Peace education work book

Workshops Booklet #peer education #peace #stereotypes #conflict

PROJECT BACKGROUND This booklet is a result of Erasmus + KA1 Youth project, the training course “Peer educators for peace” and contains ready to use scenarios of 5 workshops in the topics of negotiation, refugees, prejudices across Europe, stereotypes and conflict. Scenarios can be used in the context of peace peer education.

Project “Peer educators for peace” took part 4-11.09.2016 in Susiec, Poland and gathered 24 youth leaders, youth workers and volunteers from Poland, Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Ukraine, Spain, Italy and Georgia in order to in order to equip them with non- formal tools to build peace in their communities and within the international collaboration framework. The main aim of this course was to empower youth leaders coming from conflict affected communities to become peer educators for peace and to encourage their sustainable commitment to peace.

Within 8 days participants together with 3 trainers were broadening their knowledge on the topics of conflict resolution, negotiations, non violent communication and discovering and designing new tools in order to address these topics to their peers and young people they work with in daily basis.

Final activity of this training course was delivering workshops to the vet students in Tomaszów Lubelski

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS Following organizations were involved in preparation, implementation and evaluation of the project: * Czajnia Association, Poland * Hub – Officine Giovanili, Italy * Kosova Young Lawyers – KYL, Kosovo * InoChange, Georgia * Les Rambla de Nogalte, Spain * Zdruzhenie na Alumnisti na Programata SVT Skopje, Macedonia * Public Organization Kamianka-Buzka of Agency for development of small and medium business, Ukraine * Association “DeaDia”, Serbia

Hosting organization

Czajnia Association Łaszczowiecka 9, 22-600 Tomaszow Lubelski, Poland czajnia@o2.pl

TRAVELLING TO MEET YOU ALL It’s dark. We have been travelling for 7 hours now and the road ahead seems even longer. Tired and sleepy I look through the bus’ window. Forests lie at peace under the huge sky, full of stars and there are some shiny road signs of ‘deer’s’. How happy would it be to see a deer and stop by to fondle him- I was thinking by myself. As the bus moves on, the deer sign is left there; I could still see it…. I could still imagine that cute tiny deer coming out of the forests.

I feel sleepy but I cannot sleep. I think of tomorrow... What would it be like, who will we meet with, how it will go…

Thousands of questions run into my head. I feel that I have to go there but then at the same time I feel like going back home.

My phone alarm goes crazy. It’s 7:30 am. I wake up in a quite comfortable cozy bedroom, but ohm it was confusing to me. It’s rainy and the sun seems to be playing peek-a-boo. It’s there and suddenly it is not. I take a shower, dress up and go to the meeting hall. As I enter I see faces I never knew before nor would I never could imagine they would look like they did. I know nothing of them and they know nothing of me. Were we all wandering hopelessly hoping for life to serve us worthy experiences?! Maybe.

Strangers, strangely sitting together, questioning the possibilities of ending up like great friends or great strangers after all again?!

The sound of our names fills the room. It all started from weird nouns pronunciations to some very interesting hobbies and professions. We exchanged smiles. We are getting to know each other!

As days pass we share our stories. We hear each other story, we hear each other’s dreams, and we walk in each other’s shoes. Beautiful, happy eyes bringing positivity in the room, and beautiful sad eyes brining painful stories from their countries, dreaming to stop the wars. It was each and everyone’s story who helped us understand why is it important to resolve conflicts, why is it important to have everyone in the world feeling safe, why is it better if we communicate and express our feelings rather than shout at each other.

We were there because we all believed in peace. And the best proof was when we accepted each other the way we were, when we said no to prejudice and bullying, when we didn’t just hear but listen carefully to what one has to tell and share, when we gave powerful life advices and encouraged others to believe and work in peace building. Apart from continuous effortful work in creative ideas and conflict analysis, we worked towards great friendship as well.

