“Can Pacifists Build Peace?”

Durres, Albania

22^nd-30^th October, 2010

Host: PVN Albania

Organisers: No More War Team and SCI Austria

Funded by: Austrian National Agency under the EU Youth in Action Programme.

About 20 people from Albania, Austria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Macedonia, Spain, and Switzerland met in Durres, Albania for about a week to learn and exchange about non-violence, develop project ideas for 2011 and generally get to know Albania and enjoy the time together in pure SCI spirit.

Goran and Georg, the main trainers met in advance with the preparation team, a lot of supportive people from Projekte Vullnetare Nderkombetare (PVN), the local  SCI group in Tirana, to prepare last minute items and to draft the detailed program for the week. And then the training had already begun, situated in a hotel directly at the beach of Durres, sunshine filling all the days.

The first day was mainly for getting to know each other, introducing the No More War actions, organisational issues, etc. On the second day, we discussed conflict   transformations and the basics of recognising cultural and structural violence – which also included facing the violence all around each of us. On Tuesday we worked on examples of peace building (concluded on Wednesday morning) and training empathy – specifically how to raise it ‘Does he/she prefer to drink tea or coffee?’ and how to recognise and strengthen the connection to our own feelings and needs.

Then came half a day enjoying mother nature, relaxing and getting to know a bit more about the host organisation in Tirana – also visiting a castle close by while the trainers relaxed and found one of the military bases in Durres.

The last two days finally were on action planning, personal motivations and what to do in 2011 and beyond. Lots of wonderful ideas were developed and discussed here and we look forward to the progress.

All in all, it has been really successful according to our own goals to spread the belief, that a pacifist world is possible, to develop project ideas for 2011, to find people interested in doing these projects, and those of the participants, and it gave all of the participating parties lots of positive energy, ideas and connections to work with in the future!

Thanks to all on behalf of the No More War team, especially the participants, PVN Albania, and SCI Austria for making this happen.

Georg Adelmann