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11 tips for untangling life after Camp

Sep 25, 2019 / 1 Comment

Every year at Camp, experiences are shared, eyes are opened, lives are transformed, and then the hard work really begins.

“After coming back from Seeds [of Peace], I felt torn and unsettled. I had questions—doubts about reflections that I constantly struggled with,” Ananya, a 2019 Indian Seed, recently shared at a program for Seeds in India. Camp, she said, “gives you things in a twisted riddle, and it’s up to you to untangle yourself and sort it out.”

It’s not uncommon for Seeds to return from Camp bursting with energy, only to go through a temporary slump: maybe they feel misunderstood by family and friends, isolated in their society because they spent time with someone who is considered an enemy, or overwhelmed by the amount of work it might take to make change in their communities.

“One of the things that comes up again and again is how the Seeds have climbed mountains in these three weeks at Camp, and everyone back at home is just standing still,” said Hana Tariq, head of curriculum at Beyond the Classroom, which works with Seeds in Pakistan. “So when Seeds come back, they feel like they’re a completely new person, and their friends and family are not able to understand how you can change in three weeks.”

“I always say it’s a little like trying to describe an ice cream flavor,” explained Mostafa (Moose) Ismail, Middle East Programs Coordinator in Cairo and a 2006 Egyptian Seed. “It’s really hard for them to understand what vanilla tastes like without having tasted vanilla ice cream.”

On the flip side, parents might also be wondering what happened to the child they used to know.

“When the kids come back, they have a voice. Now they say their opinions and their thoughts in environments where they might not have before, and sometimes that takes parents by surprise,” Moose added.

School can pose another challenge, especially for Seeds in parts of the world where the work of Seeds of Peace and the necessity of meeting across lines of conflict and difference are not always understood.

“Meeting with your enemy can be a great challenge, especially if this encounter is seen as a normalizing act by many around you,” said Bashar Iraqi, Director of Programs-Palestine, and a 1999 Palestinian Seed. “Both in schools or with childhood friends, our Seeds need to explain what they did at Camp, how this meeting with your historical enemy felt, and how they actually didn’t ‘normalize,’ but worked hard to represent their people and their suffering.”

Bashar said the door is always open for Seeds seeking support or advice—and this is true for all programming staff.

“We are a family in that case,” he said. “We as staff and as graduates of this program know very well how to deal with these topics, and with time and more work, the post-Camp programs can empower them and equip them with answers to the challenges they face.”

We spoke with several staff members (many of them Seeds) and alumni about the process of readjusting to life after Camp—for both Seeds and parents. Every situation is different for every camper, but here are a few pieces of advice they shared:

1. Don’t underestimate the importance of reflection. Spend some time alone each day for quiet writing, thinking, or reflecting. Note down what you’re noticing about your perspective shifts, on yourself, or on the people in your life who you’re getting reacquainted with—your family, your friends, members of your community. Do your interactions feel different? How? — Eliza O’Neil, US/UK Programs Manager

2. Ask more questions. If you’re trying to describe an experience from Camp or a new thought to someone who might not understand, try posing your thought as a question and see how that thought is received. — Moose

3. Speak from the personal. If people ask about why you attended Camp, speak from your personal experiences: Did it help you better understand your history, your surroundings, your battle, your fight? Talk about things honestly, and bring your friends to programs so they can see for themselves the truth of what you are experiencing. — Bashar

4. Consider how you might carve out spaces in your life back home for meaningful conversations. It might not resemble Camp dialogue, but it could have bits and pieces that feel familiar. Are you leading with questions rather than assumptions? Are you thinking through what sorts of experiences, perspectives, values are contributing to the way people are expressing themselves? — Eliza

5. It is alright to be sad, grieving, frustrated, angry, or however you are feeling right now. You are coming back to a familiar place with new eyes, new words, new ways of seeing. The world might feel like it has been knocked off its axis. Allow yourself to sit in the complex bitter-sweetness of everything gained, lost, and changed. The goal is not to somehow not be sad, but to find support and companionship in whatever you feel. — Tooba Fatima, South Asia Dialogue Facilitator and 2006 Pakistani Seed

6. Reach out to your Seeds networks for support. Creating lasting change in your community and world can be lonely work—it’s so important to carve out community and connection no matter what sort of change you’re working toward. In addition to talking to your fellow Campers who can understand what you’re going through, email us, call us, or message us through social media. We’re here for you. — Eliza

7. Take the “Camp version of you” back home. Returning home is an opportunity to practice the aspects you liked about yourself while at Camp, in a way that allows those aspects to exist in your everyday life and not just in Maine. If it’s being able to have deep and meaningful conversations, start initiating those with the people you love; if it’s being involved in politics and having an opinion about what is happening, start reading more and ask more questions; if it’s being part of a community of people, keep meeting and talking with your Seeds friends and consider introducing them to your other friends from before Camp. Whatever it is that you liked about yourself at Camp, remember that you have the power to bring that into your day-to-day life. — Maayan Poleg, Director of Programs-Israel and 2000 Israeli Seed

8. People are probably right: you have changed. But my hope is that you have also become more yourself. That the person you are becoming and discovering now is closer to your authentic self, full of contradiction and doubt and complexity, more human and more humane. Change (even good change) can feel scary. We can prefer what is familiar even when it is painful or dysfunctional. Think of all the times you felt resistant before Camp, at Camp, in dialogue. Maybe this helps you empathize with people who are struggling to meet you where you are.
— Tooba

9. Be patient with others. The same openness you gave to your fellow campers can also be given to the people around you when you return home. Offering the same listening skills, empathy, and respect to people who haven’t gone through what you’ve gone through is really important. — Alexa, 2012 American Seed

10. Remember that you have a right to change. After all, you were not some passive recipient to this process. You worked for and towards this; you made choices. You have a right to own this emerging self, even if others don’t fully understand it. Even if it baffles and disappoints others. — Tooba

11. Don’t give up. People might not understand you or why you chose to go to Camp, but I never tell anyone to disconnect with anyone, but to always go back and try to change. This is one of the responsibilities that you now have: If you know better than your friend, then it’s up to you to wake him up. — Bashar

Do you have advice to share with campers for returning to their homes, schools, and communities? Let us know in the comments!

Follow the Fellows: In the business of spreading empathy

Sep 13, 2019 / No Comments

For all the indignities that come standard with the middle school experience, one thing that Naissa never thought she would have to feel embarrassment for was her identity—for being black.

Yet, there she was, one of just four or five black pupils in a school with hundreds of students, making their way to the principal’s office after a school-wide announcement had summoned “all the black kids” to the main office.

“I was very confused, and embarrassed for being pointed out,” Naissa, a 2015 Seed from Maine and 2019 GATHER Fellow, recalled recently.

“I never thought I’d be put in a position where I needed to walk in front of all of the school to an office, wondering what would be on the other end, what could all of the black kids have done?”

When Naissa and the others arrived at the office, the principal realized her mistake. “I meant the Black kids,” the principal said, referring to a family name, and dismissed the students of color without so much as an apology.

As political refugees who left Rwanda when she was a very young girl, Naissa, along with her mother, twin brother, Nathan, and older sister, Pricillia (both Maine Seeds, 2016), were already long accustomed to being the vast minority almost everywhere they went in the mostly white city of Portland, Maine. So this incident wasn’t the first time she had felt lumped into a collective instead of being seen as an individual, but it was certainly the first time she had seen it painted so clearly.

Looking back, however, she said it was an eye-opening experience that set the table for the work she would eventually pursue.

“I saw that whatever I had been feeling for years, it wasn’t nonsense, and it made me realize the importance of having some type of understanding or recognition of people who have different identities outside of what the majority is,” she said. “It was the first moment that made me see that, okay, you need to do something about it—although I didn’t know what.”

A few years later she and Pricillia would put the pieces together in the form of CivilTEA Discourse, a series of peer-to-peer led dialogues that, as a Seeds of Peace GATHER Fellow, Naissa is working to expand to high schools across the northeastern United States.

The idea for the program came in 2016, shortly after Naissa’s second summer at the Seeds of Peace Camp and Pricillia’s first. It was a time when America was beginning to experience a type of divisiveness they hadn’t witnessed since arriving in the U.S., and it hit extremely close to home for Naissa. Her mother had always made sure that her children paid attention to what was going on around them—from gentrification changing the composition of neighborhoods in Portland, to politics happening in both their home and their adoptive country.

So when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign visit to Portland triggered negative conversations at their school, the sisters saw an immediate need for civil discourse—the kind of vulnerable, open-hearted discussions around difference where everyone had a voice—that they had been introduced to during facilitated dialogue sessions at Camp.

It took hard work, but eventually it became part of the curriculum at their school, with regular dialogues on whatever the students wanted to talk about—racism, identity, beauty norms, immigration, religion, sexual orientation. Before long, other schools began to take notice, and CivilTEA blossomed from there.

They currently have four schools that are fully signed onto the program, which includes schoolwide dialogues (including faculty) every other month and panels on relevant topics. They are also working with a number of schools and universities on providing facilitation training. The goal of the program, Naissa said, is not to reach consensus or implement a certain agenda, but to create a platform where underrepresented voices could be heard and participants build empathy by listening to perspectives different from their own.

The concept in and of itself is impressive, but don’t forget that Naissa and Pricillia were teenagers when they started this. Even three years later, at ages 19 and 20, respectively, they’re still facing the same challenges that most any young changemaker can relate to: 1) balancing your dreams with classes, homework, a job, a social life, and any other extracurricular interests; 2) figuring out a budget and the ins and outs of running a nonprofit or business, and 3) perhaps most importantly, being taken seriously in professional settings.

“No one has ever brushed us aside, but not only are we young, we’re women, and women of color at that,” Naissa said. “So whenever we have an idea or initiative in a work setting, we feel like we need to work even harder to prove ourselves, to show a little more confidence that we know what we’re doing and that the work we’re doing is very serious and should be treated as such.”

Of course, there are times that youth is an advantage. Naissa is only a few years removed from being in the exact same seats as those now filled by the high school students that CivilTEA serves. And since many of the participants in the facilitation courses are also college students (Naissa is majoring in international studies, and Pricillia in political science, at Emmanuel College in Boston), she’s able to understand their mindsets and work with them on a peer-to-peer level.

The balancing act, however, still remains a tricky one. She said her professors have often been accommodating, especially since CivilTEA has ways of tying into her coursework, but when it comes to actually attending classes, maintaining a full-time job, and planning for CivilTEA, there are only so many hours in the day.

“I don’t know how we’re doing it, to be quite honest,” she said. “But I think one thing that keeps us going is understanding what we’re prioritizing, and the heavy love that Pricillia and I have for our education, as well as the honor we feel for being in a position where we’re able to work on CivilTEA.”

It would seem that there would be no room left for also participating in a Fellowship, but for Naissa, being accepted into GATHER was like an additional level of validation that all the work she and Pricillia had been pouring into CivilTEA was worthwhile.

“When I got that first call that I was being considered for GATHER, I had to step back and say that no matter how many times I’ve thought CivilTEA wasn’t going anywhere, or felt frustrated, or overwhelmed, or questioned if we were putting in too much or not enough effort, this was an outside perspective saying, ‘yeah, this is worth it.”

Her dream, she said, would be to see CivilTEA as a mandatory part of school curriculums all over the world. And as she sees the way immigrants are being treated in her adoptive country some 15 years after she arrived, and people being viewed not for their gifts and possibilities, but for their skin color or visa status, she can’t help but think that a dialogue-based tool for finding and spreading empathy is more critical now than ever.

“I think what keeps me up at night is that we aren’t looking at each other as individuals with so much potential, with so much to offer the world. I tune into the news today, and see how we’re looking at and talking about each other here in the U.S. as non-humans, and can’t help but think of Rwanda, and how they called the people cockroaches,” she said. “I see immigrants coming here today for the same reasons that we did, so of course it feels personal because I share an identity with them, but I have this life they don’t have, and it could have so easily been different.”

One thing she said she often talks about with her GATHER mentors is the endgame for CivilTEA—does she want empathy, or solidarity? Of course, solidarity would be the ultimate goal, but to Naissa, the pathway must come through empathy. Dialogue, be it in CivilTEA or another form, can’t solve all the world’s problems, but is one way to bring out the humanity we all share.

“I think we all have the capacity to be empathetic, and once we’re able to recognize that and see people as individuals, to find at least one thing to love about them and let that embody who that person is to us, then we can reach solidarity. And I think that’s what everyone is striving for, especially at this point that we’re at in the world.”

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

#DialogueIRL: The how-to behind hard conversations

Jul 4, 2019 / No Comments

As Seeds of Peace facilitators, Greg Barker and Eliza O’Neil are well-versed in the art of navigating conflict. In this installment of #DialogueIRL, we take a question from a student who has gone home for the summer and is worried about confrontations with her family and peers.

Q: “I’m pretty liberal, but I come from a very conservative town. Whether it’s running into people at Walmart that I went to school with or getting together with my family, I feel like I’m constantly having to talk about and defend my views when I go home for college break. How can I have more meaningful conversations with people, when I feel like my back is against the wall to begin with?”

Eliza: This is tough stuff! And you’re not alone; a lot of people deal with this whenever they go back to their hometown.

A great place to start when you’re having these difficult conversations is to check in with your purpose. What’s your intention with this conversation? Is it to convince the other person that you’re right? To make them feel bad? To understand them better? To learn something new? To stir up drama? (No judgment!)

All of these questions can help you understand the reason why you’re engaging with family on these hard topics. And once you’ve done that, make that “why” known to them—it’s a really powerful way to start a conversation. Here are some examples of what you can say:

“I want to engage with you because I really care about our relationship and sometimes I don’t feel heard in it.”

“I really want to engage with you because I want to learn something new and we don’t see eye to eye on everything, so that’s a great opportunity to learn something new.”

“I want to have this conversation because I’m committed to our relationship.”

Naming this purpose to the person you’re talking to is a vulnerable and approachable way to start the conversation.

After that, my advice is to try to find the good in what the other person is saying. People are experts at finding the bad in what other people say. Think of all the times someone has said something and you thought, “You are so ignorant.”

Instead, try to find the commitment or the hope in what they’re saying. For example, Greg, what’s something that you’ve complained about today?

Greg: Thanks for asking! I complained about the work day starting at 9 in the morning.

Eliza: Okay, so it sounds like sleep is really important to you.

Greg: It is.

Eliza: It sounds like being your best on the job is really important to you, so you feel like you can bring your full, well-rested self to your work. Is that right?

Greg: Absolutely, yeah!

Eliza: It may sound a little mechanical, but everyone sees the world through their own lenses and contexts. So training yourself to think about where someone else is coming from, and what the hope or the commitment is in what they are saying, can help you approach a conversation with more empathy.

Greg: That is so key. When we try to navigate conflict well, often what everything boils down to is reminding yourself and the person you’re talking to that both of you are full human beings, and not reducible to the last thing that either of you said.

Another trick you can use to empathize with someone who has said something you don’t agree with or something that was hurtful to you is to assume positive intentions—even if you don’t actually believe that the intention was positive. You don’t have to think that someone’s intentions are positive in order to decide to act as though they were. And that mindset can help you think about what else might be behind someone’s hurtful words. For example, maybe they feel like their back is against the wall in the conversation, too, and they don’t know how to react to that. Maybe they’re just panicking, rather than actively trying to offend you or put you on the spot.

And again, don’t forget that everyone in the world has some piece of information that you don’t have. Whether it’s from the body they inhabit, their identities, or their experiences, everyone knows something about what it means to be in the world that is different from your own understanding. When your back is against the wall in these difficult conversations, try to approach them with an attitude of wanting to learn what that different worldview is.

Have a question for our facilitators? Send it to dialogueIRL@seedsofpeace.org.

#DialogueIRL: 5 reasons to make play a priority

Jun 21, 2019 / No Comments

The phrase “It’s about the JOB” has been around for a while at Camp, and there, a camper’s primary job is dialogue. Essentially, it means that each camper has to go through the hard work of being vulnerable, sharing stories, and most of all, listening if they want to experience the transformation that often happens in dialogue.

But we’ll let you in on a little secret: The serious work would be nearly impossible without a healthy dose of silliness and play.

“At Camp we’re having big conversations around race, identity, gender, community, and oppression, and to be able to have them in really honest ways, people need to be able to step into those spaces and be vulnerable,” said Seeds of Peace Camp Director Sarah Brajtbord.

“The reason Camp functions the way it does is that we’re not just throwing people into a room and having conversations. There is another type of learning going on through playing games, doing art, dancing, and being silly that play a big part in those shields coming down, and masks coming off.”

Unfortunately, as we get older there’s typically less and less time devoted to this kind of play, and it too often becomes seen as a frivolous waste of time. But if you’re looking to build a better life, better relationships, or a better world, not only is play necessary, it’s critical.

In a recent conversation with Sarah and Greg Barker, Manager of Facilitation Programs, we discussed the ways that silliness, games, and fun are an important part of the work of dialogue at Camp, and how they can help each of us improve many aspects of our lives. Here are a few reasons to consider making play a priority:

1. It can jumpstart vulnerability and group cohesion

There’s a reason so many meetings and workshops, as well as dialogue sessions at Camp, begin with silly icebreakers: “Play and being silly in front of one another is a huge entryway into being vulnerable,” Sarah said. And when it comes to strengthening relationships with coworkers, neighbors, relatives, or new contacts, small acts of vulnerability through play (e.g. joining together on a stirring rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at an office karaoke outing, or sharing a hidden talent for imitating Kermit the Frog’s voice) can go a long way toward building trust.

“When you’re silly in front of a group of people and you see that the group can hold it, there’s this immediate realization that you can make mistakes with this group,” Greg said. “And maybe then you’ll be just a little more likely to take a risk and share something bigger later, or to ask for help when you need it.”

2. It can be therapeutic

“People often think about dialogue sessions as the place that we deal with trauma,” Greg said, “but the activities at Camp that are most likely to help people heal from trauma are sports, arts, and music.” When trauma occurs, the brain sometimes disassociates itself from the body to be able to cope. But what our brains suppress, our bodies can hold onto for decades. For campers (and anyone) dealing with trauma or coming from situations where survival is the focus, activities like running, stretching, laughing, painting, and making up silly songs not only allow them to engage with their bodies in a way that feels good, but to also reconnect to their bodies. When we strengthen that connection, we’re usually able to be more grounded in our bodies, to take better care of ourselves, and to continue on the path to healing.

3. It can be a mode of communication

We all have different ways of speaking and communicating, and for some, it can be incredibly difficult to verbalize their feelings—especially if trauma is involved. Theater exercises, painting, and singing can be a lot more fun, and effective, ways for some people to access information and express what’s going on inside when words aren’t available or sufficient.

4. It can strengthen bonds

“There’s something fundamentally bodily about the way humans bond,” Greg said. Think about it: Close friends will often walk in sync; our facial expressions and gestures often mimic those of the people we’re talking with; and if you spend enough time with someone, your habits, way of laughing, and ways of speaking are likely to begin to rub off on one another. Activities that bring us in sync with each other—singing together, swaying together to a song at a concert, participating in a yoga class, or even paddling together in a canoe have similar effects, triggering a part of our brain that is directly linked to empathy.

As Greg noted, “These acts are a key aspect of empathy because they allow me to say ‘You’re doing this, I’m doing this, we’re doing this together.’ It helps me recognize the humanity in the other person, because I see myself in them.”

5. It can be empowering

Play allows us to access other forms of knowledge and expertise, and of course it feels great to tap into things we’re good at—maybe utilizing your singing voice, or dusting off your high school volleyball skills, for example. But learning a new way of playing, be it through taking salsa or improv classes, or learning a new card game or sport, can help a person grow in immeasurable ways. The first few attempts may feel shaky, but when a camper gets their first hit in a softball game, or climbs an impossibly high wall on the ropes course, their face says it all: Play can be deeply empowering because it reminds us that we are capable of doing much more than we know.

This article is part of a series that explores topics related to dialogue. Learn more about our dialogue and facilitation programs â€șâ€ș

Got a question for our facilitators? Send it to dialogueIRL@seedsofpeace.org.

Creating ‘a powerful space’ for teens, by teens

May 7, 2019 / No Comments

When teenagers have the opportunity to take the lead, great things can happen.

More than 400 students, educators, and parents from 35 schools across the Northeast United States traveled to Portland, Maine, in early April to participate in the fourth annual New England Youth Identity Summit at Waynflete High School.

The two-day event, held in partnership with Seeds of Peace, included musical performances, special guest speakers, and more than 40 workshops, nearly all of which were conceived, planned, and led by current and recent students (most of them Seeds). With a theme of “Voices Across Generations,” the summit brought together participants from a wide swath of cultures and identities to find support and speak freely about some of the most complicated and important issues of today—racism, gender equality, and immigration, just to name a few—with the hope that participants will then turn those conversations into action in their own communities.

“Our intention is to facilitate a watershed moment for each participant, and to inspire them to be provocative leaders when they return home,” said Ian, a 2018 Maine Seed who co-led the event’s organizers with Dora, another 2018 Maine Seed. “It is a way of turning the perennial ‘hope for the next generation’ into something living and breathing.”

Developing the skills and confidence to lead conversations that turn into action and change are core to the Seeds experience at Camp, and the idea for the New England Youth Identity Summit began a little over four years ago, after Tim Wilson, Seeds of Peace Senior Advisor and Director of Maine Seeds Programs, and Lydia Maier, Assistant Head of Student Life at Waynflete, attended another youth-led summit. The NEYIS has doubled in size since that first year, and has become a way for Seeds to further their leadership and facilitation skills while connecting with students across the region.

“When you teach something you get better at understanding it, and one of things I love most about my job is just watching kids owning this event,” Lydia said. “It’s a celebration of what’s possible when people open up and share their experiences.”

Planning for the summit begins each fall, with students brainstorming potential themes, speakers, performers, and workshops that they might like to lead. After several months and hundreds of hours of preparation, the process culminates in an empowering and illuminating experience for the students.

“I watched in the beginning of the planning last fall seeing younger students not knowing what they wanted to do, or feeling like, ‘I can’t teach this. I can’t tell a bunch of people about a certain topic,’” said Dora. “By the end, they were saying ‘I can’t wait to teach this next year.’”

The 2019 event kicked off with an evening of music, dance, and spoken-word performances celebrating the community and diversity in Maine. It was was followed by a full day of workshops and speakers: Phuc Tran—a tattoo artist, Vietnamese immigrant, and Latin teacher at Waynflete who was also a mentor to the summit’s other keynote speaker, Nicole Maines, a 2014 Waynflete graduate who recently became television’s first transgender superhero.

The second day of the retreat students were able to practice their leadership and facilitating skills in workshops attended by peers, educators, and parents. In these spaces, the teenagers become the experts, turning the typical power structure on its head. It’s an experience that can have “profound and emboldening effects” for the students, said Sarah Brajtbord, Seeds of Peace Camp Director and a presenter at the summit.

“Not only is it student led and student organized, it’s student wisdom,” she said. “When it’s set up as an intergenerational space like this year was—with teachers and parents being part of conversations led by two high school students—it’s a pretty powerful space to be in.”

The workshops focused on topics like gender and racial equality, climate change’s disproportionally negative affect on oppressed groups, LGBTQ+ rights, intersectionality, women in Islam, stigma around mental illness, sexual assault, and masculinity in America. It was a way for students to become the experts on subjects that are not only important to them, but sometimes adults have difficulty talking about to their children.

“I look up to adults, but being able to speak and have expertise on something that an adult might not have is truly inspiring and empowering to me,” said Dora. “Other students came back to me afterwards and said it was felt scary but good, like they could go out into the world and talk to anyone no matter the age, because of the summit.”

For anyone interested in starting a student-led summit or event back home, Ian and Dora recommended casting a wide net that includes leaders from other schools, communities, and social groups. But first and foremost, Ian said, “get a room of 100 percent kids, have a conversation and set some goals.”

“The more demanding and definitive that students are early on in the process, the more ownership we will have over the final product. Sometimes the best way to do this is to organize a space with zero adults and have a candid conversation about how we envision the event,” he said. “Adults are crucial in executing the vision, but the early stages of planning should be as organic and youth driven as possible.”

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 â€șâ€ș

What We’re Reading: Meet the “Others”

Apr 26, 2019 / 1 Comment

Core to the work of Seeds of Peace is the belief that if given the opportunity to hear each other’s stories, we will begin to see the humanity that we all share.

Having written and published the true story of a Holocaust survivor, I recognize the critical importance of literature and memoirs. It’s one thing to know what happened to 6 million people. It’s another thing entirely to walk in the shoes of an individual. Only through that immersive experience can one really understand history, both in recognizing patterns as they repeat themselves and in comprehending the personal impact of world events.

Reading the story of someone else’s life allows us to know the ‘other.’ We eat at their dinner table, we meet their family, we enter their dreams. People fear what they don’t know. And people hate what they fear. Reading is essential; it breaks down those barriers.

For April, which is Genocide Awareness Month, we’ve gathered books and articles that teach, inspire, and urge us to look at our neighbors and those we don’t know or understand with less fear and hesitation, and a little more empathy and open heartedness.

This Is How It Always Is, by Laurie Frankel
The novel, which is inspired by the author’s life but is fiction, tells the story of a beautiful family and their journey navigating Claude’s transition to Poppy. This book gave me such a beautifully intimate look into the experiences of a young person’s exploration of gender identity and a powerful mirror to confront and look within my own perceptions and understandings of gender, community, honesty, and right-relationships. I fell in love with this entire family—for their imperfections, for their mistakes, for their flaws, for their realness, for their beauty, and for the honest struggle that unconditional love requires. — Sarah Brajtbord, Camp Director

Another Country, by James Baldwin
Baldwin’s 1962 classic, set in Paris and New York’s Greenwich Village and Harlem, concerns race and sex, including themes of characters navigating black rage, interracial sex, white guilt, homosexuality, race and so-called urban malaise. It’s meeting “the other” in the most unconventional of ways. — Orlando Arellano, Team Leader, Multinational Programs and Strategy, Middle East

Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
The book, which won the National Book Award, is about life in Indian slums: The author shares stories of several people, including children, who work in a garbage-sorting-and-selling business in a settlement in the shadows of luxury hotels in Mumbai. Reading it is fascinating and painful at the same time; hard to even imagine that in a rich city, there exists people for whom a one-course meal once a day is a rarity. — Zhibek Abylbekova, Spring Development/Events Intern

Tales of Two Cities: The Best and Worst of Times in Today’s New York, edited by Jonathan Freeman
As a New Yorker, I orient myself spatially—connecting my identity to the neighborhoods I inhabit and subway lines I frequent—imagining myself on the map within the web of communities here. This anthology, with works by writers like Junot Diaz, Zadie Smith and Lydia Davis, shows the starkly different lives of people living within one city. Through its essays and stories, I could peek into the lives of my neighbors: from what vantage points do they view the rest of the city? How do they define themselves in relation to this place? Chapters that highlighted the threats of gentrification and rising prices especially resonated with me. As a young person trying to “make it in the big city,” I am both conscious of being implicit in the gentrification phenomenon and struggling to sustainably build a life here myself. It was affirming, heartbreaking, frustrating and inspiring to read about the struggle and survival of my fellow New Yorkers. — Emily Umansky, Development Associate

Also don’t miss

Eloquent Voices: Teens React to The Times, The New York Times
We’ve been saying it for 26 years: There’s a lot that adults can learn from teenagers! And this assortment of opinion pieces, in which high school students shared their reactions to a dozen stories recently published in The Times, really brings the message home. Ranging in topics from Asian stereotypes, to violence in El Salvador, to a transgender people, many of the stories included are worth a read, but viewing them through the lens of a teenager is an eye-opening experience of its own.

Invisible Lives, The Washington Post
With stunning visuals and stories told by the people who lived them, this multimedia article goes to the homes and villages of people in Guatemala, Mexico, and California to show an intimate portrait of how lives were severely altered by Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

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

Seeds Stories: Indo-Pak war is not the solution

Mar 5, 2019 / 1 Comment

In response to an increase in hostilities between Pakistan and India, Seeds of Peace is sharing voices from both sides of the border, including this one from Sana.

On a hot summer afternoon in 1999, Mum put my siblings and I down for our after-school nap. Around 4 p.m., I woke up to a loud buzzing noise which grew into the roaring of Air Force jets flying low.

I ran up to the bay window that opened in the front garden and got a glimpse of the fighter planes. That was the moment, at age 7, that I dreamed of becoming an air force pilot.

That night, our parents sat us down and informed us that Pakistan was at war with India. As kids, we did not really understand much, but we were excited because war meant no school or exams.

Dad noticed our lack of understanding of the situation, so he decided to share his experience of the 1965 and 1971 wars, and Mum recalled how she, along with her mother and siblings, would hide in a bunker under the stairs and watch the soldiers march the streets of Old Lahore.

The stories were very fascinating—like something out of a movie or a book—but they also highlighted the casualties and the horrific atrocities of war. While at school and in the media, people glorified the wars with India, I was grateful that, at least at home, I was being told the honest stories and the results of those wars.

I recall Dad being upset for many years after the war. He was definitely not in the favour of this or any war, and he built a bunker in our house similar to those in the colonial houses. But he also looked to prevention: He took the initiative of taking us to the Hindu temples, Sikh Gurudwaras, Christian Churches, and other places of religious and historical importance to teach us the importance of co-existence. He taught us to be compassionate towards all beings, regardless of their race, religion, or creed.

In 2007 and 2008, I had the opportunity to attend the Seeds of Peace Camp. I was very excited about being selected, despite many people making a lot of negative remarks about having to associate with Indians.

This wasn’t going to be my first interaction with people from across the border, as I have had friends from India from the days when I played squash for Pakistan, but this was the first time I was going to interact with them for an extended period on religious, political, and social topics.

During the three weeks at Camp, while sharing meals and bunks and playing sports and dancing with the kids from the other side of the conflict, I ended up seeing that the face of the enemy was very similar to mine, to the people of Pakistan. I am still friends with most of the people I met at Camp and regularly engage in healthy dialogues.

In 2011, I attended a multinational Seeds of Peace conference in Mumbai called Voices of People. My team and I chose the topic “Flipside of the Religion,” in which we interviewed heads of places of worship and ordinary citizens of different faiths—Hindus, Muslims, Parsees, and Christians.

Through this research, we concluded that the locals of any faith were happy to co-exist with their neighbours from a different faith. They respected each other’s beliefs, were a part of their neighbours’ happiness and grief, and celebrated all the religious festivities as a family.

One moment that stood out for me was from two Hindu and Muslim neighbours who mentioned that on Eid, Muslims share their vermicelli with their Hindu neighbours, and on Diwali, Hindus send over the local sweets to their Muslim neighbours. They also respect each other’s dietary requirements; if the Muslim neighbour were to share the food with the Hindu neighbour, they would ensure that the cooking pots had not been used for beef.

Such little gestures of humanity restored my faith that we could co-exist with each other and reinforced for me that the bigger enemies are the religious fundamentalists on both sides. There are political parties who spew hate for their vested agendas, and the price is paid by innocent citizens from both sides.

Seventy years since the war of independence, the two nations, both nuclear powers, still have people within them cheering for war. I have seen both hate and mockery of the situation from both sides of the conflict. I am appalled to see that there are people who want war, and as someone rightly said, it is clear that these people do not really understand war.

Today, I am thousands of miles away from Pakistan, but I worry about the friends and family on both sides of the border.

The enemy always has a face, but it is up to us whether we choose to see it or to turn a blind eye and cheer for war. There is no glory in war, and both sides of the conflict will face the consequences if a war breaks out. And who wins in the end? What will the war achieve?

There are so many serious issues to worry about, such as climate change, equality, education for all, clean drinking water and sanitation, female reproductive health, mental health, and the list goes on. Terrorism is an important issue, too, and the leaders of the affected countries should fight it by engaging in dialogue, rather than proving who is better at destroying the other nation.

I hope we learn to co-exist with compassion for each other. War has never done anyone any good, and history is the witness to this fact. War is not the solution; dialogue between the two countries is.

GATHER Summit 2018: Community and connection in vivid colors

Jan 10, 2019 / No Comments

The “YES” sign, built from dozens of illuminated light bulbs, may have been an uncommon, perhaps even questionable, choice of hotel lobby decor, but it served as backdrop—and the perfect metaphor—for the 2018 GATHER Summit.

More than 70 entrepreneurs, artists, educators, activists, and policy makers joined together in Athens, Greece, in the middle of December to reflect in their work, share best practices, and dig into questions around the systemic levers of change. From the wee hours of morning until late at night, a vivid brightness and endless buzz of positivity emanated from everyone involved.

The Summit was shaped around four tracks: economic, political, social activism, and arts and education. Changemakers from Palestine, Pakistan, Israel, India, Cyprus, the Balkans, Egypt, the US, Jordan, Afghanistan, and the UK built skills around storytelling and resource development.

But more than that, they built and strengthened community.

“How amazing it was to be from different countries, different backgrounds and many other differences, and to be able to work in one business mind and systematic goal in less than a week. We are leading the change,” one participant from Palestine reflected.

An asset mapping session kicked off a slew of networking opportunities, with participants posting services they sought and skills they could share. From there, individuals met up in pairs over the course of the Summit for ‘brain dates’—where they could learn from and advise each other.

Workshops led by experts in the field included introductions to impact investment and nonprofit fundraising, effective negotiation, putting the ‘story’ back in storytelling, using narrative to move from ‘action-inhibition’ to ‘action-enabling,’ and rethinking for-profit biases.

An open-space activity allowed the nearly 60 changemakers to suggest topics of discussion and move freely from one conversation to the next. Groups explored ways to support women in traditionally patriarchal societies, tackled notions of identity and how to instill that in our children, and discussed what to do about Gaza, to name a few. Not surprisingly, we had to extend this session, because people could not be pulled away from each other.

There was even time to explore the city of Athens—visiting local social service, political, or economic organizations to learn more about systemic change, and, of course, climbing the hill to the Acropolis.

Connections were formed, skills solidified, and participants left the Summit renewed in their conviction to lead change, in a myriad of thoughtful and impactful ways.

Said one Israeli participant, “The most important thing for me that I can apply are the relationships I gained and the knowledge that people support my unorthodox path toward contributing to peace in the world. I have more confidence, and I feel like I have a larger and more supportive network.”

Jordanian Seeds learn entrepreneurial skills

Sep 21, 2018 / No Comments

AMMAN | You excel in classes, nail the internships, and graduate with a degree that shows the willingness and ability to make it in the workforce—only to have doors closed and choices evaporate.

This is a situation familiar to many young people eager to begin their careers, but in Jordan, where the youth unemployment rate is among the highest in the world, the frustration is particularly acute.

“Many youth complete their education, yet the education is not translating into high-quality, full-time employment due to many factors, including the discrepancy between their education and the skills required in the private sector,” said Farah Bdour, Middle East Programs Coordinator in Jordan.

To help Jordanian Seeds prepare for their school-to-work transition, Seeds of Peace organized the workshop “Start Your Own Business: Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship.”

Fourteen Seeds, Seed parents, staff and dialogue leaders from Amman, Karak, and Madaba attended the September 20 program.

In addition to building their personal entrepreneurial skills, the goal of the workshop, Farah said, was to “provide Seeds with a practical framework that will help them generate business ideas and put these ideas into action.”

Topics discussed included ideation, business modeling, management components and funding proposals. The day also included facilitated dialogue sessions, during which the Seeds discussed concerns they shared, like the pressure to conform to parental or societal expectations.

“They showed polished skills of dialogue, putting good use to the skills they developed at Camp,” Farah said.

The workshop was held at the Amman offices of United Religion Initiative, a grassroots, interfaith peacebuilding network working in over 95 countries worldwide.