24/7 was spent in harmony, laughter, love and peace. The fact that we all came from different countries, different cultures and had different life backgrounds was not even mentioned at all. We felt like home now. We felt like we knew each other for years now. And we knew that whenever life meets us again, great experiences will again be cherished. We understood that not all those who wander, are lost.

Grese Haxhimusa, Kosovo

THEMES: The topic of our workshop was Negotiation.

GROUP SIZE: From 6 to 25.

AGE: From 16 to 18 years old.

TIME: Approximate time implementing the activity took 90 minutes in without the break (it is advisable to have a break of 10 min. after 45 minutes of activity)

OVERWIEV:

The activity concerns raising up awarness of interpersonal communication and effective ways of resolving conflicts using the non-violent method of negotiation.

OBJECTIVES: Goals of the activity were to teach young people effective methods of negotiations and showcase different methods of communication.

MATERIALS: To implement the activity we used those materials: markers, flipchart, paper, “Kylee nuts” negotiation exercise.

INSTRUCTIONS: 15 Min. energizer.

30 Min. analyzing the task and to reach to an agreement.

10 Min. discuss regarding the agreement and the steps that have reached to this agreement.

25 Min. explanation of what is negotiation, types and how they should be negotiated.

10 Min. discussion about new things they learned from this lecture, and questions about the other things they want to know regarding to negotiation.

DEBRIEFING: We related the issue of our workshops with young peoples’ experiences from every-day life in order to present them applications of negotiation and it’s features.

EVALUATION: After our presentation we had time to talk with students about their opinions about the workshop and to ask what they gained from this experience.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FOLLOW UP AND UNDERTAKING FURTHER ACTIONS: Encourage youths to disseminate knowledge about non-violent communication and negotiations, organize some activities such as workshop in their school or town and create leaflets about this topic (the leaflet could contain information about what a negotiation is, what to do and don’t do in a negotiation, and some examples of it). We, leaders of the project, are going to conduct more lessons about negotiation in our local communities to raise public awarness to the topics of communication.

TIPS FOR FACILITATING GROUP (FROM OUR EXPERIENCE): On the beginnig it was

useful to do an energizer to “break the ice” and to get know each other better. It was important to have done the translation of “Kylee nuts” negotiation exercise in Polish and have an interpreter. His presence was essential because we wanted to feel them freely to discuss with us in the most confortable way, so they could say or share their thoughts- something they were not able to say in English. The thing that maybe would be good was to persuade and encourage more the participants to speak in English to overcome language barriers.

THIS ACTIVITY WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED AND IMPLEMENTED BY: BLERTA IBERDEMAJ, LINA GUGLIELMINO AND PIOTR KALIŃSKI

THEMES: Stereotypes across Europe GROUP SIZE: 10-50 AGE: 9-99 TIME: 90 min OVERWIEV: Make students aware of the multicultural identity of Europe and respect the different cultures.

OBJECTIVES: Break the barriers that stereotypes built across countries in Europe MATERIALS: markers, flipcharts, paper, pen, Philip & Caroline texts. Video mapping Europe INSTRUCTIONS: Introduction about our countries, then we played the video “Mapping Europe” https:// youtu.be/XxgPM29FcIk and discuss with them about their stereotypes of other European countries. Our next activity was the Caroline- Phillip one, they have some time to read it and then we played the role play-game. We had the break and then we asked them about their impression about the role play. At the end we went to the courtyard and played the ho-ha-hi energizer and then we told the students to do some lanyard piece of art made only with elements of nature, in this case the PEACE SIGN

DEBRIEFING: We asked them if they were in Caroline and Philip case, what would they do? What would happen in your family? Is it a religious problem

EVALUATION: We did an oral evaluation asking them about their impressions of the activities and we ask them to share their feedback with us.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FOLLOW UP AND UNDERTAKING FURTHER ACTIONS: Students could do a research of one European country and explain it to their partner in class. They could also make some posters or collect all the researching work in a book called” The Broken barriers of European Stereotypes”

TIPS FOR FACILITATING GROUP (FROM OUR EXPERIENCE): we tried to make them feel comfortable with the language barrier. We were foreigner too so we were even! We explained everything to them many times and encouraged them to speak without fearing any mistakes.

