42ChangeMakers: Rethinking Our Future Kenya
Kakamega, Kenya
https://www.facebook.com/42-ChangeMakers-1839699379678399/
Since Kenya gained its independence from Britain in 1963, ethnicity has shaped contests over land, power and resources. The dark memories of the ethnic violence after the 2007 election still haunt Kenya. Research has shown that lack of employment and involvement in the country helped create an opportunity for youth in urban and rural Kenya to be manipulated by politicians and recruited into the conflicts.
42ChangeMakers, a nonprofit organization based in Kenya, works with at-risk young people from 42 tribes in Kenya to build their capacity for peace and development. Given the history of conflicts and political tensions due to long standing issues of ethnicity and feelings of political marginalization and exclusion, Kenya’s youth have long been exposed to violence and have had fewer options for taking paths that would help them become peaceful and productive citizens. A Lisle Global Seed Grant will support the 42ChangeMakers project, Rethinking Our Future Kenya, which seeks to actively engage youth in community reconciliation, visioning and action for change. Project goals include the establishment of 42ChangeMakers chapters in ten schools in Kakamega county in western Kenya, where five trained coaches will work with 250 youth to help them participate in and lead non-violent actions, network and champion change in their community. Activities will include street theatre and an annual youth summit, with goal of challenging youth to see the power of Kenyan diversity as pillar to build bridges for a prosperous future Kenya.
Sembrandopaz: Peace Building and Stream Restoration in Colombia
Montes de Maria, Colombia
sembrandopaz.org
https://www.facebook.com/Sembrandopaz-313639495410734/
For 15 years Sembrandopaz has been working to counter the decades of conflict in Colombia through grassroots organizing and accompanying local communities, and now the peace accords offer new opportunities for progress. In 2015, Sembrandopaz carried out a diagnostic evaluation with the youth of Montes de María, Colombia, and based on these findings, the youth of these communities and Sembrandopaz formed the Ecological Protectors. This project recognizes that investing resources in youth and creating connections between them is the way to make sustainable change in the communities and to guarantee the armed conflict is not repeated.
The Ecological Protectors project has three primary objectives: to protect the natural environments of the communities; to create self-sustaining, economic opportunities for youth so that they are not pressured to leave their homes for less dignified work in cities; and to foster connections between youth from diverse communities in the region. The Ecological Protectors are currently composed of 16 youth from different communities who are committed to navigate un-mapped streams using a GPS to create a map showing both the needs and resources, collecting information such as contamination, deforestation, watering holes, flora, and fauna. The Lisle grant to Sembrandopaz for Peace Building and Stream Restoration will allow the Ecological Protectors to create action plans to restore and preserve the streams, complete mapping project, and to prepare a proposal for the creation of an alternative ecological service option for the current military service required of youth in the Colombia. They plan to present the proposal to the government on a national level with the goal that the communities can continue to care for their environmental wellbeing as well as the government can begin to support the rural youth in a way that creates peace.
Accountability Lab: Civic Leadership Academy
Multan, South Punjab, Pakistan
http://www.accountabilitylab.org/
http://www.facebook.com/accountabilitylab
South Punjab constitutes one of the least developed regions of Pakistan. A lack of basic human rights, social and political entitlements, and economic opportunities – in short, deep lack of accountability — has led to fundamentalism, terrorism, and criminal activity. Youth, which constitute over 60 percent of its population, have become particularly vulnerable to radical ideas. Those that become radicalized do not only hail from religious schools, but are also well-educated university students. Women and minority groups are also particularly marginalized and disempowered.
The Accountability Lab has been working in this region and at Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University for two years through its Accountability and Peace Incubator, focused on changing these dynamics through youth focused, creative peace promotion and conflict resolution efforts. Lisle seed grant funding will support the Accountability Lab project called “Civic Leadership Academy: Theater for intercultural dialogue and civic leadership in Pakistan.” The Civic Leadership Academy at Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University aims to use the power of theatre as a vehicle to workshop the challenges young people face and develop creative solutions to inter-cultural dialogue and civic activism issues.
