"Turbulent Peace..." by Rudy Scholaert
Their eyes were bright and their smiles contagious as the children all welcomed me with endless greetings: “Hello Mister… What is your name Mister?” They had all just finished a few hours of rafting and were all climbing the mountain back to their base camp for a class entitled “Building Peaceful Communities”…
After a few hours of rafting....time to climb up the hill and do some serious work!
I had just arrived, still a little dazed from the jet lag. I was in India for the weekend. Long enough to witness the last two days of our Peace Camp 2005 and to present medals to all the children participants.
Medals to live by!
The children, ranging in age from 12 to 17 years, had gathered together in a beautiful part of India called Khandala in the Raigad District to participate in The Eagle Down Foundation’s second annual Peace Camp. The Camp was implemented in partnership with three other organizations: World Vision India, Play for Peace and Outbound Adventure.
Although we had originally expected to have 30 children for this camp, the final number of participants swelled to 44. The group was a good cross-section representing four religious affiliations (Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist) from the slums of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai.
A great bunch of kids...now on a mission!
While reports of peaceful coexistence and harmony between ethnicities and religions before 1990 abound in India, today people still live with the scars of the communal riots and conflict since the demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque on 6 December 1992.
Children in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai, today find themselves in segregated slums, neighborhoods and schools, and their environment is one of mistrust, and in some cases even hatred. Violence against minority ethnicities is an increasingly common occurrence. The strong influence of nationalist/fundamentalist propaganda has promoted stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination.
The objective of this year’s Peace Camp was to teach the children about peace, tolerance, living together with differences and to help them challenge accepted patterns of behavior relating to ethnic/religious hatred and conflict generation. The Camp staff used a formal peace education curriculum combined with group discussions, experiential learning, arts and crafts, play for peace games and adventure training such as rafting, rappelling, swimming and hiking.
During the week-long camp, the children quickly formed friendships across ethnic and religious lines. Amit from Ahmedabad was excited, “I never thought it would be possible, but now I have two Muslim friends and we live in the same city.”
The camp was just not all fun and games... serious work was also involved.
Even though many of the children came from the same cities and neighbourhoods, most did not know each other before the camp because they live in slums segregated on the basis of caste, language and religion.
Gopal from Hyderabad, the oldest of the Camp participants said, “We have a school near our home with 60 children from different communities. I could see and observe the caste hostility between them, and didn’t know what to do about it.” He made a vow, “I will start a peace club in the school, using what I learnt at this Camp.”
In one of the group exercises on “stereotypes”, Ganesh from Pune vehemently declared that all Muslims are terrorists. On the last day of Camp he apologised to the Muslim children at the Camp, and said he was proud to be their friend.
Learning to work together, regardless of cast or creed.
Panchshila from Mumbai and Jyoti from Hyderabad, have decided to keep in touch and exchange ideas on forming peace clubs in their communities.
The camp was truly a resounding success. Even little Amina from Mumbai, definitely the tiniest and one of the youngest of the campers, said she now had a dream: “I want to run a peace club in my slum, and conduct peace camps all over India.”
What better image to express unity and a common goal!
She and the others will certainly need our prayers… As I arrived back at my hotel in Mumbai, only 30 hours after arriving in India, the doorman looked concerned as he tried to tell me something in his broken English… “Mister… Mister… You must go to the airport at once… Three bombs have exploded in Delhi. Many people killed… We are in high security… You must go to the airport at once… You must leave India…”
Morning meditation...we now pray for a lasting impact.
After a few hours of rafting....time to climb up the hill and do some serious work!
I had just arrived, still a little dazed from the jet lag. I was in India for the weekend. Long enough to witness the last two days of our Peace Camp 2005 and to present medals to all the children participants.
Medals to live by!
The children, ranging in age from 12 to 17 years, had gathered together in a beautiful part of India called Khandala in the Raigad District to participate in The Eagle Down Foundation’s second annual Peace Camp. The Camp was implemented in partnership with three other organizations: World Vision India, Play for Peace and Outbound Adventure.
Although we had originally expected to have 30 children for this camp, the final number of participants swelled to 44. The group was a good cross-section representing four religious affiliations (Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist) from the slums of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai.
A great bunch of kids...now on a mission!
While reports of peaceful coexistence and harmony between ethnicities and religions before 1990 abound in India, today people still live with the scars of the communal riots and conflict since the demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque on 6 December 1992.
Children in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai, today find themselves in segregated slums, neighborhoods and schools, and their environment is one of mistrust, and in some cases even hatred. Violence against minority ethnicities is an increasingly common occurrence. The strong influence of nationalist/fundamentalist propaganda has promoted stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination.
The objective of this year’s Peace Camp was to teach the children about peace, tolerance, living together with differences and to help them challenge accepted patterns of behavior relating to ethnic/religious hatred and conflict generation. The Camp staff used a formal peace education curriculum combined with group discussions, experiential learning, arts and crafts, play for peace games and adventure training such as rafting, rappelling, swimming and hiking.
During the week-long camp, the children quickly formed friendships across ethnic and religious lines. Amit from Ahmedabad was excited, “I never thought it would be possible, but now I have two Muslim friends and we live in the same city.”
The camp was just not all fun and games... serious work was also involved.
Even though many of the children came from the same cities and neighbourhoods, most did not know each other before the camp because they live in slums segregated on the basis of caste, language and religion.
Gopal from Hyderabad, the oldest of the Camp participants said, “We have a school near our home with 60 children from different communities. I could see and observe the caste hostility between them, and didn’t know what to do about it.” He made a vow, “I will start a peace club in the school, using what I learnt at this Camp.”
In one of the group exercises on “stereotypes”, Ganesh from Pune vehemently declared that all Muslims are terrorists. On the last day of Camp he apologised to the Muslim children at the Camp, and said he was proud to be their friend.
Learning to work together, regardless of cast or creed.
Panchshila from Mumbai and Jyoti from Hyderabad, have decided to keep in touch and exchange ideas on forming peace clubs in their communities.
The camp was truly a resounding success. Even little Amina from Mumbai, definitely the tiniest and one of the youngest of the campers, said she now had a dream: “I want to run a peace club in my slum, and conduct peace camps all over India.”
What better image to express unity and a common goal!
She and the others will certainly need our prayers… As I arrived back at my hotel in Mumbai, only 30 hours after arriving in India, the doorman looked concerned as he tried to tell me something in his broken English… “Mister… Mister… You must go to the airport at once… Three bombs have exploded in Delhi. Many people killed… We are in high security… You must go to the airport at once… You must leave India…”
Morning meditation...we now pray for a lasting impact.
posted by Unknown at 8:32 AM
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