THIS ACTIVITY WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED AND IMPLEMENTED BY: LIZA, DIME, PAQUI, LUIS

THEMES:CONFLICT: analysis and way to solve GROUP SIZE:12 people AGE:16 TIME:90 min with the break, 2 session of 45 min OVERWIEV:energizer and game to break ice and brief introduction of ourselves; what is a conflict? ; interactive activity about ways to solve a conflict OBJECTIVES: explain what is a conflict and introduce the class in our training course’s theme MATERIALS:markers, flipcharts, papers with a story that help us in our activity, pen, INSTRUCTIONS: 10 minutes for games, energizers (a game where each person have to say his name and something he likes and the next person repeat what he said- we tied to involve all guys playing with them) and a brief introduction of ourselves (who we are, our country, our job); 15 minutes where we explained the topic of conflict (trying to involve guys); break of 5 minutes; 5 minutes of games; interactive activity about means to solve a conflict (the story of Philip and Caroline about a conflict in a family) DEBRIEFING:What do you know about Erasmus plus? What do you think about conflict? Can you define a conflict? What do you think about the analiysis of a conflict? In which ways is possible to avoid and solve a conflict?

EVALUATION:we are very satisfied of our activity; before we were worried they theycould’nt be involved in our activities but then they follow all of our works; the class was very happy to followed our activity and when we ask them orally how did they feel during the activity, some guys said that was very interesting

SUGGESTIONS FOR FOLLOW UP AND UNDERTAKING FURTHER ACTIONS: maybe with a different time for our activity our work could be organized by different ways; on my opinion was useful to draw and organized some flipcharts to draw the class’s attention on our work. Other activity that we could organize: analysis of conflict with the presentation of a video, what they know about conflict in an interactive view.

TIPS FOR FACILITATING GROUP (FROM OUR EXPERIENCE) It was useful to break ice and involve the class in our topic. It was also very useful to involve in the practical activity some of the guys, to draw the attention of all the class on what we were talking about. Was important to divide role in our group of 4 people and have a person which speak their national language.

THIS ACTIVITY WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED AND IMPLEMENTED BY:GIUSEPPE SANTAGATI, MAGDALENA RUCINSKA, RILINDKUSARI, NIKOLA BORZANOVIC

THEMES: Refugees GROUP SIZE: It can be applied to groups from 10 students to 20. In case of larger groups the activities/ games can be a bit modified.

AGE: Since the topic/theme is quite a fragile one, it is advised that these activities to be implemented with students from 16- 18+.

TIME: The lesson / activity plan is divided in two sessions (both 90 minutes), which is very accurate and appropriate if decided to do it in public schools. However, in case you may need it for any training courses or workshops, time can be changed depending on the facilitator’s objectives and agenda.

OVERVIEW: Having to hear about the importance of peace and simultaneously having to hear stories of how peace is being largely prevented in today’s world, has brought us to the idea of talking and discussing about refugees ( with a special focus on Syrian refugees). Video watching, discussions and ‘’ welcoming refugees’ activity were planned so as to trigger students ‘way of thinking about the other side of the story of those people.

OBJECTIVES: The main goal of the activities and topic itself is to get students to walk on refugee’s shoes themselves. Therefore, main set objectives are: • Introduce students to stories of refugees • Challenge their way of thinking about refugees • Get them to think if they want to be helping hands for refugees, and if yes what would they do.

MATERIALS: Needed materials for these activities are as follows: • Flipcharts (the amount depends on the number of groups of students, if you have four groups, thus you will need four flipcharts).

