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Dorm Room Diplomacy group pairs Penn, Middle East college students
The Daily Pennsylvanian

Sep 18, 2009 / No Comments

BY OLIVIA JUNG | PHILADELPHIA Two Penn students are trying to bridge the gap between the West and the Middle East—from their dorm rooms.

A group founded by College and Wharton sophomores Corey Metzman and Jacob Blumenfeld-Gantz, Dorm Room Diplomacy aims to cultivate mutual understanding between the two cultures.

The group plans to attain this goal in part by coupling Penn students with college students in the Middle East for discussion. For this, partnerships with the University of Jordan, among other schools, have already been established. In this bimodal relationship, students will engage in active dialogues using online technologies such as Skype.

“The media does not cover every type of issue that occurs in the Middle East,” Metzman explained. To help remedy the disconnect, DRD plans to create an unbiased framework for conversations, not only to foster a rapport but also to educate both parties.

These dialogues also develop an “interesting cultural connection, to talk to someone who has grown up from an entirely different world,” Gantz added.

While traveling and studying in Israel, Jordan and Egypt, Metzman had the chance to personally interact with native Israelis and Palestinians. This allowed him to “really see them as people” rather than some figures in the news, he explained.

Similarly, Gantz attended Seeds of Peace, a camp that brings together American and Middle Eastern youths in Maine. He described the experience as “eye-opening,” as he was able to hear and learn about many personal narratives relevant to the conflicting regions.

Both Metzman and Gantz emphasized that they want to “make such opportunities more available” on campus, especially for those who are unable to study abroad or lack access to such personal narratives firsthand.

“We don’t think that [dialogues are] the solution to any of the issues in the Middle East, but we do think that it is a necessary component,” Metzman said, “like a piece in a puzzle.”

In addition to arranging the structure for real-time communication, DRD intends to provide forums to “discuss the undiscussable” and bring in guest speakers.

Another branch of DRD is Digital Diplomacy, a medium for mentorship rather than political dialogues.

Through this program, high-school students in the West Bank are paired with Penn students to learn more about the college experience in the U.S., which tends to be vastly different from that in the Middle East.

The newly founded club is currently in the process of forming its executive board. It is looking for students from all kinds of backgrounds with differing views, explained Gantz, so that “conversations and dialogues are richer and can solidify the club’s reputation so that it does not fall under any type of ideological framework.”

61 young American and Arab Beyond Borders leaders reunite in Jordan

Mar 9, 2005 / No Comments

One-week exchange program through Seeds of Peace will build ties and reduce misunderstanding among Arabs and Americans

AMMAN | Thirty-three Americans and 28 Arab teenagers from Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and Yemen will meet in Amman next week to participate in the second part of Beyond Borders/Bila Hodood, an exchange program created by the international nonprofit organization Seeds of Peace.

The group, that also includes 22 adult educators, will spend March 12-19, 2005, in discussions and lectures on various issues related to the Middle East and the Arab-American relationship, as well as touring sites in Jordan.

The first part of Beyond Borders took place in August when these same youth spent two weeks at the Seeds of Peace Camp in the US state of Maine, where they met for the first time to build relationships, reduce misunderstanding and forge cooperation at a critical time in the Arab-American relationship.

“We are very excited about the second part of this ground-breaking program that is helping bridge the gaps in understanding and respect between Americans and the Arab world,” said Seeds of Peace president Aaron David Miller, who spent 25 years as a Middle East peace negotiator for the US State Department. “These young people will be future leaders in their communities and countries, and we are working with them now to provide an environment in which they can accomplish this.”

The week-long program in Jordan has the full support of His Majesty King Abdullah and Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan and participation by many high-level speakers is anticipated.

In addition to the lectures and discussion, the group will be touring a number of cultural and historic sites around Jordan. There will also be a visit to schools in Amman with the teens and the adult educators. As a conclusion to the program, a final web-based educational project will be created by the teens and adults and be available for an online audience to use for promoting worldwide peer-to-peer cultural exchange and understanding.

The participants were initially selected with the assistance of LeadAmerica in the US and AMIDEAST in the Middle East based on their leadership potential. Following their summer experience, the teens have been working in paired groups (Arab and American) to jointly design projects that help their community better understand the “other.”

