No More War Camps

2010

SCI Austria 

During World War I, extensive networks of paths were created between alpine valleys and the military positions located on the mountain ridges in Austria. The passage of time rendered many of the mountain trails unusable. As a consequence of this deterioration, many scenically beautiful and historically interesting locations became inaccessible. The idea was born to restore these paths of war into paths of peace with the help of international volunteers. SCI volunteers teamed up with the association responsible for this restoration called “Friends of the Dolomites.”  Few other locations are better suited to show future generations the reality of war and how unsuitable it is for resolving conflicts.

Projects took place at this location from the 18th to 31st July, and again on the 1st to 14th August. The work consisted of clearing and maintaining the existing trails and reconstructing collapsed rock walls.

 SCI Germany 

From the 14th August to the 9th September, SCI volunteers took part in a project at Kurve Wustrow, a centre for training and networking on non-violent action in the Wendland region of Germany. The overall aim of the Centre is to develop non-violent action alternatives in conflicts and to resolve social problems, as well as to reinforce non-violence as an active principle. They offer seminars on non-violent conflict resolution and non-violent actions for German and international volunteers. They have partner organisations in Palestine and in the Balkans, with whom they exchange experiences and share knowledge.

The SCI volunteers came from countries such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Germany, and Japan. They carried out renovations on the peace centre building and various other restoration work. They also helped to restore bicycles so that other groups can easily explore the beautiful surrounding area.

SCI Italy 

This summer, SCI Italy again teamed up with an organisation called "Aspromonte Liberamente" to organise an intercultural meeting. This project was part of an ongoing partnership between the two organisations. Aspromonte Liberamente was founded in 2000 with the goal of redeveloping the area of a former US military base in Monte Nardello, thereby transforming a symbol of the Cold War into a symbol of peace and international cooperation. Since its foundation thousands of students, institutions and local organisations, national and international have helped transform this goal into a reality. This year, SCI volunteers carried out general maintenance work on the area and made murals on the theme of peace. Meetings also took place between volunteers and speakers on the issue of peace and solidarity amongst peoples.

USA

For the past 6 years, Volunteers for Peace, SCI’s partner organisation in the US, have organised a project in Concord, the capital of New Hampshire State. This is known as the Concord Peace Camp. Here international volunteers work with American volunteers from local schools, churches and organisations on numerous community projects over the course of two weeks. The projects include working side by side with counsellors at the Audubon Society Children’s Summer Day Camp. Activities involve assisting with outdoor adventures, games, crafts, stories and environmental education in a beautiful forest setting.

This year the SCI volunteers took part in a Concord Peace Camp project during the last two weeks of July. They were able to learn about peace in the tradition of African “Diembe” drumming, and reconnect with nature while learning about universal tolerance. The volunteers took part in evening workshops on peace education through open dialogues on peace related issues.

Nigeria

SCI Switzerland and SCI group VWAN Nigeria organised a peace education seminar as part of activities to celebrate the 90th Year Anniversary of SCI. Volunteers met at the monumental city of Idanre in Ondo State Nigeria to discuss and explore more possibilities for living and working together in harmony and peace. Participants took part in workshops such as “Pieces of Art for Peace” where they had to create a piece of art to represent peace, and “Theatre on Conflicts and Conflict Resolution” where participants identified issues of conflict that they themselves had experienced and transformed this into theatre. There was also a presentation from invited speaker, Dr. Shola Ishola, from the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The seminar was facilitated by Pamina Sigrist and Maria Dobrinas of SCI Switzerland, and Kolawole Aganran representing the SCI Group VWAN Nigeria.

Sri Lanka

The intercultural meeting in Sri Lanka took place during a project at the Centre for Children’s Happiness in Jaffna in the last week of July. The objectives of this were to rebuild the connection between North and South, to build good leadership, and to promote peace among the people living in the area.

This was the first opportunity for the SCI international volunteers to experience life in the Jaffna peninsula - which was a prohibited area for 30 years, because of the civil war.

Seventeen local SCI volunteers took part in this project alongside international SCI volunteers from Belgium, Italy, and Slovenia.

The work carried out by the participants consisted of painting classrooms and decorating the school garden. Volunteers were also able to teach and learn languages such as Tamil, English, Sinhalese, Italian, and Spanish. In the evening time, the international volunteers had the opportunity to visit the homes of the local volunteers. A visit to a school on a small island called Eluvaitivu allowed volunteers to give sports equipment to the children. Small health lessons were also organised with the school children.

On the last day of the project, volunteers organised a peace festival for the school children. They prepared a one hour workshop on peace issues. This was followed by presentations of drawings, songs and theatre. The peace festival reached its climax with the building of a symbolic peace bridge between the north and south.

Finland

The last two weeks in July saw the SCI branch in Finland, KVT Finland, organise a project in partnership with Food Not Bombs. This project took place in Helsinki. Food Not Bombs is an international grassroots anti-military movement whose aim is to promote disarmament and social justice. One of the main activities of Helsinki's Food Not Bombs group is to cook and serve meals on the streets and market places in Helsinki. SCI volunteers were able to help with the cooking and serving of these meals and also with the important task of cleaning up afterwards.

SCI Switzerland

These are just some of the questions contemplated by volunteers on an intercultural meeting in Ehrendingen, Switzerland that took place from the 29th August to the 13th September. 9 volunteers from Croatia, Japan, Jordan, Poland, Russia and Spain took part in this voluntary project. The first week consisted of work at a co-operative called “Gipsgrueb.” Here the volunteers carried out activities such as preparing the wood for wintertime and renovating the old building. For the second week, the project was dedicated to discussions and meetings connected to peace. Volunteers reflected on issues such as; what are the different meanings of peace, why do armies still exist, what does it mean to be in peace with nature, and what is structural violence. There were also meetings with Elisbeth Neuenschwander, one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005. Neuenschwander participated in SCI projects in Belgium and Greece in the 1950s and then devoted her life to peace work with women in different countries such as Jordan, Nigeria, India and Afghanistan. Volunteers met with GSOA, a Swiss pacifist non-governmental organisation. On the last weekend, the volunteers visited “Schweizerische Friedensrat”, the Swiss Peace Council, in Zürich, where two experienced members of the organisation told them about their experiences in peace work. They also spoke about their participation on SCI projects thereby giving first-hand experience on how SCI worked in the past. In Zürich the volunteers took part in a street performance. Here they made origami birds and gave them to pedestrians as symbols of peace. Pedestrians were encouraged to write what peace means for them on a big piece of paper. This was then made into a giant origami peace bird. The street action was part of a “72hours” project which aims at encouraging young Swiss to volunteer.