150 students, with special attention given to including women, people with disabilities and marginalized groups, will a undertake a series of trainings which will include conflict mapping, civic engagement, conflict resolution, advocacy, theatre performance and the use of social media and visual story telling for social change. Participants will then host a series of performances for the public (250-300 people at each) to illustrate concerns that arise during the workshops. Among its outcomes, the project seeks to create a more balanced, informed conversation about critical issues in South Punjab.
Sarus: Peace Leadership Incubator Program
Thailand, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar & Vietnam
http://sarusprogram.org/
https://www.facebook.com/sarusprogram/
We live in a world that is increasingly divided and polarized across national, ethnic, religious, economic, and political lines. Recent years have seen a substantial increase in communal violence surrounding diverse identity groups. To address this problem, Sarus has been operating in Southeast Asia since 2010 with an aim to empower the youth of the community to reimagine their own identity and to explore conflicts and establish peace around them. Sarus brings together youth from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam to participate in cross-border experiential exchange programs. Already 200+ alumni are emerging as peace leaders in their communities and are on the cusp of realizing their potential to shift larger systems towards nonviolence.
In order to help spread transformations from the small pool of Sarus alumni to their larger communities, Sarus began conducting alumni training in 2015. The Seed Grant from Lisle will be used to launch a new initiative for Sarus, a Peace Leadership Incubator Program, through which their alumni will be invited to develop ideas for support through a competitive process. Applicants will be offered substantial support from Sarus staff to structure their proposals for peacebuilding projects, and one project each from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam will be selected for support. In addition to receiving a $300 grant, each winner will also join the Sarus staff in Bangkok for a 10-day long training in project design, implementation and evaluation. The goal of the project is to generate active peace leaders through the Sarus alumni who will go on to implement their peacebuilding project in their communities and bring positive changes through an augmented ripple effect.
Center for Culture and Education (CCE) Sonta
Svilojevo and Sonta, Serbia
https://www.sites.google.com/site/centarsonta/
https://www.facebook.com/centarsonta
In the 1990’s the historic conflict in the Balkans escalated into war involving Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo. The current migrant crisis shaking the EU has reawakened communal tensions due to struggle over resources, ethnicity, discrimination, and degrading political and economic conditions in Serbia. In Serbia the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, known for its so-called “segregated multiculturalism,” has 6 official languages. The towns of Sonta and Svilojevo are both near the Croatian and Hungarian border, but have different ethnic identities made up of Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Serbian, Croat, Hungarian, Roma and Kosovar people, and they have never cooperated together.
The Center for Culture and Education (CCE) was established in Sonta to include all members of the community, no matter their ethnicity, religion, age, sex, or disability. CCE has made contact with a new organization for youth and children in the village of Svilojevo which shares these values, and together they have developed a project Svilojevo and Sonta Learn and Work Together to improve intercultural understanding among the communities. Lisle funding will support weekend trainings on intercultural learning and on theatre techniques for 16 youth and children from diverse backgrounds, which will enable participants to create performances about community conflicts. This will culminate in a theater festival in the two villages involving 500 or more people, followed by sports and other activities to involve all ages. The goal of the project is to help the youth learn new positive values and serve as change agents within their communities, while helping adults become aware of social and intercultural problems.
Deepam Trust: Creating Inter-caste Understanding
Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu, India
https://www.facebook.com/www.deepamtrust
Despite longstanding legislation outlawing caste-base discrimination in India, the caste system continues to generate division and interethnic and cultural problems, leaving very little room for young people to learn values that promote peaceful coexistence and tolerance.
Deepam Trust has been working for the development of rural communities in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu since 1995. Funding from Lisle will support Deepam Trust for a project titled Creating Intercaste Understanding – Promoting peace among various caste youth.
This project specifically targets 250 young people in 50 villages of Tamil Nadu where clashes between different caste communities have been drawing young people into violence and destructive activities. The project will bring together young people of different castes — who normally live in segregated communities with little interaction — through activities such as intercultural trainings, peaceful dialogues, exchanges and street theatres. Twelve street theatre programs are planned to cover 50 villages in the region. The goal of the project is to promote intercultural understanding and peaceful coexistence, while also building the capacity and communication and leadership skills of the young people and ultimately establishing an intercultural forum that allows for interaction between young people of different castes from the 50 villages covered by the project.