Peace Messengers are coming!

In 2003, SCI international adopted a strategic plan for 2004-2009 in order to better coordinate the action of the branches around common goals.

Objective 3:

To improve the quality and level of peace education within the movement

Sub-objectives:

3.2.3: Develop an strategy and operational system for improving the level of peace educationwithin SCI with a special focus on existing activities

3.2.4: To prioritise the empowerment of volunteers to enhance their multiplier effect as peace educators

One of the goals was to improve the quality of Peace Education, included on work camps, and to implement this objective, the Peace Messengers programme was launched.

What are Peace Messengers?

Peace Messengers are volunteers visiting work camps in order to run peace education activities. They can visit work camps of their own branches, or in other countries.

There is no fixed format for Peace Messengers sessions. They can run a one hour, one evening, one day or ever one week-end programme, depending on their availability and the time that can be freed during the workcamp. The activities can be very different: an exercise aiming at raising awareness on one particular issue related to peace, a presentation, a testimony, an artistic workshop, or even a whole programme resulting in workcamp participants running themselves awareness raising activities in the local community.

They should however all aim at raising awareness on peace-related issues, and ideally give tools to participants they can use back home, after the work camp. Also, they should be well integrated in the workcamp; this is why the Peace Messenger should work with the workcamp coordinator, to make sure that the activity organized fits into the general processes and dynamics. A two-hour session out of the blue from an unknown person and with no relation with the theme of the workcamp is not very likely to have a long-lasting impact...

Click here to find examples of activities run by Peace Messengers.

Click here to find resources to organize Peace Messengers activities.

Training opportunities

SCI has already organized trainings for Peace Messengers (the latest one in Novi Sad, in February 2008), and is planning to organize others in the future. For more information, please contact peacemessangers(at)gmail.com.