Some of the project accomplishments since August include: Three websites connecting Cairo-New York, Kuwait-Chicago, and Jeddah-Los Angeles School bulletin boards with question-answer exchanges in Boston and Yemen School presentations in Kuwait, Egypt, Los Angeles, Dallas, New York.

The Beyond Borders program builds on the 12-year effort by Seeds of Peace to bring together Israeli and Palestinian teenagers, as well as youth from four other conflict regions including South Asia, Cyprus and the Balkans. Since 1993, nearly 3,000 future leaders have been through the Seeds of Peace program. Most of the teens remain involved with Seeds of Peace into their adult years through year-round follow-up activities at the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem and through other ongoing regional program activities.

About Seeds of Peace / Beyond Borders

For over 10 years, Seeds of Peace has answered the rise of international crises in the Middle East, South Asia, Cyprus, and the Balkans with effective and practical programming that addresses the root causes of violence and conflict. In 2004, with tension and violence between the United States and Middle East intensifying, Seeds of Peace again took the lead to address what is emerging as the defining relationship in the international system with a program called “Beyond Borders/Bila Hodood.” Beyond Borders brings together 62 young leaders and 23 adult educators from six American cities and six Arab countries for cultural and political exchange in both the US and the Middle East.

Participants Seeds of Peace aimed to bring approximately 30 Arab and 30 American teenagers, and 12 Arab and 12 American adult educators, together for the pilot year of the program.

From the Middle East With the ability to bring a total of only 42 Arab participants, Seeds of Peace selected six countries to participate—Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen—with 5-6 teenagers and two adults comprising each delegation. Countries were selected on the basis of their unique position in the Arab world and/or unique relationship with the United States.

From the United States Seeds of Peace chose six cities—Boston, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago—from which to select the Americans. The cities were selected primarily with respect to geographic diversity.

Delegation Leaders The 23 adults, or Delegation Leaders (DLs), were an extraordinary group of educators—including curriculum developers, ministry officials, principals, teachers—in positions to significantly impact their societies. The DLs spent most of their time engaged in dialogue—within the first few days of the program SOP had to restructure their schedule in order to meet their demand for additional dialogue time—in addition to serving as escorts and resources for the youth. The Delegation Leaders are active supporters of Seeds of Peace and will be critical to the success of programs on the ground.

In the United States … Seeds of Peace Camp, August 14-30, 2004
 Beyond Borders followed the traditional Seeds of Peace model that combines a total living and recreation environment with daily dialogue sessions. The Seeds formed close relationships in the bunks and tackled tough political issues in dialogue sessions—the war in Iraq, US foreign policy, terrorism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, media biases, and treatment of women and minorities, to name a few—while also deepening understanding of their respective cultures. The goal of the Camp program was to build trust and relationships, create the space for participants to learn from each other directly, and to expose them to life in the US. Dialogue sessions revealed, as anticipated, that direct communication is the key to eliminating misinformation and misconceptions that exist on both sides.

In the Middle East … Jordan, March 12-19, 2005
The Jordan session will more closely resemble a mini-conference than Camp, as the group reconvenes to more deeply examine the core issues between Arabs and Americans. Expert speakers from the US and Middle East will add depth and context to their discussions, as will visits to sites around Jordan. Given their firsthand experiences in both the US and the Middle East, the foundation laid at camp can now be brought to a more sophisticated level.

And Beyond … City to City Program
 At Camp, each Arab delegation was paired with an American delegation to continue efforts between and beyond the Maine and Jordan sessions. These smaller groups jointly designed and implemented projects that developed leadership skills while contributing to their communities and to the larger goal of increasing understanding between Arabs and Americans. The pairings are: Dallas-Baghdad, Cairo-New York, Jeddah-Los Angeles, Sanaa-Atlanta, Chicago-Kuwait, and Boston-Amman. They have a daily listserv to continue their debates and stay connected, and an email listserv connecting them to their sister city.

Funding Seeds of Peace received both Arab and American support for Beyond Borders, demonstrating the shared investment and commitment from both communities.

