-makers seek to create through their innovative endeavors and initiatives, an engaging and interactive Communications and Media training was led in partnership with Burson-Marsteller, one of the top-10 public relations and communication firms in the world.

In a combination of classroom session, hands-on workshop and practical work, the Fellows benefited from the world-class training capabilities of the trainers who coached them on messaging development before moving to Burson-Marsteller’s own in-house studios for on-camera mock interviews, followed by individualized feedback that put the training’s learnings into practice.

GATHER mock interview

From the control room, GATHER Fellow Christina conducting her mock-interview at the Communications and Media training.

In the Funding Strategies session, Paul Grant, founder of the Funding Game, drew on his experience with start-ups and his background in finance to share his insights and learnings with Fellows on the various options, tools and approaches that help them select the most appropriate financing or fundraising strategy for their ventures and projects.

CONNECTIONS & NETWORKING

Guest speakers were invited throughout the week to connect with the Fellows. Through telling of their personal and professional trajectories or addressing themed topics such as leadership or sustainability, these established business and industry leaders passed their knowledge, shared their success, (and failure) stories, let Fellows into their moments of self-doubt and vulnerabilities, allowing for engaging conversations to unfold in an intimate and informal setup that encouraged interaction, learning and inspiration.

Connecting with established leaders was not limited to guest speakers. At Credit Suisse, in the heart of London’s financial district at Canary Wharf, a special closed networking event was organized for the GATHER Fellows where they connected with some of the bank’s senior executives and engaged with them in small group discussions, presenting their work and seeking advice and feedback.

Fellows further heard from representatives from the Credit Suisse Modern Muse Program who organized a Q&A session for the Fellows and presented the program’s efforts to advance the economic participation and empowerment of women and girls.

Credit Suisse – GATHER

GATHER Fellows at Credit Suisse’s Networking Event.

An Exchange between Social Change Leaders was the title of another important networking event attended by the GATHER Fellows, jointly organized with and hosted by the U.S. Embassy in London. Attended by more than 40 organizations and individuals representing London’s leading social change players and agents, the event connected the Fellows with their U.K.-based peers working on similar issues. The ensuing round-table discussions allowed for networking, conversation, and exchange of practices. After the round-tables concluded, all attendees regrouped for insightful remarks given by Ambassador of the U.S. to the U.K. Matthew W. Barzun.

GATHER Roundtable

Round table Discussion, “An Exchange between Social Change Leaders” event hosted by the US Embassy in London.

GATHER group photo

US Ambassador to the UK Matthew W. Barzun taking a picture with GATHER Fellows.

While the retreat was full of events and connections established with diversified audiences, it was the Peer-to-Peer Sessions that were truly the highlight of the retreat. These sessions offered Fellows the space and time to present their work to one another, solicit questions and remarks from each other as peers living in similar environments and facing similar challenges while motivated by similar drives to change. The level of insightful and thoughtful feedback that Fellows gave to one another, the suggestions and recommendations they made and the connections that were sparked were all indicative of the incredible potential that the simple act of a conversation holds—a conversation among a community of like-minded individuals whose work focus may vary yet experiences, personal journeys and commitment to shared values are all too important to dismiss.

Rasha – GATHER

GATHER Fellow Rasha presenting her project at the Peer to Peer Session.

On the last night of the retreat, Fellows concluded the week of activities and sessions with a special dinner and networking evening hosted in their honor, in the company of more than 150 members of Seeds of Peace’s U.K.-based community. Indeed, the GATHER community draws its strength from the passion, dedication and commitment of Seeds of Peace’s community of alumni, educators, and supporters that are spread all around the globe. Each Fellow had the opportunity to present their work to the wider audience, before indulging in informal networking and socializing throughout the rest of the night.

AND THE JOURNEY CONTINUES …

With a group as diverse as the GATHER Fellows, hailing from different backgrounds, speaking different languages and working tirelessly and passionately across different sectors and on a variety of social change issues, it was important that the New Fellows Retreat offered experiences that inspire innovation, spark new thinking and facilitate connections necessary to the progress of Fellows’ projects and their abilities to lead them.

At the end of the week, one of the Fellows said it was “exhausting and exhaustive:”

“I hope each person jumps in the ocean and swims with their project. Giving each other thoughtful feedback for seven full days built strong and lasting connections as respected people and builders. I hope Seeds is the key to keep projects going.”

Indeed, it is the GATHER initiative’s mandate to support the Fellows with the incredibly important and valuable work that they are doing and, as the New Fellows Retreat ended, our work continues and so does their commitment to relentless press ahead with their life-changing ideas and efforts.
 
LONDON PHOTOS

For 130 new Seeds, Camp is just the beginning

Sep 21, 2021 / No Comments

OTISFIELD, MAINE | Over 130 youth from across the Northeast United States participated in the 2021 Seeds of Peace Camp, marking a much-anticipated return to the shores of Pleasant Lake in Maine after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

And while it was a summer that was unprecedented in the nature of its obstacles, it also showed, now more than ever, the need to empower youth to work across lines of difference and lead change in their communities.

“We knew from early on that this summer would hold myriad challenges brought on by COVID-19,” said Sarah Stone, (a.k.a. Stoney) who served as Camp co-director alongside Spencer Traylor (2008 Maine Seed) and worked with a team of Camp leads hailing from across the Northeast.

“But youth and staff showed up ready to work across lines of difference with brilliance, compassion, and courage. There was so much beauty in their ability to share space and create a strong community rooted in care and in action, despite all the uncertainty and fear in the world right now.”
The summer kicked off in July with a two-and-a-half-week session for campers from across the Northeast U.S., followed by another session in August for only youth from Maine.

Closely monitoring ever-evolving CDC guidelines and following advice from public health consultants, a decision was made early in 2021 that only youth from within driving distance of Camp would be eligible this summer—meaning that for the first time in Seeds of Peace Camp history, there would be no international campers.
Instead, youth at Camp—and in all countries where Seeds of Peace works—began their Seeds journey by engaging in dialogue over issues within their own communities and countries, rather than focusing largely on cross-border conflicts.

For campers, it provided a much needed opportunity to discuss divides within the United States, with dialogue sessions tackling topics like religion, socioeconomic status, race, and political affiliation.

After a year full of political unrest, violence, and deepening societal divides, there was plenty for youth to dig into. But after a year that also wrought a heavy toll on mental health and greatly restricted opportunities for in-person social interaction, Camp staff also had to be mindful of when campers’ comfort zones might be overstretched.

“With so many schools hybrid or fully remote, youth’s social lives and interactions were mostly curated by themselves online and they hadn’t been re-accustomed to engaging with one another outside of this context,” Stoney said.

“At Camp, we did a lot of work to learn to see and hear one another not with the distance or wall of Facebook statuses or TikTok videos, but up close and personal, truly listening, unlearning, learning.”

The expectation for dialogue, of course, has always been that Seeds would apply those experiences to take action for change in their schools and communities. This year, however, a series of workshops that prepared students to do just that were baked into Camp programming. Initiated and designed by Stoney, Community Action challenged campers to work together to identify and prepare to address issues they want to change back home.

As Danielle Whyte, a 2019 Maine Seed and Co-Leader of Community Action, described it: “Community Action is the art of amplifying the voice of the collective.”
Grouped with campers from their hometowns, youth created action plans to bring anti-racist curricula to their schools, hire more diverse faculty and staff, and build school decision-making structures that are more inclusive of student voices, to name a few. For Cayen, a Seed from Maine, it was an opportunity to return home with “concrete, realistic” plans for change.

“I feel that Community Action allows me to be reassured, organized, inspired and ecstatic that my fellow peers and I have a solid chance at bringing positive and undeniable change in myself and my community,” Cayen reflected in a Camper Report. “Community Action provides a plan, a way to enact the plan, confidence that the plan will work, and a purpose.”

The focus on youth-led action underscored many of the summer’s new additions and highlights—from camper reports in which youth shared their first-hand perspectives, to youth-led special activities, to daily inspirations provided by a different bunk at each morning lineup.

Writing in one of the reports, Faysal, a camper from Maine, said he had come to “expect the unexpected” at Camp.

Whether it was trying a new activity for the first time or having the opportunity to branch out of their groups and meet new friends at Café Night, campers explored their capabilities and how these strengths might add to the greater good of their communities.

“Seeds of Peace is an opportunity for you to find yourself in a place where you can be yourself,” Faysal wrote. “There needs to be change in the world, and here is where that starts.”

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.

Seed Stories: Debate to dialogue

Jun 14, 2019 / 1 Comment

I’ve always prided myself on my ability to win an argument—in a class discussion, with friends, and especially with my parents. Although it meant being the sole 5th grader on the team, I jumped at the opportunity to join debate when I entered middle school.

I remained a ruthless competitor through my sophomore year, and at the end of that year, I was offered the position of captain for the Public Forum Varsity Debate team at my school. I was thrilled.

Debate was cutthroat. We gleamed with accomplishment when the other team misspoke. There was a winner and a loser. That structure felt safe to me—I needed its validation. At the same time, however, someone always left the room feeling miserable and sometimes, it was me.

As much as they could thrill me, debate tournaments always somehow left me feeling exhausted. I hated prepping. The topics seemed relevant, but I rarely connected with them. I felt like a robot: researching facts and statistics just to spit them back out.

Then, the summer before my junior year, everything changed. I attended the Seeds of Peace Camp. The entire experience was so unfamiliar to me; I didn’t know a single person getting on the bus the first day, and, needless to say, after my debate training, dialogue and active listening were hardly my strong suit. I was so used to fighting my case to win and only listening to the other side in order to pick their argument apart—it’s what I’d been conditioned to do.

From the second I stepped into the dialogue hut at Camp, it was clear how fundamentally different the two approaches—debate versus dialogue—were. The judge was replaced with facilitators who made every effort to unite us. No longer did I wear stiff “Western Business Attire” with flats that gave my feet blisters. Instead, we all sported the same bright green t-shirts and left our shoes at the door to avoid bringing in the “outside dirt.” Instead of sitting rigidly across from one another and approaching the podium each time we spoke, we sat in a circle. We set community norms which were directly at odds with the spoken and unspoken rules of debate.

At first I was skeptical that dialogue could work. It felt too simple, too idealistic. Quickly, I realized this was not the case; in fact, dialogue demanded more of me than debate ever had. Dialogue, I learned, meant letting my guard down, being vulnerable, and really listening. The reality is you don’t change people’s minds by exposing what’s wrong with their viewpoint. What does change minds, however, is personal stories.

Sitting in the dialogue hut the past two summers, I’ve heard stories that have reinforced ideas I’ve always thought to be true, and others that have deeply challenged my beliefs and fundamental values. All of them, however, in one way or another, have allowed me to put myself into someone else’s shoes.

As I’ve begun to call upon this skill more and more outside of the dialogue hut, I’ve found myself reflecting. The reality is, I didn’t “choose” dialogue as the superior way to hold a conversation. Rather, I’ve learned to be confident enough to no longer need to control a discussion the way I used to. Seeds of Peace gave me that confidence. No longer do I need the validation of a judge’s ballot; I’ve discovered a new way of dealing with conflict, one in which people leave feeling heard, not hurt.

Maine Seeds participate in workshop on race in America

Nov 22, 2014 / No Comments

PORTLAND | In late November, 36 Maine Seeds attended the second in a series of workshops on race. Following up on discussions from their previous workshop, the activities and dialogues on November 22nd went deeper into conversations on privilege and power, and how they are related to race. The workshop helped the Seeds process their own emotions and reactions to the recent events across America, and more particularly, to the events taking place in the community of Ferguson.

The first activity that the Seeds participated in was an exploration of words like “Racism,” “Stereotypes,” “Power,” “Privilege,” and prevalent phrases and hashtags like “#handsupdontshoot.” Afterwards, one of the Program Coordinators led a short session on the difference between societal and personal power. The Seeds investigated what they could do to alleviate injustice in their home communities and on a peer-to-peer basis.

White Seeds and Seeds of Color also split into small group dialogues that were separated by race, because it allowed for them to carry on their discussions in ‘safe spaces.’ All of the Seeds then reconvened and engaged in conversations with a Seed of the opposite race, covering topics from law enforcement to their personal feelings about their place in society.

Throughout the day, many of the Seeds pushed themselves to step out of their comfort zones. It was evident by the end of the workshop that many of the Seeds had begun to find and embrace their own voices. The impact of the workshop has been evident in the community-based response of the Maine Seeds. Seeds in Lewiston are involved in a #blacklivesmatter movement at their school and have successfully had their protest posters approved by their administration. Seeds at Deering High School held a walkout and a die-in. Furthermore, Deering, Scarborough, and Portland Seeds are currently working on getting together to have a dialogue on race, and are hoping to eventually include superintendents, administrators, and teachers in that discussion very soon.

How two Maine Seeds are leading change in their communities

Mar 28, 2018 / No Comments

After returning from Seeds of Peace Camp to the Maine Girls Academy in Portland, sisters Naissa and Pricillia noticed a lack of civil discourse in their school.

Along with the increasing sense of division they felt in the world at large, the girls realized there was no space in school for students to talk about difficult topics with respect and an open mind. This stood in stark contrast to what they had just experienced at Camp and it bothered them. So they decided to do something about it.

“What’s happening around the world has an impact on the way we move, the way we think in this building,” said Naissa. “We need to respect everybody’s differences. Everyone has so many different experiences, and invalidating them is just really wrong. I said, ‘hey, let’s have a dialogue.’”

Maine Seeds Pricillia and Naissa

Over the last two years, they worked with their classmates and faculty to make civil conversation the centerpiece of life at the Maine Girls Academy. The sisters first approached History and Social Humanities teacher Brendan Curran with their plan to create a forum for meaningful dialogue within the school.

Explaining what sold him on the idea, Curran said, “Part of it is developing empathy, part of it is being compassionate listeners, part of it is learning how to talk about something that’s hard and to consider other viewpoints. The goal is not to come to any type of consensus.”

Working together, the sisters and their teacher developed the program into CivilTEA (the name’s an inside joke, say the students.) Now, it’s part of the school’s regular curriculum.

The topic for each CivilTEA is chosen by students working together with adult facilitators. The conversations are led by students who have been trained to facilitate (and who continue their training throughout the school year).

The discussions first start in small groups, usually beginning with a presentation or guest speaker. From there, the facilitator-guided groups dive into challenging conversations where students not only voice their opinions and questions, but listen carefully when others do the same.

One goal is that everyone involved has a safe place to listen and be heard. “A lot of times in high school, only certain people have found their voice,” said Deb Bicknell, a CivilTEA facilitation trainer and Seeds Educator Program facilitator who helped Maine Girls Academy form its own dialogue course. “In these groups it’s really about how to talk and listen in a respectful manner. A lot of what the girls learn is about being present.”

Another goal is to help students develop their personal voice, discover their own values, and gain skills in discourse for use later in life. “Having these dialogues at school gave me the opportunity to voice my opinion and show that I have an understanding of why these conversations are important to have,” said Pricillia, now a college student.

Through CivilTEA, students and faculty alike are able to discover things they may not have learned at home or in the classroom. Perhaps more importantly, they’re developing a better understanding of one another.

If you’re a Seed working on a meaningful project—no matter where you are in your journey—please let us know. We’d love to share your success story!

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.

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.

Seeds of Peace: It’s not just for kids
Washington File (US Department of State)

Aug 21, 2002 / No Comments

SUSAN DOMOWITZ | OTISFIELD, MAINE You’re never too old to go to camp, at least not when the camp is Seeds of Peace, in Otisfield, Maine. Seeds of Peace, founded by American journalist John Wallach in 1993, provides a peaceful place for teens from conflict areas to learn how to coexist. Every summer some 450 young people from conflict areas around the world, including the Middle East, the Balkans, and South Asia, come to Maine to participate in Seeds of Peace. They are accompanied by adult delegation leaders who come to Maine with them, and who share many of their camp experiences.

The young campers do all the usual things that kids at any summer camp do—sailing, tennis, swimming, and getting to know each other. But at Seeds of Peace, summer camp also includes sessions on learning to coexist and resolve conflicts, and both campers and delegation leaders participate in this process.

For the delegation leaders, who are appointed by their governments, the encounter with the enemy is an uncomfortable, but ultimately transforming experience—much as it is for the teen campers. Two delegation leaders—one Palestinian and one Israeli—readily agreed to talk to the Washington File about their experiences at Seeds of Peace. But because the delegation leaders have professional and family responsibilities in their home countries in the conflict region, they said they prefer not to have their names used when sharing their experiences.

“I was scared about coming to camp,” admits an Israeli delegation leader, “and I didn’t really know what to expect. But meeting Arabs was a good experience. This was a great opportunity to talk with each other.”

To the Palestinian delegation leader, Seeds of Peace is a unique experience. The conflict is still there, he says, but he now sees possibilities. “The walls are still there, but now they’re a little lower.”

“Look,” he says, “fifty-five years of fighting have brought no solution. It’s time to try another way.”

While the teen campers are learning to share a bunkhouse, meals, and activities with “the enemy,” the adult delegation leaders are going through much the same process. They share meals and cabins with the delegation leaders from the other side of the conflict. They participate in coexistence sessions. They learn to trust and help each other through the grueling group challenge of the Outward Bound program on Hurricane Island. And at the end of their three weeks in Maine, like their teen charges, they must cope with the return to a region in conflict.

“We live with a lot of tension and fear,” says one of the Israeli delegation leaders. “This (coexistence) is not going to be easy. But we’ve been breaking down stereotypes at camp, and I hope we can spread these new insights to the people around us.”

During the three-week camp session, in addition to their own coexistence activities, the delegation leaders are also serving as advisers to the teens, and liaisons to their governments. The adults hold bi-weekly delegation meetings with the campers from their country. These meetings are the only occasions at camp where English is replaced by the campers’ own languages, and they provide an occasion for the teens to air their concerns within their own country delegation. The delegation leaders also provide a helpful reality check to the teens, who will confront very difficult and dangerous situations when they return to their home communities.

The coexistence sessions, they say, are difficult. But they agree that the results are worth it. One of the Palestinian delegation leaders says he would like to tell both sides in the Middle East that “we can have a dialogue. There is another way to resolve this conflict.”

The delegation leaders’ program is coordinated by Dr. Barbara Zasloff, a clinical psychologist who specialized in child custody issues for 25 years before becoming full-time Vice-President of Seeds of Peace. Zasloff sees similarities between child custody battles and the hard issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. “For these parties (Israelis and Palestinians), the fighting is as intimate as a family fighting over the children. And in a sense, the adversaries in these conflicts are ‘family,’ too.”

The Outward Bound survival course on Hurricane Island, which teaches trust and team building to the delegation leaders, is really an opportunity for the adults to realize that “you can do things you never thought you could do,” Zasloff explains.

At the end of the three-week camp session, Zasloff says, the delegation leaders are ready to discuss the most difficult issues. During the course of these discussions, they must explain to the other side why it is so difficult for them to compromise on a given issue. Each side gains an understanding of the other’s view of the situation. Delegation leaders are given a specific topic to work on during camp.

As an example, a Palestinian and an Israeli delegation leader described a project in which all the delegation leaders were asked to see if they could agree on “what is needed for a safe, decent life in the Middle East.” Arab and Israeli delegation leaders found that they agreed on 20 of their 24 requirements for “a decent life.” These 20 common points included such things as open borders, democracy, the rule of law, free access to holy sites for all religions, safety and security. The four points on which they differed included—to no one’s surprise—some of the major sticking points in the Middle East conflict, among them the status of Jerusalem, and the right of return.

The delegation leaders say that because they realized that they already agreed on so much, they could begin to discuss the more difficult issues. And while they did not come to any final agreement on these hard issues, they felt they had learned to understand the other side’s point of view.

Delegation leaders have a role to play after camp, too. They help develop an infrastructure of support for the teen “graduates” of Seeds of Peace, and they stay in touch with each other through workshops at the Seeds of Peace center in Jerusalem, and through annual delegation leaders conferences.

An Israeli delegation leader said that staying in touch with delegation leaders from the other side was important, and that she hoped Seeds of Peace would support their efforts to maintain contact. Her Palestinian counterpart agreed, and said he hoped Seeds of Peace could support follow-up in neighborhoods and local associations on both sides of the conflict.

“You have to have hope,” he said. “We hope we can eventually get our political leaders to follow us.”

Pakistani Seeds break digital, cultural boundaries with EPIC programming

Jun 23, 2020 / No Comments

LAHORE | Even in the best of times, it takes a lot of planning, care, and skill to create a space where people can grow; where they can challenge their perspectives, make mistakes and know that their peers—even those whom they barely know—will pick them back up.

To build that type of trust across lines of difference, and hundreds of miles of distance, is a whole other challenge.

This spring, eight Pakistani Seeds from Lahore and Karachi showed that not only were they up for the task, but they were ready to take on more. In April, they held the first edition of Evaluating Perspectives, Identities, and Cultures (EPIC), a free of cost, Seed-led program centered around dialogue exploring different provincial identities in Pakistan. It went so well that they’re currently planning a second edition for July, 2020.

“The first successful run of the program was mind blowing to me,” said Ali Haris, a 2018 Seed. While he said he previously believed that dialogue couldn’t effectively be conducted online, “seeing people’s lives impacted and changed toward the end of the program broke the false notion I held.”

Over the course of five days, the Seeds led participants in activities and dialogues that were designed to help participants engage with their identity and question their preconceived notions.

Approximately 150 teenagers applied for the April program, and the selected 28 attendees spanned different socio-economic lines and identities from four different provinces in Pakistan.

“We live in an environment that heavily affects who we are and who we become,” read the students’ description of the program. “Our identities are a reflection of not only the micro environment, but also the macro environment, and it’s absolutely essential to understand who you are through the lens of culture, values and norms that are shaped provincially and nationally. We invite you to have a dialogue around it, and do it, the Seeds of Peace way!!”

Despite the students having schoolwork, internet connectivity issues, other personal commitments, and even family members battling COVID-19 infections, the Seeds worked tirelessly to pull off the program, and the students showed up every day to delve into difficult questions.

“It was one of the better virtual programs I’ve seen among 14- to 16-year olds,” said Hana Tariq, head of curriculum for Beyond the Classroom, which partners with Seeds of Peace to run local programs in Pakistan. “I feel that it started with awkwardness on the first day and ended with hope to meet each other as soon as the lockdown ends. There was willingness to learn, to experience, and to open up.”

While having to run the program virtually came with its challenges, it also made the program accessible to students who might not have been able to participate otherwise.

“Probably 70 percent of the participants wouldn’t have come had it not been online because they would have had to travel so far to attend,” Hana said.

Highlights of the week included learning directly about what it means to live in Kashmir under occupation from a student who had spent much of his life there, as well as a day where Seeds from India were invited to participate in dialogue.

For Ali Haris, another particularly impactful moment brought him back to Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine.

“One of the participants who previously held a conservative view about an issue actually challenged herself and went to educate herself on the topic,” he said. “That was one moment when I realised how similar it was to the light-bulb moments that happened to me at Camp, and showed me that you can definitely make a huge impact through a virtual connection.”

If the participants’ feedback were any indication of the program’s success, the Seeds, who attended the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine in 2015-19, clearly hit the mark. Multiple participants thanked the Seeds for creating a safe space, “where you can talk out your heart and without fear,” wrote one participant.

“The facilitators did such good work in collaborating with us and making us think critically and innovatively 
 the way they made us question ourselves—our perspectives, identities, conscience, and ideas—it has made us more confident about our true identities,” the participant wrote.

The team members (which includes nine Seed this time: Xainab, Awais, Ali Haris, Fatima, Mariam A., Mariam R., Samir, Rameez, and Taniya) were part of a group of Seeds that traveled to Turkey last year to participate in a facilitation and mediation course.

The EPIC course was formed out of a desire to pay forward what they learned from that four-day workshop, Hana said, as well as an exercise in leadership: a chance to see how projects come together, to learn how to express an idea, to work through disagreements within a team, and to try —and succeed—in challenges they previously didn’t think possible.

“Neither me nor any of the team members had any prior experience designing curriculum,” said Xainab, a 2017 Seed.

“We had to be thorough and careful. It required long hours and re-reviewing everything a 100 times! But our expectations were exceeded in terms of how much the group grew in only a span of five days! Seeing those speak up who didn’t speak as frequently and seeing some of the participants who did speak frequently create space for others, for example, was something that was very rewarding for us to see.”

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