Changemakers's "Entrepreneuring Peace" Collaborative Competition invites and showcases projects with innovative, high-impact strategies for anticipating and managing intense group conflict and violence that afflicts societies throughout the world. The "Entrepreneuring Peace" Collaborative Competition accepted entries online until January 10, 2007. All entries are transparently displayed on the site so that this online community can view them, post their comments and questions, and help spread their impact.
Timeline
Winner is Announced
- LaunchOctober 22, 2006
- Entry DeadlineJanuary 9, 2007
- Voting startOctober 22, 2006
- Voting endJanuary 9, 2007
- Winner is AnnouncedJanuary 9, 2007
A Framework for Entrepreneuring Peace
Changemakers's "Entrepreneuring Peace" Collaborative Competition invites and showcases projects with innovative, high-impact strategies for anticipating and managing intense group conflict and violence that afflicts societies throughout the world.
The "Entrepreneuring Peace" Collaborative Competition accepts entries online until January 10, 2007. All entries are transparently displayed on the site so that this online community can view them, post their comments and questions, and help spread their impact.
The term "entrepreneuring" was chosen for this collaborative competition to challenge conventional frameworks for conflict resolution that can often be reactive and fragmented. "Entrepreneuring" refers to unique innovations that help conflict resolution organizations spot and act upon limited windows of opportunity before situations spiral out of control. Because conflict resolution organizations—unlike many other traditional development fields—operate with limited time to manage conflicts, they need support from a community that can provide resources with agility and flexibility.
The "Entrepreneuring Peace" collaborative competition is searching for committed, high-impact innovators that have strategies to create fundamental building blocks for enduring peace in multiple contexts so their work can be spread and scaled-up to different locations and situations. The Changemakers online community encourages these leading innovators to reach out and collaborate with partners that will help spread their work and impact. The community works to influence investors, policy makers, and other thought leaders to focus on supporting these innovators.
An Entrepreneuring Peace "mosaic" of insights serves as an intellectual framework that sets the context for each Changemakers Collaborative Competition. At a glance, the mosaic maps the most powerful emerging principles of innovation against the underlying factors that drive a problem (see descriptions in the next section). The mosaic provides a starting point for the community to build, uncover new insights, and take collective action. It helps social innovators see how their work fits into a larger picture and demonstrates that the collective impact of solutions is greater than the sum of the individual projects. The mosaic emphasizes that no single solution is the answer—those working on conflict resolution must work with others to create holistic communities of action.
The collaborative competition begins connecting innovators to a community resources through an "Entrepreneuring Peace" judges panel that includes representatives from Humanities United, Peace Direct, the European Centre for Conflict Prevention, and entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari. These judges will review the competition entries and select a group of finalists that will be announced and hosted at the Skoll World Forum in late March 2007. This event provides an opportunity for the peace entrepreneurs to spread their work and to connect with key resources and knowledge that will help them scale-up their operations.
The Changemakers community will select three overall competition winners from the finalists through an open online vote, and each winner will receive an award of US$5,000. All entries will be archived online, creating a resource bank of solutions that addresses each stage of group conflict. After the winners are announced, Changemakers will continue to host and connect an ongoing community of conflict resolution innovators, investors, and supporters.
Barriers
Principles
Participants in the Changemakers "Entrepreneuring Peace" Collaborative Competition are competing for the Innovation Award by submitting projects with innovative, high-impact strategies for anticipating and managing intense group conflict and violence. Finalists will be selected by a panel of judges, and the Changemakers online community will vote to select three winners who will each receive a $5,000 prize. All finalists will be hosted at the Skoll World Forum in late March 2007.
Collaborative Competition Guidelines
Entrepreneuring Peace: Innovation in Managing Group Conflict
Welcome to the Changemakers Collaborative Competitions for "Entrepreneuring Peace: Innovations in Managing Group Conflict." Whether you entered the competition or participate in the online discussion that reviews applications, please take a look at the competition criteria and timeline below. We look forward to surfacing and discussing innovative solutions that provide innovative, high impact solutions for managing group conflict. Before you share your comments on the entries in the discussion forum, please read the criteria below.
Eligibility Criteria
The competition is open to all types of organizations (charitable organizations, private companies, or public entities) from all countries. We consider all entries that:
- Reflect the theme of the competition: Entrepreneuring Peace: Innovations in Managing Group Conflict. The scope of the competition is actual conflict resolution solutions for a significant number of people, and that can be replicated for not only the location of origin but also at the country, regional, or global level.
- Are beyond the stage of idea, concept, or research, and, at a minimum, are at the demonstration stage and indicate success.
- Are submitted in English, Spanish or Arabic, and are complete.
