Summer 2008

Summer 2008 was again a busy summer for Peace Messengers, who were active all over Europe and Asia raising awareness on the peace philosophy and values of SCI among work camps participants.

Preparations started well before the work camp season. A seminar, organised in Novi Sad in February, trained a new generation of Peace Messengers, who decided to set up a network to provide mutual support and get their voices heard at international level. For photos of this seminar click here.

Back in their branches, these volunteers worked hard to get prepared for the summer. In SCI-France, a Peace Messengers presentation resulted in convincing an activist to become a long-term volunteer to implement an ambitious Peace Messenger session workplan. Another volunteer ran Peace Messenger sessions in Camp Leader Training. In PVN-Albania, new Peace Messengers were trained, who then met to plan the sessions they would implement in the camps. In other branches, Peace Messengers started to plan sessions they were going to organise.

The season started on a high note, with sessions on a PVP camp in Kumanovo, Macedonia, organised by CID-Macedonia, where Peace Messengers from Romania and Slovenia were invited. The volunteers were in the process of organisi ng an inter ethnic street festival and were particularly receptive to Peace Messengers sessions, even demanding longer peace education sessions. Some of them took action and decided to shoot a video about their inter-cultural surroundings.For more information on the festival they organised click here.

On the other side of the globe, another PVP camp, organised by SCI-Malaysia, provided the opportunity for volunteers to experience peace in action and to reflect on peace during various Peace Education sessions which included a discussion  on Peace with nature and a presentation by Peace Activist, Dr Anwar Fazal . Click here to read his speech. The camp participants were also special guests at a Toastmasters session where the discussion topic of the day was “What does peace means to you?”

Another high point of the summer was the travelling work camp organised by SCI-Germany. Volunteers from 12 countries participated in a one-week training,  before being sent all around Germany and neighbouring countries. These were intense, challenging, but also rewarding weeks for all participants who gathered for a 2-day evaluation session in the end.

At the same time, Peace Messengers from SCI-France, OWA-Poland, and Utilapu-Hungary criss-crossed their country and visited various workcamps to run Peace Messenger sessions. SCI-Belgium volunteers were more numerous (as there is a large pool of volunteer trainers available in the branch) and thus could visit almost all workcamps organised by the branch; PVN-Albania could also harness more volunteers and they were able to visit most of the branchs' camps.

They all reported great interest and engagement from work camp participants, even if some were not always very receptive in the beginning due to tiredness after a long day of work. The Peace Messengers facilitated the rich and stimulating discussions. These were sometimes difficult to channel but they always provided interesting insights into other cultures and values. Participants themselves repeatedly expressed their appreciation to have been given the opportunity, time, and space to discuss peace issues, a discussion that also gave everyone the opportunity to get to know each other better and reinforce the cohesion of the group.

At the end of this active summer, Peace Messengers from France and Belgium met in the garden of the House of Peace in Brussels to discuss the evaluation reports and brainstorm about future activities of the network. They were joined by Peace Messengers from Macedonia and Albania for a Skype meeting during which they planned future trainings and the development of new resources. The network is ready for a bigger and better 2009 Peace Messenger summer!