• Markers, Colors (students may need it to express their creativity) • Posters (made by the teacher) on Peace-Building, drawings and sayings.

• Reading sheets ‘’ Refugees project task’’ (printed sheets for every student).

• Laptop/ Projector/ USB ( to watch the two planned videos); - It is better to download the videos on your laptop or use a USB; In case the class/ venue is not provided with a projector or laptop you can download the video in your phone, and get each group of students watch it , and then separate groups and get their feedback.

To download the videos (Ctrl +click) on the following YouTube links: watch?v=MQcN5DtMT-0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrHHJIQ5fy8

https://www.youtube.com/

INSTRUCTIONS: 5 minutes: If you will do this activity with students you never met before and you are from a different country, it is advisable to start with a presentation of yourself, i.e.

Who are you, where do you come from, what is your country like, and any other short- related story with the topic, so as to prepare a short background that will make it easier for you to lead to the exact topic. For instance: if your country was in war before, you can share something about it, or you can tell something about a person who worked towards peace in your own country.

Advise : Leave some time for the students to make questions to you as well.

5 minutes : Presentation of students – Ask them to present who they are and what they like. You can also ask them who is their favourite peace-builder in the world. ( Then ask them to write their names and put on their name tags).

5 minutes : Energizer ( Hi – Ha- Hu ) – Fun and games in the class are always a positive step for students and teacher to start getting to know each other.

15 minutes : THINK-PAIR-SHARE ; Asking questions about peace, conflict and refugees

1. Think: ask pupils to think about their question on their own for two minutes 2. Pair: give pupils five minutes to discuss their answers in pairs before writing down their combined answer.

3. Share: pupils share their answers with the rest of the class. **** *****Each group will have to think and answer different questions :******* • • •

Do you think there is peace in the world? Which countries are currently in war?

How it would feel to live in a country where there is a war?

What it would be like to leave your home because of a war?

5 minutes : Presenting the two videos in front of the class.

5 minutes: After video- watching you can start a dicussion with the students. You can ask them how they feel after watching the videos, what would they do to change those stigmatized behaviours of people towards refugees.

How would they react in case something like in the video ( the story of the girls) would happen to them; How would they react if a refugeee would come to their class.

SECOND SESSION 5 minutes: Let’s get some fun and energize! Animals Noises Each person is given a piece of paper with the name of an animal on it eg. cow, horse, goat, owl, elephant, dog, and turkey. The number of animals you use is up to you, but you want to use each animal at least 4 or 5 times. Everyone has to close their eyes (or be blindfolded) and by making the noise of their animal, find the other cows, horses etc, keeping their eyes closed all the time. It is very fun and it adds positive vibes to the students , the whole class.

25 minutes: Group Activity ‘’ Refugee Project Task’’. Students wil be divided into groups and will be given a reading sheet. The teacher/ trainer will give them 5 minutes to read it and then will go to each group and will give them the following instructions: One groups will have to do a map of the town/ school/ hospital / city mall to make it easier for the refugees since they won’t be knowning the city.

• One group will have to draw and write something about traditional food and traditional clothes • One group will have to come up with an idea of organizing something to welcome the refugees in the school.

• One group will write sayings/ quotes from their heart to the refugees.

10 minutes: Students will present their posters and ideas. Each group will present their work and will say why they did what they did. You can also ask them whether they have thought of doing something like this before, and also get other students from other groups to ask questions or give comments.

In advance time before this activity, the teacher will take some already made posters and put them on the board, so as to be as role-models for the students, in case they are stuck and do not have ideas.

5 minutes: Reflection The teacher/ trainer will give each student a sticky note and will kindly ask them to write aninomously comments about the activitives, the teacher/s behaviour, way of teaching, the materials, the videos . To sum up, they can write positive or negative comments, depending on the way they felt about the lesson plan/ activities.

DEBRIEFING: After each activity, ask questions to the students. How they feel now after doing that specific activity?