Assessment Criteria
The winners of this Changemakers Collaborative Competition will be those entries that best meet the following criteria:
- Innovation: This is the knock-out test. Even if the application meets all the other criteria, it will be knocked out of the race if the entry does not clearly show a systemic innovation that it is focused on. For example, an entry that demonstrates innovation would be the one focused on how the Montessori education method will transform the entire field of learning, not about building another school. The innovation should be a unique model of change and ready for large-scale spread.
- Social Impact: It is important that the innovation has begun to have an impact on the field it addresses. Some innovations will have proven success at a small level, while others will have scaled to engage millions of people. Regardless of the level of demonstrated impact, it is important to see that the innovation has the ability to affect the world and not just one village. This will be judged by considering the scale strategy, ability to be replicated, clear how-tos, and a map to reach the big goals.
- Sustainability: For an innovation to be truly effective it must have a plan for how it will acquire financial and other bases of support for the long-term. Are strong partnerships in place for it to have a ripple effect? Is there a clear financial plan in place?
Competition Deadlines, Procedures, and Rules
There are three main phases in the competition:
- October 25 - January 10, 2007: Entries were accepted until 12 pm Eastern US time on January 10, 2007, and anyone can participate in an online idea review discussion with the entrants.
- January 10 - January 31: Online idea review discussion continues. In parallel, a panel of judges well-versed in the topic and Ashoka staff select the competition finalists.
- January 31 - February 14: Popular online voting to select the three award winners from the field of finalists. The Changemakers Collaborative Competition winners will be announced on February 15, 2007.
The Changemakers Collaborative Competition will include a cash prize of US$5,000 for the top three winners.
Participating in the competition provides the chance to get feedback on your model and to advise potential investors about how best to change funding/investing patterns for the sector and to maximize the strategic impact and effectiveness of their future investments. The competition will generate an Investor Advisory available to investors, foundations, and other funding agencies. Those participants whose contributions most help frame the contents of the advisory will be acknowledged and may be convened to advise investors at a global meeting
Disclaimer—Compliance with Legal Restrictions
Ashoka complies fully with all U.S. laws and regulations, including Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations, export control, and anti-money laundering laws. All grants will be awarded subject to compliance with such laws. Ashoka will not make any grant if it finds that to do so would be unlawful. This may prohibit awards in certain countries and/or to certain individuals or entities. All recipients will comply with these laws to the extent they are applicable to such recipients. No recipient will take any action that would cause Ashoka to violate any laws.
For more information, contact [email protected].
* Ashoka Fellows
• Discuss • Read the Overall Framework of the Competition
- Principles represent new standards emerging from practical applications that are meant to inspire and guide the innovation process. Note that although the best solutions probably involve more than one principle, we have chosen to emphasize one specific innovative aspect. If you would like to learn about the multiple innovations behind each solution, please click on each name for a fuller description of each case.
Short Descriptions of Mosaic Cases
- Show battling groups the mutual benefit of collaboration
- Use the arts and sport to engage conflicting groups collaboratively
- Teach parties about the tyranny of the majority
- Let ex-gang members design conflict resolution curriculum
Project Leader: Magdaleno Rose-Avila
Organization: Homies Unidos (Homeboys United)
Location: El Salvador
Links: www.homiesunidos.org/; www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/Publications/FOCUS/ProjectHighlights/homiesunidoselsalvador.htm
Mosaic principle: Humanize the "Other"
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceAshoka Fellow Magdaleno Rose-Avila's Homies Unidos is fighting the gang violence ravaging El Salvador by enlisting gang members themselves to lead and shape the battle to establish peace in the country. Appreciating the fact that gangs fulfill the need in its members to "belong," Rose-Avila has chosen a unique route: his is a gang-led grassroots movement that attempts to transform gangs into entities that build civil society, rather than destroy it.
Despite the 1992 Peace Accord, widespread poverty and lack of income-earning opportunities plague El Salvador. Salvadoran youth, traumatized by years of war and social polarization, find few legitimate earning options or understanding of their situation within society. They are driven to join gangs, which offer a sense of belonging and security. A survey by Rose-Avila revealed that 85 percent of gang members wanted to abandon their dangerous lifestyle—peppered by drug dealing, gang warfare, and murder—but saw no alternative.
Rejecting the common approach of "rehabilitating" the youth through state-imposed services, Homies Unidos guides the antisocial young to design their own response to the challenge of breaking away from violent lifestyles and developing constructive social and economic alternatives. The idea is to work within the existing structure of gangs and capitalize on the feeling of community among members.
A core, founding group of gang members who had renounced violence and were committed to helping others do the same were enlisted. These peer educators, trained in nonviolent conflict resolution, peer counseling, and personal motivation, build training teams to spread the work across the country and help gang members work out their own solutions to make the transition from violence to peace. Homies Unidos is creating employment and income opportunities for gang members who previously saw violence as their only skill and theft as their only source of income.
Contacts in the business world are actively cultivated to identify livelihood opportunities. The media have been energetically brought on board to provide positive publicity. Homies Unidos persistently networks with police, municipal offices, and schools to position itself as partner, offering their services in bringing about peaceful resolution to gang-related issues. Homies Unidos has spread its efforts to Los Angeles and other U.S. cities and is preparing to work with gangs in neighboring Central American countries.
The model is designed for the use of teachers and students to address the unconscious forces and stereotypes that inform or bias decision-making. The technique shows all parties in school how to deal with those feelings in a way that promotes, rather than paralyzes, the decision-making process. Lewis conducts training with a select group of students and teachers who later facilitate the process in classrooms.
- Let ex-convicts design their own re-entry programs
Project Leader: Lesley Ann van Selm
Organization: Khulisa ("to nuture" in Nguni)
Location: South Africa
Link: www.khulisaservices.co.za
Mosaic principle: Humanize the "Other"
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceAshoka Fellow Lesley Ann van Selm is decreasing the risk of recidivism among juvenile prisoners in South Africa by reintegrating them into society. By raising the emotional intelligence of the young inmates on the one hand, and by creating support and employment networks for them upon their release on the other, she helps both the community and the young offenders break away from the cycle of mutual suspicion, hostility, and rejection.
In South Africa the rate of recidivism is exceptionally high, reaching 80 percent within six months of leaving prison. Upon their release ex-convicts face familial and societal distrust and find it tough to get employment or lead a meaningful community life. Ironically, it is their prison gangs who accord them the security they desire, and it is prison life—complete with three meals a day—that seems safer than the outside world. Inevitably, these young people fall into a pattern of criminal activity.
Van Selm reintegrates offenders into society by simultaneously bringing the community into the prison and the prison into the community. She uses values-based storytelling and the performing arts as a lead-in to life skills activities geared at restoring the young people's self-respect and sense of responsibility. Self-study modules are facilitated by group discussions. Inculcating a sense of community in the prisoners is a strong component of her program.
To motivate the community to take responsibility for their young offenders, van Selm engages ex-offenders in setting up entrepreneurial initiatives that employ newly released prisoners. Ex-offenders also spread the message of their employability and trustworthiness through meetings with the general public and with the corporate sector in particular. The entrepreneurial success of the ex-offenders and the life stories of these young people have made a huge impression on citizens and corporations alike who today support van Selm's initiative.
- Work with multiracial groups to promote tolerance
- Promote teaching of African history to dispel prejudice
- Educate society about history/contribution of a persecuted group
- Create integrated educations programs to reduce deep-seated prejudice
Project Leader: Dr. Sofyan Tan
Organization: Yayasan Sultan Iskandar Muda
Location: Indonesia
Link: www.changemakers.net/journal/99december/suanda.cfm
Mosaic principle: Humanize the "Other"
Mosaic barrier: Corrupt/Inept Gov't/Public SystemsAshoka Fellow Sofyan Tan is attacking one of Indonesia's most corrosive problems, the deep chasm of mutual incomprehension and disrespect that often acts as the trigger for ethnic violence between indigenous Indonesians—the majority population—and those of Chinese descent.
The island country of Indonesia includes a rich mixture of ethnic, racial, and religious groups brought together by their struggle to gain independence from their Dutch colonists and Japanese occupation. Although the national motto is "Unity in Diversity," the frequency of violent ethnic and religious conflicts suggests that the country has yet to embrace a pluralistic society. This is fueled by restrictions placed on the Chinese community that prohibits them from entering the military and civil services.
Dr. Sofyan's model of integrated education brings together ethnic groups that have been in conflict for generations. These "integrated" schools take in an equal proportion of Chinese and non-Chinese children and provide high quality education with an explicit focus on integration. Group activities and goal-oriented teamwork subtly influence the students' thinking and ability to learn to recognize each other as individuals and to bear mutual respect for others. The idea is that children who grow up tolerant and respecting differences and who are open and empathetic in their attitude will teach the next generation the same lessons of inclusion.
- Document exploitation, abuse and violence photographically
- Educate and train communities to resolve their own conflicts locally
- Use online dispute resolution and other technology tools to aid dialogue
Organization: Info-Share
Location: Sri Lanka
Link: www.info-share.org
Mosaic principle: Create Alternative Systems
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceInfo-Share, a nonprofit technical organization, was set up to bridge the deep ethnic and political chasms in Sri Lanka by leveraging technology for conflict transformation. A marriage between virtual information-sharing and real-world change, the organization uses online dispute resolution and other technology tools to aid dialogue. It was created with the belief that ICT and a committed media can help bridge the communication gaps between the main stakeholders in the Sri Lankan peace process, and also enable public participation in the process.
Cutting-edge technology has been used to create processes and methods in peace building and conflict transformation that, they believe, are otherwise impossible in the physical world. Info-Share provides a software platform—Groove Workspace—readily adoptable by all stakeholders in the peace process for engendering a process of information sharing, thus enabling an inclusive and participatory approach to conflict transformation. By supporting the creation of "shared spaces," Info-Share is the only example of its kind in the world where ICT is actually being used in the design and implementation of not only ICT4D, but as an on-going peace process.
To this end, Info-Share custom built a "Forms" tool that worked as a virtual negotiations table, a "One-Text" space for high-level negotiations for the negotiators to come together and create a single text that incorporates all points of view for distillation and action.
- Supplement poor public services for groups targeted by prejudice
Project Leader: Helena Balabánová
Organization: Církevní Skola Pøemysla Pittra
Location: Czech Republic
Link: csmonitor.com/2001/0918/p18s1-lekt.html
Mosaic principle: Create Alternative Systems
Mosaic barrier: Group-Based InequitiesAshoka Fellow Helena Balabánová has designed an education model for Roma children and adults that positively impacts race relations in the Czech Republic by reinforcing the values of an integrated and diverse society. For the Roma to emerge from their severely marginalized status, Balabánová is constructing bridges between them and non-Roma through effective education and related social services that help parents, students, and teachers.
The rights of the Roma are regularly violated across Eastern and Central Europe but in the Czech Republic, their situation is especially critical. Though they are the largest ethnic minority in the country, pervasive marginalization and persistent racism make them a disenfranchised group, living "ghetto" existences. A key reason behind the Roma inability to organize themselves effectively to fight for their rights has been their lack of education, which is a direct outcome of the Czech education system's failure to be responsive to Roma culture and needs. The Roma find state schools impersonal and culturally insensitive; teachers label Roma children mentally retarded and hostile and dump them into schools for the mentally challenged. The end result: high dropout rates and an education system that undermines democracy.
Balabánová's approach is aimed at promoting multicultural values, and thus democracy, in the classroom and community. In predominantly Roma schools, she has expanded the curriculum to include Roma history, music, and culture and developed relevant textbooks and teaching materials. She has introduced the concept of Roma teaching assistants for the non-Roma class teachers. They play a mentoring role for children and become an effective communication channel between parents and school staff. Outside school environs, the Information and Education Centers target the entire community, providing capacity building services like job counseling and training and high school equivalency certification that enable the Roma to join the mainstream. Regular cultural programs educate Roma and non-Roma to recognize, respect, and give positive public visibility to gypsy culture.
Balabánová's Romanology course is now part of the teacher training curriculum at Prague's premiere Charles University, and the education ministry has agreed to implement her program in elementary schools nationally.
- Shift power to communities by establishing local tribunals
- Fight gov't corruption by teaching citizenship
Project Leader: Selim Mawad
Organization: Sustainable Democracy Center (SDC)
Location: Lebanon
Links: www.sdclebanon.org; www.hiwaratclub.net; www.corruptiongame.com
Mosaic principle: Create Alternative Systems
Mosaic barrier: Corrupt/Inept Gov't/Public SystemsThe Sustainable Democracy Center (SDC) in Lebanon is helping to build a new generation of citizens in the Arab region (Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq) that believes in transparency, accountability, and democratic processes. Here, youths are also exposed to issues of identity, coexistence, and enhancement of the knowledge of the "other."
The world is increasingly polarized along lines of religion, ethnicity, and economic differences. In the Arab Region, repressive and unrepresentative corrupt governments have disillusioned citizens, and the general feeling of mistrust of the state has resulted in clan or religious loyalty instead. If not addressed, this problem may further widen the gap between the people and the state, thus sustaining the anarchy in the political life of the citizenry.
SDC's founder Selim Mawad is trying to build among youth a faith in peaceful co-existence and a respect for others who are "different" from them. To reach this goal, Mawad has created cadres of youth whom he calls "agents of change." The idea is to integrate the marginalized educated and uneducated youths in public life by providing them with the necessary skills and information on how to be active and complete citizens. By creating an enabling environment and open platforms, the center makes space for youth to express themselves on issues ranging from reconciliation to corruption, and to seek participation in the decision making process.
To realize its goal, the center uses different and complementary tools from seminars, workshops, training of trainers and even board games that Mawad has developed.
