Showcase: Initiative for Peace Initiative for Peace (IfP) was founded in 2001 by a group of students and staff to promote peace in global, national and regional conflicts. The annual conference follows a year of preparation by our students, who receive training from specialists in the fields of public administration, conflict resolution and negotiation and historical perspectives in order to facilitate an event in the target country for youth leaders from both sides of a conflict.
In another development this year, the inaugural Peace Day was a student-led initiative involving IfP participants, and for the first time, local Singapore schools participated. We hope that Peace Day will become an annual event to support our students in developing their skills and provide an opportunity for student participants in the yearlong IfP programme, but who are not selected to attend the conferences, to use their skills.
The IfP conferences aim to bring youth leaders together to equip and empower them to establish and lead their own initiatives towards the prevention or resolution of conflicts within their communities. The success of each conference is therefore determined not by what happens at the event, but by what happens afterwards. For example, following the 2009 conference in Timor-Leste, two participants, Leonardo Rosa and Salles de Sousa, were inspired to set up a project to reforest the hill behind their community. In 2010, the Timor-Leste Youth for Peace organisation was created by Timorese IfP participants. They disseminate what they learn in the IfP conferences to the rest of their community.
IfP Timor-Leste
This year, for the first time, two conferences took place simultaneously as UWCSEA East students joined the IfP. The conference in Dili, TimorLeste continued in its sixth year and, following a six-year absence, IfP returned to Kandy, Sri Lanka. The focus of both conferences was peace building, but with priority given to issues relevant to each country.
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Dates: 19–24 June, following year-long preparation Who attended? 24 UWCSEA students and 40 Timorese participants What happened? Delegates were involved in discussions and the development of new skills, equipping them to put their ideas for sustainable peace into action. Also, tree planting. Sebastian Jensen Grade 12 East Campus On arrival in Dili, we thought we knew exactly what we were going to do. All the activities were planned to the minute and the schedule looked great, including icebreakers, group discussions, games, presentations and other activities involving our themes of environment, human rights, reconciliation and education. The next day, we met the local delegates, who ranged in age from 16 to 21, with English skills from fluent to almost non-existent. All had one thing in common: their love for East Timor, and all were eager to make the country a better place for everyone.
The first activities ran smoothly, but then in a small group exercise one male participant shared that he wanted to punch all the lesbians in the world. This shocked all the facilitators, and we realised we needed to include an activity to share some different opinions. However, in socially conservative East Timor, homosexuality is generally a taboo topic. For many delegates it may have been the first time that they shared their thoughts on it. However, to our surprise everyone was very open, and in the end, the participant that wanted to punch a lesbian was very quiet, before suddenly sharing his thoughts with us, “I don’t think we should deny people the right to love.” It was not our intention to spread our liberal UWC thoughts, and I feel this is not what we did. But by sharing thoughts and interpretations about topics usually off limits, and by listening to those of others, our delegates were able to step out of their comfort zone and get a glimpse of what the UWC movement is all about: sharing ideas and thoughts to create a more peaceful world. We may not have brought a large change to East Timor, or even a small one. But we did show our delegates that by sharing ideas and opinions you can achieve mutual understanding, respect and, ultimately, peace.
IfP Sri Lanka Dates: 21–26 June, following year-long preparation Who attended? 15 UWC South East Asia students and 40 Sri Lankan participants