Impact Although the program is now only half complete, already we have seen the transformative effects that are typical of Seeds of Peace programs. As always, impact is perhaps best reflected in the words of the Seeds themselves:

“Before I came to Camp, I thought that I knew a lot about things … but I was really wrong. I always saw the bad images associated with the word Arab, especially after 9/11. Now I’m really passionate about the conflict in class. It puts a face to the issues now … If I didn’t come to Camp, then I would still be thinking the same things. I’m just so thankful for the opportunity. I am a completely different person now and I’m making it my duty to get the word out there and to share my experience with as many people as I can.” — American delegate

“The first day I was here I learned how deeply suspicious and fearful some Americans seem to be of all Arabs and all Muslims. An American girl I got to know told me very bluntly that she thought all Arabs hated Americans and hated Christians and supported terrorism. But within a week of living and playing and talking together we came to know and understand and trust one another. At the end of two weeks she told me that she had changed her feelings about Arabs and Muslims. We all have grown and changed.” — Egyptian delegate

“I’d like to thank all the people in the camp and its been a great pleasure and excellent experience for me to come to this camp. I consider it a turning point in my life. I learned a lot about myself and about people.” —Saudi Delegation Leader

Youth from war-torn nations: “The role of the media is not to tell people what to think, but to tell them what to think about”

Oct 16, 2003 / No Comments

NEW YORK | Three blocks away from the World Trade Center, 125 youth from four conflict regions around the world came together today to present a call to action to the media urging them to adhere to more rigorous standards of fair, balanced and objective reporting.

The document was presented to Her Majesty Queen Noor of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan at the closing ceremony of the six-day Seeds of Peace Breaking News, Making Headlines international youth conference.

“Accurate news is the utmost priority of responsible media,” states the declaration, which outlines the media’s responsibility and role in conflict.

“We need the media’s help outlining its responsibility and role in conflict,” say the young people from around the world who participated in the conference, adding, “The role of the media is not to tell people what to think but to tell them what to think about.”

“At a time when the news and images from the Middle East and other regions of conflict are characterized by continued violence and pessimism, the gathering of Seeds of Peace graduates today is a reminder that there can still be a different future tomorrow,” Her Majesty Queen Noor told the graduates. “And now, after a week-long conference on the media, you have learned to better understand these images and to make headlines of your own.”

Throughout the conference, Palestinian, Israeli, Egyptian, Jordanian, Indian, Pakistani, Afghan, Greek and Turkish Cypriot, Balkan and American participants were divided into 10 hands-on workshops that examined and learned about the media from top professionals in the industry. Each workshop produced projects in each of the media’s different forms including online, print, and broadcast.

The 10 workshops consisted of television, radio, photojournalism, op-ed, educational media, magazine, internet, newspaper reporting, public relations, and the declaration statement. The workshops partnered or visited leading companies and organizations including ABC News, CBS Radio, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, YM Magazine, the International Center of Photography, Ruder Finn, and Sesame Workshop.

The participants also heard from leading media professionals during the week including Christiane Amanpour, Ron Brownstein, Raghida Dergham, Marvin Kalb, Bernard Kalb, Andrea Koppel, David Letterman, Mike McCurry, David Westin and Michael Wolff.

Said Seeds of Peace President, Aaron David Miller, “These remarkable young people tomorrow’s leaders have long understood the power of the media to defuse or exacerbate conflict. This week’s media conference has now exposed them to the practical media skills required to help them shape a future based on understanding and one day on real peace.”

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated over 2,500 teenagers representing 22 nations from its internationally recognized conflict-resolution and coexistence program. Through the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine and its Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. A jointly published newspaper, list-serve, educational conferences and seminars provide year-round follow-up programming.

For more information on Seeds of Peace or Breaking News, Making Headlines, contact Seeds of Peace.

Middle East Seeds join together in a seminar to discuss recent events

Nov 22, 2014 / No Comments

JERUSALEM | In the wake of the horrific bloodshed in and around Gaza and recent clashes in Jerusalem and the West Bank, 53 Israeli and Palestinian Seeds spent three days in late November examining their personal emotional reactions to the violence. The “I for an Eye” seminar provided participants with an avenue to better understand conflict and the larger forces that perpetuate violence, hate, and injustice—from occupation and religion, to media and politics.

It took place near Jerusalem at the only intentional Arab-Jewish community in Israel, known as Wahat al-Salam or Neve Shalom, which means “Oasis of Peace” in English.

The Seeds took part in a number of workshops and activities on the construction of narrative and self-expression. While engaging in their first dialogue sessions since the summer, they addressed questions such as, “As a Seed living and breathing the situation, what am I witnessing and how am I processing my core questions and beliefs? How are others perceiving and reflecting on my emotions, reactions, and story as it plays out around me? Are there larger structures and mechanisms at work that create an incessant cycle of distrust/hate/violence/conflict/war?”

“We created a safe space to address and process the emotional impact this summer had on all of us, and to better comprehend our own strengths, weaknesses and mechanisms we develop to cope with the aftermath, both individually and collectively,” said one organizer.

During a powerful moment, the participants came together to support a fellow Seed whose friend had been shot and killed near his refugee camp, and then held a moment of silence for all of the innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives lost this year. “This seminar was one which helped validate my Seeds experience,” said the Seed.

Furthermore, after the Seminar ended, this group continued to support one another through a structured, online dialogue group. This initiative that was created and implemented solely by the Seeds themselves.

One participant remarked, “I learned about new things, but more importantly, I felt the support of my Seeds family which helped me to overcome one of the worst times I have ever had.”

VIDEO: Seeds of Peace
Giving Library

Dec 14, 2013 / No Comments

Seeds of Peace overview – The Giving Library

The Giving Library offers philanthropists an innovative way to enhance their strategic charitable giving. Donors can explore an online archive of video interviews to locate, study and compare hundreds of nonprofit organizations across the United States.

The Giving Library also serves nonprofit organizations by enhancing donor access through a compelling medium, increasing overall visibility and providing an opportunity to learn about peer organizations across the country.
 

Seeds of Peace partners with mySomeday

Mar 29, 2010 / No Comments

NEW YORK | Seeds of Peace is very excited to announce a new partnership with mySomeday, an online goal achievement platform that empowers people to achieve all of those goals and dreams they plan to get to ‘Someday.’

“When individuals and organizations state a goal publicly and then break it down into a plan with small, achievable steps, they are much more likely to see that dream become reality,” said mySomeday founder Joseph A. Satto.

Seeds recently posted an Expert Plan to share with mySomeday’s rapidly growing community. The plan outlines the steps Seeds of Peace takes each year to run the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine.

“It’s a great way for us to tell our story in a compelling fashion and it’s also the type of community with members that are likely to get directly involved,” said Seeds of Peace’s Tammy Sun.

If you have goals for the future, register on mySomeday and take the first step toward achieving those goals. And when you join, please be sure to add the Seeds of Peace Expert Plan to your profile page to help spread awareness about Seeds and to help us raise donations. A number of mySomeday members have combined a personal goal with a fund-raising component. This is a great way to make your personal goals count and knowing that your efforts will directly benefit Seeds’ charitable cause can also give you that extra bit of motivation to cross the finish line.

Old enmities broken down by openness of young minds
Global Times

Jul 11, 2010 / No Comments

BY HARVEY DZODIN | I have been in New York the last few weeks working on a movie. In the audience of one of my presentations I encountered a remarkable friend who I knew from my ABC TV days.

I was reminded that if her work were to be replicated more widely in China and elsewhere, our world would be a decidedly better, safer and more harmonious place to live and coexist.

In 1993, the friend in the audience, Janet Wallach, author of eight books, along with her late husband, John, an award-winning newspaper and television journalist, founded a very special summer camp in Maine for teenagers on the opposite sides of conflicts: Seeds of Peace.

As a reporter covering intractable international conflicts such as the frequent clashes between Arabs and Israelis in the Middle East, John felt that there had to be a way to break the cycle of conflict and the mutual hatred and distrust. Thus the Seeds of Peace camp came into being.

The unusual name of the camp goes to the core of the program. Each teenage camper represents a potential “Seed” who may be prejudiced against his “enemy” but whose belief system is not yet etched in stone. Given the proper guidance in seeing the human face of his or her enemy, the campers can develop a better understanding of their now humanized “enemies.”

The hope is that some of the participants, many chosen by their own governments in part for their potential as opinion and political leaders, will in a decade or two become enlightened leaders as a result of this program and who may better solve some of the most difficult conflicts of our age.

This year’s “Seeds” are Afghans, Americans, Egyptians, Indians, Jordanians, Pakistanis and Palestinians. This year there were an astounding 8,000 applicants for the 300 places. Since 1993, 4,000 “Seeds of Peace” have been planted.

Not surprisingly, initially many “Seeds” have a high discomfort level, especially living in the same cabin with their sworn enemies.

However through a series of sometimes tearful and emotional encounters led by experienced facilitators their enemies become real people and often friends.

Perhaps the hardest part of the program is when the “Seeds” go back to their respective countries with their new outlooks amid the tenaciously held old prejudices.

To reinforce their new outlook and encourage them to stay the course, “Seeds” participate in online communities and in seminars. Some of them become facilitators for future “Seeds.” Hopefully in a few years some of them will be full-fledged leaders in their own countries.

When I visited the camp a few years ago I was taken around by a boy who belonged to the conservative Israeli party, Young Likud, and a Palestinian girl from Jericho. Shockingly these “enemies” were walking hand-in-hand.

Even in my own country a camp for Americans is sorely needed for ourselves.

Many of us just do not have sufficient contact with Asians, Blacks, Hispanics or the only truly indiginous people in the US, Native Americans.

And since Seeds of Peace is founded upon principles of mutual respect and eliminating prejudice, I should mention that while in New York many Jewish people asked me what China was like and what were their attitudes about the Jews, we Jews always ask if a person, country or policy is good or bad for the Jews. Perhaps we are conditioned to do so because we have a long history of being persecuted.

I told everybody that China is the only country of which I am aware, including my own, where I have never, ever heard anything bad said about Jews.

It also gives me hope that programs like “Seeds of Peace” can be a huge success and that one day Israelis and Palestinians will react to each other in the same positive way.

The motto of the state where the Seeds of Peace camp is located is “Welcome to Maine. The way life should be.” Now some one at camp suggested a new motto: “Welcome to Seeds of Peace, the way life could be.” Let’s hope this dream comes true!

The author is former director and vice president at ABC Television. He spends most of his time in Beijing now working on media projects.

A magazine by and for teens: How one Seed is spreading empathy through the written word

Jul 27, 2020 / No Comments

A digital space where teenagers can have a platform of their own; where they can fully realize their ability to create empathy and connect lives across real and imagined boundaries: This is Crossed Paths magazine.

Inspired by her time at the Seeds of Peace Camp and a love for writing, Saya, a 2019 New York City Seed, created the online literary magazine earlier this year with the belief “that dialogue and personal storytelling have the power to bring people together and encourage empathy,” she said.

“Since I couldn’t stay at Seeds forever, I decided to bring the storytelling to a digital space, and thus began Crossed Paths!”

Written and edited entirely by teenagers, the magazine is a space to share stories that resonate with young people, including topics like race, gender, sexuality, and religion.

The first edition, which was themed “Identity,” paired polished artwork with poems and deeply personal reflections about issues such as the pressures of growing up, intersectionality in America, and white women’s dehumanizing obsession with a young Black girl’s hair.

The goal, Saya said, is as the magazine’s name implies: “For our readers and writers to cross paths with new perspectives and stories, hopefully inspiring newfound empathy.”

“We all live in some sort of bubble,” she said, “and the primary purpose of Crossed Paths is to break out of that bubble.”

Crossed Paths is currently accepting submissions from writers and artists for their second issue, which is themed “resilience,” with a deadline of August 1. More information is available at crossedpaths.org.

Seeds respond to Black Lives Matter

Jul 16, 2020 / No Comments

They’re marching and singing at protests, organizing dialogues, writing articles, and speaking truth to power. In other words, they’re doing what Seeds do: taking action for change.

Below is a running list of ways that members of the Seeds of Peace community have supported the Black Lives Matters movement and called for justice, unity, and racial equity over the past few weeks; we’ll continue to update the list as we learn of more. Have a project or a personal story related to the Black Lives Matter movement that you want to share? Let us know.

In the media

• Commentary: No one is above the law—end ‘qualified immunity’ for police
Shelby (2003 American Seed) co-authored an opinion piece in the Portland Press Herald that calls for reform to a law that would make it legally easier to hold police officers more accountable for their actions:

“Ending qualified immunity will not end police violence, but is an important step toward holding police accountable … Democrats and Republicans can agree that no one is above the Constitution—especially not the government officials who have sworn to protect it.”

• The police were designed to take black and Palestinian lives, not to protect them
In this piece for +972 Magazine, Ashraf (2015 Fellow) connects the lines between police brutality on Black lives in the U.S., and on Brown ones in the Middle East:

“We must understand that the knee on George Floyd’s neck in Minneapolis is attached to the arm that choked the life out of Eric Garner in New York. It is attached to the finger that pulled the trigger on Razan al-Najjar in Gaza two years ago, and Eyad Hallak in Jerusalem on Saturday. It is attached to the foot that walked away from Ayman Safiah, rather than swiftly help and bring closure to his loved ones. It is attached to the hand that silences rape survivors, that confiscates homes, that signs fascistic laws, that occupies land, that holds back funding to healthcare, and that pumps poison into our environment, until all of us cannot breathe—just like Ayman, Eric, George, and Iyad.”

• On the march: Is communal protest singing poised for a comeback?

“We talked and we prayed before we went out, knowing we could get clubbed and maced and hosed down by huge fire engines—but what gave us courage was that we went out singing.”

In his first article for Forbes, Micah (2004 American Seed, 2015 GATHER Fellow) talked with social justice leaders about the power of song in the Civil Rights Movement, and its role in today’s struggles for equality and justice.

Micah also organized a choir and Juneteenth event. He is working with conductors in the Washington, D.C., area to start a local branch of Justice Choir, a social justice choir with chapters across the United States. Justice Choir-D.C. helped organize the “Juneteenth Solidarity Sing for Black Lives.”

Read Micah’s Forbes articles about the intersection of music and social justice ››
Watch video of Micah and members of the chorus performing ››

Action

• Fiona (2019 Maine Seed) helped organize a Black Lives Matters protest and is fighting racism and inequality in her school.

“Protesting is a beautiful thing,” she told a crowd of over 300 people in June. “But I want to see support from all those people who were out there. When we get back during the school year, I want to see them at civil rights team meetings. I want to see them at school board meetings, giving their opinions about policies that are inequitable. We can’t just protest and be angry and do nothing with that.”

Read more in the Portland Press Herald ››

• Gracia and Christina organized a Juneteenth celebration and protest in Portland, Maine. Nearly 1,000 people attended a peaceful demonstration, which was organized by three young people—two of whom are 2017 Maine Seeds—and included a speech by Tim Wilson, senior advisor and director of Maine Seeds programs. Multiple Maine outlets covered the event and quoted speeches from Tim and Gracia, including these inspirational words from Gracia:

“Our message to the next generation is that being black is a gift. In a world that constantly participates in your erasure, you must claim these spaces and shout, ‘I am here.’ Your culture and heritage isn’t reflected properly within these classrooms, and these teachers will be complicit in silencing your voice. But again we will refute those notions and shout ‘I am here!’”

Portland Press Herald; Bangor Daily News; Maine Public Radio ››

• Marcques (2011 Maine Seed) is making it easier to support Maine’s black communities by compiling a list of Black-owned business.

• A group of young people working with 2018 GATHER Fellow Molly has talked about everything from love to parental lies in their podcast, “This Teenage Life.” In a recent episode they shared their powerful and poignant views on police brutality and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts or thisteenagelife.org. Want to learn more? @this.teenage.life. Want to get involved? team@thisteenagelife.org.

Programs

• June 7: Twenty-nine Los Angeles Seeds and three Seeds of Peace educators participated in a virtual dialogue and strategy session to process the events of the past week and explore ways they can be actively involved in addressing the two viruses currently confronting their world: structural racism and the coronavirus. Dialogue focused on what it means to be an ally in the fight against racial injustice and on acknowledging the concept of white privilege and the inherent biases which underlie it. Said one Seed: “Today I learned that to be a true ally I need to dig deep, reflect upon my whiteness and acknowledge the many implicit biases and power I hold. It’s not enough to post #Black Lives Matter, go to a protest or donate. It’s up to us whites to raise our voices within our own community to bring about justice and equality for all.”