- Empower citizens hold police and courts accountable
- Teach skill of compromise to communities
- Recruit religious leaders to promote peaceful co-existence
Project Leader: James Wuye/Imam Mohammed Ashafa
Organization: Interfaith Mediation Centre
Location: Nigeria
Link: www.sit.edu/contact/profiles/wuye_ashafa.html
Mosaic principle: Explore Original Wounds
Mosaic barrier: Lack of EmpathyImam Ashafa, a Muslim cleric, and Pastor Wuye, a Christian minister, have founded the first interfaith initiative for resolving the frequent, violent clashes between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. Once arch rivals leading warring factions in Kaduna state, Ashafa and Wuye's surprising collaboration has had resounding success, motivating many by example. Their Interfaith Mediation Centers promote awareness of the psychology behind religious violence and address its root causes, drawing on the power of spirituality and the peaceful interpretation and application of religious texts. Ashafa and Wuye focus both preventative outreach and conflict resolution throughout Nigeria—and increasingly beyond its borders—around their message of peaceful coexistence.
- Train people to cultivate peace by exorcising individual trauma
Project Leader: Constanza Ardila Galvis
Organization: CEDAVIDA
Location: Colombia
Links: www.childrenoftheandes.org/Cedavida-youth.htm; www.childrenoftheandes.org/Cedavida-Peace.htm
Mosaic principle: Explore Original Wounds
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceConstanza Ardila Galvis's organization CEDAVIDA is halting Colombia's cycle of violence through a therapeutic process that equips victims of violence to resist the inevitability of becoming programmed for aggression themselves. Through an initiative called Community Builders of Peace that helps people come to terms with personal traumas and comprehend the effects of violence, CEDAVIDA is creating a citizenry invested in fostering a culture of peace and empowered to say "no" to violence.
In Colombia continuous armed conflict has created a society driven by brutal survivalist principles. In the last decade fighting has displaced over a million people, with a majority of them under 25 years of age. Statistics tell a grim tale of their early induction into violence, and most eventually sign up with the very forces that had displaced them, in order simply to survive. Social values reinforce this culture. Children are taught to obey authority without question, eschew weakness, and respond to intimidation with aggression or submission. This process of socialization blunts sensibilities, and kids grow up blocking out their own pain and losing their capacity to understand another's. Damaged themselves, they grow up to damage others, perpetuating cross-generational violence .
CEDAVIDA's approach guides individuals along a process of emotional healing where, by confronting and resolving past traumas, they regain the capacity to feel and empathize. In accepting and exploring their own pain, they reclaim their right to feel, and learn to be especially sensitive to the destructive effect of violent acts. CEDAVIDA operates through a growing network of trained "social therapists" who typically have become change agents after having undergone the therapy themselves. CEDAVIDA works with teachers, community workers, conflict negotiators, police, and the military in its effort to propel Colombian society from war to peace.
- Expose individuals traumatized by conflict to healing environments
Project Leader: Paul Hogan
Organization: Butterfly Peace Garden
Location: Sri Lanka
Links: www.thestupidschool.ca/bpg/index2.html; www.warchild.ca/projects_detail.asp?ID=31
Mosaic principle: Explore Original Wounds
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceThrough his organization Butterfly Peace Garden (BPG), Ashoka Fellow Paul Hogan is providing a haven in which traumatized children in war-torn Sri Lanka can address the damage within themselves, and from which they can take the lead in directing the larger society on a path of reconciliation and healing, thus breaking down manmade barriers to peace.
Civil war in Sri Lanka has left almost 60,000 dead, and citizens have been constantly exposed to a relentless cycle of terror tactics and attacks. As communities found themselves under unprecedented strain, relations between different ethnic and religious groups broke down. Children particularly have been targets for much of the violence, e.g., as recruits, spies, and suspected enemies, and thousands of them have been displaced.
Hogan set up BPG as a short-term physical space for child victims of war in Sri Lanka. It brings together children from warring communities and, under the expert guidance of trained facilitators, encourages them to build trusting relationships, and to share their feelings with others. This is done through everyday activities such as caring for animals and the garden, singing, playing, and painting. The children embark upon journeys of self-exploration, steered by their counselors who guide them through their emotions in privacy. Over time the children become the garden's agents for healing the wider society in which they live, including parents, teachers, religious leaders, and soldiers.
Started off as a healing center for kids, today it is the kids themselves who are the primary bearers of healing. As the lessons learned in the garden go beyond its walls, the change within leads to change in everyone. The model has been an inspiration for social entrepreneurs, therapists, citizen sector organizations, mental health professionals, and others the world over.
- Remove gang members from the violent environment
Project Leader: Glen Steyn
Organization: Conquest for Life
Location: South Africa
Link: www.conquest.org.za/index.htm
Mosaic principle: Explore Original Wounds
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceThrough his organization Conquest for Life (CFL), Ashoka Fellow Glen Steyn is helping young people escape from gangs and establish a new environment that supports and demands a commitment to life-giving change. He is helping youths transform hopelessness into hope and break the cycle of endemic "lumpenism" that tyrannizes the community.