What did they learn or what was the message? What would they do differently? It is also important to get students discuss their ideas with one another. Since most of the time foreign students hesitate talking, having them to talk as groups is easier and contributes well to the teacher getting to know the students a bit more.

EVALUATION:

The sticky notes with the comments of students that we received right after The second session was over, made us believe that everything went well. We received very positive comments and we also understood we made them think deeper about refugees, since most of the comments were: I liked the topic very much.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FOLLOW UP AND UNDERTAKING FURTHER ACTIONS: We believe that overall the activity went pretty good and the objectives were 70 % achieved. Due to lack of personal interaction with each student and due to lack of background knowledge about the students and their level, there were difficulties that we encountered like some ‘’stuck up’’ situations when nobody would talk or hesitate to share their ideas. However the energizers used were very helpful since it made the students to start seeing us in a much friendlier manner.

Being aware that the students were teenagers and some of them had a very fixed mindset, it was good when they heard some people coming from different cultures and nations and religions, sharing stories, and asking them questions that at first sight seemed ‘’ stupid ‘’ to them, but then made them think more about it. The activities were meaningful and carried a powerful message to the students, and we strongly believe that if they ever will meet a refugee, they will remember us and the messages we tried to send to them.

Yet there are many other things we would like to do further, new ideas and new actions. One of the projects that could be implemented under the umbrella of this activity would be to have a street youth exhibition: Putting pictures of refugees and short stories of them in the city square, so elder people, man and women and children would be exposed to that reality. Farther, to put a line there (a rope) and don’t let people step on the other side of the street and when receiving angry answers/ faces: put a message on their face: This is how refugees in the world are being denied the freedom of movement. This is how they are being stopped and judged. How does that felt to you?!

Another idea would be to do the WALL OF PEACE. In the walls of universities, and public schools there can be put the pictures of national people who worked towards peace-building, so that will be a daily reminder to students, teachers and everyone around how important is to start care about peace and do little things will love.

TIPS FOR FACILITATING GROUP (FROM OUR EXPERIENCE):

Due to language barriers, there was a leader in our group and the others served as very important helping hands to the leader. It was not very nice to have people divided in such a hierarchy, but since the working language was English and not everyone in the group felt confident in talking English all the time, they decided to work on this way. The good part is that everyone at the end felt included, and nobody was being lazy all the time. Everyone was very attentive on what was going on in the class and with the students, from the time-keeper, to the picture-maker, to the one who shared the materials and to the main facilitator. We made a very good team and we were satisfied with the work we have done.

However one future advice would be to practice it much more before implementing it, so that everyone in the group will gain confidence in talking more and being more involved.

THIS ACTIVITY WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED AND IMPLEMENTED BY: GRESE HAXHIMUSA ( Leader) MARIBEL (Vise-leader) IRENA GOGA (Time-keeper; constantly taking pictures of the whole group.)

If I could do anything, I’d bring you a rainbow, so that you would see colors, when the rest of the world is gray.

I would take your troubles away, and toss them into the sea, drowning your fears, I would cry your every tear, so that you would feel joy and peace, and I would protect you, so that you would never fight alone.

If I could be anything, I’d be to you what you are to me. I would be your beacon shining brightly if ever you lost your way.

I would be your solace and be your strength.

If ever you tire from flight, I will carry you while you rest your wings.

If I could say anything, I would say, “I’ll always be by your side.”

And I would say that you are a true friends to me, who I will love until forever comes.

Poem written by Mihajlo Vanović, Representative of DeaDia, Serbia

On behalf of Czajnia Association and participants of the Project we would like to thank to the students, teachers and principal of the School Complex no 3 of Maciej Rataj, in Tomaszów Lubelski (Zespół Szkół nr. 3, im. Macieja Rataja w Tomaszowie Lubelskim) for their time, kindness and support while delivering the workshops described in this booklet.

Disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This video reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein