NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
PeaceJam Project was Launched in Armenia
On December 2nd, 2010, a two-day training was held at Civil Society Institute, as a part of series of PeaceJam projects, which aims at gathering young people from different backgrounds and preparing them for making changes in their communities and the world around.
The mission of the "Peacejam Foundation" is to create young leaders committed to positive changes in themselves, their communities and the world through the inspiration of Nobel Peace Laureates. "PeaceJam" is a non-profit organization with its international headquarters located in Arvada, Colorado. Since its inception in 1996, over 600.000 youth have participated in PeaceJam programs, engaging in over one million service projects in their communities. PeaceJam has eight U.S affiliate offices as well as international affiliate offices in South Africa, Costa Rica, India, Guatemala, Argentina, and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand to Canada and East Timor. Members of the PeaceJam Foundation include people like The Dalai Lama, President of Costa Rica Oscar Arias, Human Rights' worker Adolfo Perez Esquivel, president of East Timor Jose Ramos-Horta, Human Rights' worker Shirin Ebadi, etc.
The aim of having a two-day training in Armenia is to spread the information about this type of project, so that in future Armenia and other countries from this region might also get involved in the PeaceJam activities and urge people for dialogue.
During the training, through interactive games an attempt was made to first of all give the participants clearer understanding of what is a group work and what elements make the group work more productive. Also definitions of such terms, like respect, cooperation, as well as mutual understanding and violence was given by the participants. The trainers in their turn facilitated the participant in this process, introduced the participants with the Laureats involved in the project, told the story of development of the project and called upon active participation of the youth present at the training.
Sofia Manukyan