Peace Counts visits Mahatma Gandhi

 

As part of the program Peace Counts on Tour, Uli Jäger and Nadine Heptner of the Institute for Peace Education Tübingen (ift) and Tilman Wörtz (Peace Counts/ Zeitenspiegel) traveled to India in early March. A five-day workshop drew 22 experienced professionals from Manipur, New Delhi, Maharashtra and Orissa who received an introduction to the objectives, methods, and materials of Peace Counts including the "Peace Education Package" and the "Peacebuilders Around the World" exhibit.

Given the diversity of conflicts in the region, both active and potential, the focus was on a shared search for promising approaches to peace education and appropriate peace strategies. Participants also praised the opportunity to meet each other in person and strengthen their networks.

The format of the peace education workshop was significantly different from that of those held previously in 2006 through 2008. A single group spent five days in intensive training as "Peace Counts Team India." The objective of the train-the-trainer program is to assure that activists are able to mount the exhibit in their respective regions and conduct parallel workshops with teachers, NGO employees and peacebuilders. The workshop in Delhi was only the first of several in India. The exhibit now travels to Imphal in Manipur, Kandhamal in Orissa und Mumbai in Maharashtra (April - June 2009). After an internal evaluation, an additional train-the-trainer workshop will be offered for 15-20 more professionals (July 2009). The exhibition will then travel throughout India for two years.

The key partner organization is Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World), with local support from the Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) and Act Now For Harmony And Democracy (anhad).

Peace Counts on Tour is sponsored by the German foreign ministry and the Institute for Foreign Affairs (ifa) with its "zivik" grantmaking program.