During apartheid, non-whites were relegated to townships remote from city centers. Poverty, unemployment, and the resultant frustration drove the youths to an extractive life of crime and bullying, thereby multiplying drug gangs and thuggery and spreading terror in communities. Westbury Township, where CFL started off, provides a unique case: gangs there effectively "own" the children born to their members' families and indoctrinate them into the gangster life. A gang's power derives partly from its ability to function as a family substitute, where gangsters bestow favors on the latter, and a family-like bond discourages members from breaking free of the gang. Further, leaving a gang may reduce a household's income.
To break out of gang influence and begin the hard work of building alternative trust relationships, CFL holds outdoor camps for 14-to-25-year-olds away from their regular environment and the peer pressure that comes with it. A second program provides a safe after-school self-esteem and life-skills course for children in which peacemaking skills are taught. Another arm of the initiative is an income-generation project to make the youths self-sufficient enough to break from their economic dependence on the gangs. To ensure that the young people get a head start, CFL negotiates contracts with companies and organizations. An important aspect of the program is bringing families and other community members together into the process of assisting youth, a process in which the adults are offered job-skills training as well. Recognizing that healing the victims of gang life is just as important, CFL has skilled community mediators who show traumatized youths that an alternative life is possible.
CFL's methodology has spread to Northern Ireland, Ethiopia, and the United States.
- Convene parties in dialogue about socioeconomic factors that led to conflict
- Help individuals come to terms with past discrimination/ violence
- Expose government abuse and violence using the media
- End cycle of violence by teaching children to manage their emotions
Project Leader: Mary Gordon
Organization: Roots of Empathy (ROE)
Location: Canada
Link: www.rootsofempathy.org/Home.html
Mosaic principle: Create Communities of Peace Builders
Mosaic barrier: Lack of EmpathyAshoka Fellow Mary Gordon's program Roots of Empathy (ROE) is reducing childhood aggression in Canada by teaching emotional literacy to students and fostering in them feelings of empathy. Through a classroom program that encourages young victims of childhood violence to recognize and manage their own emotions and correctly interpret and responds to others', ROE is mitigating the damaging, emotion-deadening impact of childhood trauma that often leads to an abusive, antisocial personality.
Over the past decades Canada has experienced a sharp increase in domestic violence, child abuse, and youth violence. While a complex set of socioeconomic factors is driving this alarming phenomenon, one fundamental factor perpetuating this trend is that risk of abuse grows exponentially for victims of violence: they are most likely to become perpetuators themselves. Children who suffer parental neglect or abuse are left with an impaired ability to be sensitive to others' emotions or to be in tune with their own. Misreading the emotional cues of others, they typically respond with hostility and aggression. Existing educational programs aimed at deterring violence fail because they focus on the consequences rather than equipping individuals with the emotional literacy needed to reconnect with their feelings and to empathize with those of others.
The ROE program counters the emotional damage that children have suffered by teaching 3 to 14-year-olds the affective side of parenting. Each class "adopts" a baby for the year. With the help of a parent and trained ROE instructors, the students learn to interpret and verbalize the baby's emotions and needs from its sounds and movements. As they explore, analyze, and articulate the baby's behavior in order to form the appropriate responses, their emotional literacy develops, and they gain proficiency in identifying their own states of mind, the feelings of others, thus realizing how their actions affect others. Each school year brings a new baby and a reinforcement and expansion of this emotional healing and positive social skills, while demonstrably improving students' chances of forming "good" relationships as adults.
- Use economic incentive to get warring groups to see benefit of cooperation
- Enlist young people in interfaith cooperation to highlight shared values
Project Leader: Eboo Patel
Organization: Interfaith Youth Core
Location: U.S.
Link: www.ifyc.org
Mosaic principle: Create Communities of Peace Builders
Mosaic barrier: Lack of EmpathyIn the U.S., Ashoka Fellow Dr. Ebrahim "Eboo" Patel is engaging young people from different religions around interfaith community service. His work aligns the deeply held principles and shared values of public service, religious freedom, and pluralism to enrich society and reduce the ignorance that has made religiously motivated attacks the second-most common form of hate crime.
Since September 11, felonies motivated by religious bias have risen by 19 percent of all reported incidents in the U.S., with Sikhs and anyone else who "looked Muslim" being in danger of violent attack. Long before these attacks, Patel recognized that citizens had little appreciation of the merits of any other religion but their own, in spite of living in a multicultural, multiracial society. He also recognized the precedent set by communities at the height of the racial conflict of the civil rights era, when those that had managed to build strong relationships across the lines of diversity were less prone to collapse during times of public stress.
His organization, Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), is the first to use a service learning methodology to engage young people from different religions in community service that teaches them to live in understanding and cooperation with others. IFYC highlights the shared values between different faith communities and invites members to focus on what religions have in common by articulating how their religions "speak to" those shared values. Members also work together on public action projects—building housing, cleaning rivers—that put these values into practice.
IFYC's local and national youth programs and activities involve thousands of young people in outreach, education, and service projects in partnership with their congregations and faith communities. College students are encouraged to act as mentors and facilitators on their own campuses. IFYC is reaching out internationally as well, to interfaith projects in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.
- Train young leaders to recognize and defuse "mob mentality."
Project Leader: Andreas D'Souza
Organization: Henry Martyn Institute
Location: India
Link: www.hmiindi.com
Mosaic principle: Create Communities of Peace Builders
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceAshoka Fellow Father Andreas D'Souza is demonstrating methods to enable a national movement of organized grassroots reconciliation between India's religions—especially Hinduism and Islam—to take hold.
India's independence was scarred by a cataclysm of religious hatred, killing, and the two-way flight of millions of refugees. Periodically, this fever recurs on a large scale, most recently in 2004 in Godhra, Gujarat state. Each eruption destroys countless lives, deepens hatred, and further tears at the social fabric of the country.
D'Souza's program is designed to build community antidotes to such contagions when they sweep across the country. Neighborhood youth leaders are invited to a joint training in which they learn to spot and shoot down inflammatory rumors before they can cause further damage. Beyond tactics teaching, leaders of different faiths study different religions, distill the values in each, and learn to respect the tenets of every religion. Stereotypes, bigotry, and suspicion are tackled head on, and the common sources of misunderstanding put into perspective for the leaders.
D'Souza is aware that antidotes are not enough and that effective prevention is vitally important. Recognizing that most people want an end to community strife and are looking for their role in accomplishing this, he engages citizens in community development projects, from improving housing to cleaning drains to training youths in marketable skills. Interfaith dialogue is promoted through these initiatives. As local leaders succeed together on these projects, they are building the trust that will later help them deal with crisis.
- Unify existing peace advocacy groups to achieve scale
Project Leader: Ana Teresa Bernal Montañés
Organization: REDEPAZ (National Network of Citizen Initiatives for Peace)
Location: Colombia
Link: www.redepaz.org.co/
Mosaic principle: Create Communities of Peace Builders
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceAshoka Fellow Ana Teresa Bernal's organization REDEPAZ is strengthening the peace movement in Colombia by bringing together peace organizations of youths, women, and indigenous groups to form a strong and cohesive voice. United, these organizations are setting a common agenda and creating their own solutions to Colombia's problems instead of waiting for actors of the armed conflict to do so.
For nearly four decades, Colombia has been in the throes of armed conflict, with guerilla groups, the army, paramilitary groups, and drug cartels waging war with each other. For young people, survival often means enlisting with armed groups, thereby swelling their ranks and ensuring the continuity of conflict. As frustration grows with the unceasing turmoil, growing numbers are favoring violent options, making it increasingly urgent for concentrated efforts to keep the focus on nonviolent resolutions. But citizen peace initiatives have been solitary, scattered, low-impact efforts, and civil society has been excluded from negotiations and general discussions on the conflict.
REDEPAZ provides the critical missing piece in the search for peaceful solutions to Colombia's problems: a vehicle to engage the citizen sector. It has facilitated crucial linkages allowing a mass movement demanding peace and resisting violence, and forcing politicians and armed groups to pay attention. It has held public referenda where children and adults have had a chance to officially vote for peace, compelling political parties to include the peace mandate in their agendas, stimulating negotiations between warring factions, and moving the corporate sector to take a stand against violence.
REDEPAZ has enabled the citizen sector to establish its presence at the negotiation table. To promote the culture of peace in concrete terms it has established peace territories—civic areas that declare themselves "at peace" and adopt measures to prevent the intrusion of violence from armed conflict.
- Teach problem-solving skills to communities
- Create simulations that teach the complexity of negotiation and human rights
Project Leader: A Force More Powerful, Global
Organization: International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC)
Links: www.nonviolent-conflict.org; www.aforcemorepowerful.org
Mosaic principle: Create Communities of Peace Builders
Mosaic barrier: Group-Based InequitiesAfter the tremendous response to the Emmy-nominated PBS television series, A Force More Powerful, the creative team behind it teamed up on other projects concerning nonviolent action. The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) was born from this collaboration, co-founded by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall.
This educational foundation is developing materials and globally disseminating knowledge related to nonviolent conflict and its practice. Its materials encourage the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies to establish and defend human rights, democracy and justice worldwide, and in aiding policy change. ICNC reaches out to citizens and activists living under conditions of repression, injustice and corruption, and also educators, CSOs, media professionals, and policy makers.
To this end, the center creates simulations that teach the complexity of negotiation and human rights. It uses television broadcast networks, the Internet, and off-air and off-line media to disseminate video programming and books, as well as learning materials for schools and universities. All these resources help promote the history and ideas of nonviolent conflict in open or closed societies where rights or self-determination are at issue.
- Create awareness and training around workplace violence
Project Leader: Susan Marais-Steinman
Organization: Workplace Dignity Foundation
Location: South Africa
Link: http://www.worktrauma.org/
Mosaic principle: Create Communities of Peace Builders
Mosaic barrier: Corrupt/Inept Gov't/Public SystemsAshoka Fellow Susan Steinman is making South African workplaces equitable, trauma-free environments by establishing a work culture of dignity and respect. By exposing the extent and far-reaching damage of workplace abuse on the one hand, and building pressure groups composed of stakeholders to lobby for appropriate policy and legislation on the other, Steinman is effectively combating the neglected evil of victimization at work.
Globally, workplace violence has been spiraling, but the lack of data has meant few alarm bells going off. Victimization is typically characterized by a person being consistently persecuted physically or mentally by an individual or group against whom the "prey" cannot offer defense. Steinman's pioneering research revealed that 35 percent of South Africans have experienced workplace hostility, but few speak up because in an economic climate where unemployment is high, no one wants to risk retrenchment. Yet, the effects are widely manifest in poor worker motivation and absenteeism. Families suffer as abused wage earners go into depression, often venting their frustration on spouses and children through emotional and physical cruelty. Their children are more likely to develop into abusive adults, thereby perpetuating the cycle of violence.
Steinman has designed a three-pronged spoke to jam this destructive wheel. First: engage a cross-section of stakeholders—management, workers, unions, government—by collecting data and effectively presenting it in publications, workshops, and conferences. This provides incontrovertible evidence of the scale of abuse and its impact on both the bottom line and home fronts. Second: advocate for policy and legislative changes that provide legal recourse for victims. Third: develop and implement conflict resolution mechanisms for the workplace. Major milestones include: developing a Code of Conduct designed to eliminate workplace violence. This code has been incorporated by the labor department and by diamond blue-chip company De Beers. Steinman is now lobbying for inclusion of the code in national legislation.
- Train journalists to mediate conflict through their writing
More recently, Siebert is working in Nepal in setting up a Peace Secretariat with the government.
- Sensitize general population to struggle of indigenous peoples
- Teach dispute resolution to teens to steer them away from gangs
Project Leader: Nelsa Curbelo
Organization: Ser Paz
Location: Ecuador
Link: www.gencat.net/interior/dialegs2004/ponencias/Nelsa_Curbelo_eng.pdf
Mosaic principle: Build Nonviolent Paths to Rights, Access, & Assets
Mosaic barrier: Culture of ViolenceIn war-torn Ecuador, Ashoka Fellow Nelsa Curbelo's organization Ser Paz has launched a peace offensive led by an ever-expanding army of youth who reject violence as a solution to problems, opting instead for nonconfrontational tactics based on mutual respect and understanding. Ser Paz leverages the tremendous potential of the country's young to lead social change by encouraging them to imagine a different world and putting them in charge of making it real.
Almost half of Ecuador's population is under 21. This represents a substantial resource for the country, yet Ecuadorian youth have no voice in national forums and no decision-making roles in shaping their country's future. Even student unions have been co-opted by political parties, leaving a vacuum in youth leadership. Young people's marginalization is exacerbated by widespread poverty and lack of options that force many into the violent cultures of street gangs.
Ser Paz's strategies are founded on leveraging young people's penchant for creativity and questioning to find alternatives to the pervasive violence. Mediation workshops and community development projects provide young people game-based trainings in state-of-the-art dispute resolution methods and project planning. By ensuring that the workshop brings young people of different backgrounds together to work on action plans to being peace to their respective communities, Ser Paz breaks down traditional barriers, replacing hostility and suspicion with respect and cooperation. To facilitate youths' access to the national forum, Ser Paz is planning a national Youth Congress. It has also launched a news network, bringing together students and young journalists. Ser Paz is lobbying with the military conscription department to have its program offered as an alternative to armed service—a strategy that would bring in many new volunteers and introduce alternative conflict resolution methods into a sector that could benefit from them.
- Recruit ex-vigilantes as volunteer conflict resolvers
- Address the education needs of historically underserved, persecuted groups
- Help landless poor assert legal rights without resorting to violence
Prizes
Total value: 15 000
Competition entries
Title | Contributor | Location |
---|---|---|
Participatory Theatre for Conflict Transformation | Changemakers Archive | United States |
Palestinian-Israeli Private Sector Dialogue, through the Establishment of a Palestinian Shippers' Council | Changemakers Archive | Israel |
Learning Circles: education for displaced children in Colombia | Changemakers Archive | Colombia |