• In early June, over 30 people attended an online affinity group for Black Seeds and other alumni in Maine.

• June 9, Racial Justice Virtual Dialogue: A dozen Seeds from the U.S. and U.K. delegations came together to share how the events of the two weeks following the murder of George Floyd have affected them personally, and explored questions around what promotes the difficult conversations that need to happen, what gets in the way, and why they are only happening now. The session was co-facilitated by a New York City Seed and two staff members.

• June 21, Black Lives Matters Seminar (India, Pakistan, Jordan): Over 40 Indian, Pakistani, and Jordanian Seeds and their peers examined local systems of oppression through the lens of the American Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements.

With guests Lolita Brayman (@lo.la.lita), a freelance writer and human rights lawyer, and Deportee (@deportee.music), a Detroit-based artist whose music reflects on the life and predicament of African descendants of slaves in the Americas, the participants learned from the successes and failures of these movements, as well as the importance of education, raising awareness, and engagement with the “other” in fighting all societal systems of oppression.

The details may differ, but oppression—as one Indian participant noted—wears the same face no matter its location

• June 28: Los Angeles Seeds youth activism and allyship dialogue: Los Angeles Deputy Mayor for Economic Opportunity, Brenda Shockley, met with Seeds. Prior to joining the Mayor’s team, Shockley led Community Build, a non-profit she helped found in 1992 to revitalize the inner-city community in the wake of the Rodney King protests. During her time there she secured investments in excess of $100 million for education, employment and job training for young people. Shockley discussed the importance of youth activism and the role young people can play in influencing policy. Following her presentation, the Seeds engaged in dialogue with her about how to be a true ally. “It’s clear that if we are going to change institutions, we need to change people,” said Alexis, a 2016 Seed.

Photo courtesy of Fred Bever/Maine Public

Sowing Peace
Asian Geographic

Aug 2, 2017 / No Comments

Seeds of Peace educates and inspires youth from around the world to transform conflict—sowing unlikely friendships in the midst of political turmoil

Two years ago, while in Amman for a two-week workshop with organisation Photographers Without Borders, Maggie Svoboda took an image that, to the average onlooker, appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary.

In the photograph, two women—named Ruba and Alina—are locked in an affectionate embrace, beaming at the camera. What Svoboda’s portrait of friendship did not reveal at first glance is the politically-charged back story: one woman is Palestinian, and the other is Israeli.

Locked in political dispute since the early 20th century, Palestinians and Israelis have raged a series of wars against one another in the fight for separate, independent control of this contested territory. Heightened tensions from Arab Muslims and Jewish civilians who reside in such close living quarters have bred a long history of violence.

Civil wars have ravaged the territory: the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and the Six-Day War of 1967, which concluded with Israel occupying two critical landmasses, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Many Jewish minority communities were exposed and subsequently displaced within Palestinian-occupied neighbourhoods. The ancient Palestinian city of Hebron in the landlocked West Bank is the only city where Israeli citizens live in relative peace alongside Palestinians. It is currently under Israeli control.

Despite being pitted against one another for decades, Svoboda’s sunny portrait suggests that many young Palestinians and Israelis are ready for change.

Enter Seeds of Peace, a not-for-profit initiative with a network of more than 6,400 alumni scattered throughout the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and North America.

The organisation works tirelessly to educate and inspire youth from around the world to transform conflict. Peace is the collective goal.

The vision of Seeds of Peace is simple: Equip young people with the technical skills and relationship- building capacities they need to disengage from politically-charged stereotypes that promote violence in conflict zones. Most Seeds of Peace participants begin the process by attending a summer camp in Maine, in the northeastern US.

After a competitive process, only four to six percent of applicants are selected. All selected individuals must be citizens of a country in conflict. Upon graduating from the camp, attendees acquire alumni “Seed” status and become well-positioned, adult changemakers in their communities and cultural spaces.

“The programme at the Seeds of Peace camp is centred around daily dialogue encounters that are organised by conflict region,” explains Eric Kapenga, a camp counselor at Seeds of Peace. “For 110 minutes each day, they engage each other directly, tackling the most painful and divisive issues defining their conflict, sharing their personal experiences, reflecting on competing narratives, and challenging each other’s prejudices.”

By providing a space for people to meet in a neutral environment, they have an opportunity to generate ideas that can catalyse change. No subject is off-limits. They discuss topics ranging from war and military occupation to suicide bombings, gender, refugees, the Holocaust and immigration.

“The immediate goal of camp dialogue is not agreement or consensus, and there is no expectation that campers adopt or even embrace each other’s viewpoints,” Kapenga explains. “Through dialogue, campers reflect on their own identities and gain insights into the dynamics that perpetuate conflict. In doing so, they lay the groundwork necessary for exploring and addressing these dynamics through local Seeds of Peace programmes once they return home.”

In 2015, Seeds of Peace unveiled a new initiative called “Gather”, which is a five-day conference with the task of investigating new solutions for unified progress. “Seeds of Peace’s programme in Jordan marked the launch of our initiative to spark locally-rooted efforts to change the status quo,” Kapenga says.

“We convened over 200 changemakers from more than 20 countries in Jordan to focus on the roles that business, entrepreneurship, media, technology and gender play in social change,” he adds.

Svoboda elaborates: “Gather was a place where people who had big ideas could find practical ways to put them into action to have an impact on communities typically in conflict.” By bringing people together who would not normally have the chance to meet—and could possibly continue their lives as enemies—a natural shift took place, simply from listening to and learning from one another, she explains.

Of the 100 year-round projects and over 40 peace-building initiatives staffed by Seeds of Peace alumni across the globe, they all share a common goal. They are designed to build empathy and respect in order to shift deeply ingrained attitudes and perceptions in countries in conflict. The key to the organisation’s success is, in part, owing to their approach: They remove young adults from social constructions of their reality, before concrete ideologies take root.

Young people from opposing nations often experience political conflict for the first time through class instruction that is riddled with historical inaccuracies. Ayyaz Ahmed is a Pakistani youth who attended the Seeds of Peace programme as a teenager. His early experiences with Seeds of Peace allowed him to meet people from India for the first time.

Much like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Indo-Pakistani conflicts have created hostile relations between both countries, and citizens of each country are almost expected to harbour contempt for one another.

Now working in the publishing industry, Ahmed credits Seeds of Peace for giving him the confidence to work amicably amongst other cultures as an adult. “The Seeds of Peace experience wasn’t an overnight shift in perspective, but more along the lines of expanding one’s vision and showing possibilities that perhaps weren’t clear earlier,” Ahmed says. “Suddenly, the world was far bigger than I had ever realised.”

Since 2001, Seeds of Peace has been working in South Asia to inspire and cultivate exceptional leaders in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.

“Our longest-running programmes in South Asia are the interfaith camps that bring together teenagers of various religious communities to explore the differences and similarities in their beliefs, and to dispel misconceptions and stereotypes,” Kapenga says. “We currently have over 500 alumni from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Thousands more have participated in, or benefitted from, our local programmes on the ground in the three countries. Our alumni are actively working to transform conflict in and between their countries, leading initiatives in education, media, business, and other sectors that leverage their unique relationships and skills to create economic, social, and political change.”

Developments in social media and the rise of citizen journalism has cultivated a far-reaching digital network that allows cultural demographics all over the world to digest content.

No longer suspended in an insulated bubble, nations caught in the midst of political conflict are thrust into the spotlight, and anybody can access information and interact through these online channels. Individuals who may have never come into contact because of political circumstances can now take part in discussions over the Internet, too.

That being said, face-to-face dialogue remains important. As such, Seeds of Peace has recognised the value of actively mobilising a younger generation who are ready to change deeply ingrained attitudes and perceptions so that hatred and ignorance does not continue to take root.

By developing leaders who can make a positive impact in their communities, the hope is that the next generation will instigate transformation within their country—towards peaceful resolution.

Read Christine Hogg’s article and see Maggie Svoboda’s photos at Asian Geographic ››