VINJETTI 1

PEACE EDUCATION
MANUAL
Lesson plans for Peace Clubs
Teachers Without Borders, Finn Church Aid
& Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum
2 Peace Education manual

INTRODUCTION

YOUTH HAVE PREVIOUSLY been depicted as The Peace Education Manual not only contributes
victims, targets, or perpetrators of violent conflict. to localisation of the landmark UN Security Council
However, on 9 December 2015, the United Nations resolutions on Youth Peace and Security highlighted
Security Council unanimously adopted resolution above, but also directly contributes to realisation of
2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security, marking the a number of targets of Sustainable Development
international community’s affirmation that youth Goal 16, and the Nelson Mandela Decade of Peace
play a significant role in the maintenance and pro- (2019–2028).
motion of global peace and security. This Peace Education Manual is made for the
In 2018, the security council unanimously adopted Peace Clubs in Uganda during spring and summer
a second resolution, Resolution 2419 on Youth, Peace 2022. The content of the manual has already been
and Security that recognizes the positive role young piloted with great success among over 480 youth in
people can play in negotiating and implementing 8 High School Peace Clubs established and operated
peace agreements and conflict prevention. The res- by Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum with
olutions urged stakeholders to take young people’s support from Finn Church Aid. Two of the Peace
views into account and facilitate their equal and full Clubs are situated in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement
participation in peace and decision making processes in Yumbe District that hosts the largest population
at all levels. of South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda.
It is in recognition of the importance of these land- This material was developed in collaboration with
mark resolutions, and in affirmation of their firm belief Finn Church Aid (FCA), Uganda Muslim Youth Devel-
in the potential of young people to advance justice, opment Forum (UMYDF) and Teachers Without Bor-
and shape lasting peace in their communities, that ders (TWB) network Finland. FCA and UMYDF have
Finn Church Aid, in partnership with Teachers Without collaborated since 2016 to promote the positive role of
Boarders and Uganda Muslim Youth Development young people in conflict prevention and peacebuild-
Forum collaborated in production of this Peace Edu- ing. Peace education as a holistic, multidisciplinary,
cation Manual. and transformative process that seeks to develop
Addressing itself a number of pertinent subjects competences that contribute to nonviolent conflict
related to peace and conflict prevention such as Coop- transformation, respect for human rights and active
eration, Conflict, Peacebuilding, Youth Participation participation1 has been an integral part of the work.
and Taking Action, the manual presents a total of 34 Finn Church Aid, Teachers Without Boarders, and
lessons aimed at enhancing youth understanding of Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum owe a
peace & security issues, and building their capacity debt of gratitude to Ms Linda Massa, and Ms Riikka
to participate meaningfully and contribute to peace Pöyhönen, both Volunteers with Teachers Without
processes. The material is based on learner-centred, Borders- Finn Church Aid for co-authoring this Peace
active and fun learning methods. The key principle in Education Manual.
this material is that every Peace Club member should
feel seen, heard and respected.

Definition .from Mainstreaming Peace Education – Methodologies,

1

Approaches and .Visions: A Practitioner’s Manual (2014: 14).

 INTRODUCTION 3

LINDA MASSA is a 34-year-old Finnish education professional who support-

ed the pilot trough the Teachers Without Borders network in Uganda in 2022.
Linda has a master’s degree in education and is specialized in teaching ethics
in her studies. In Finland, she has worked as a class teacher and special needs
education teacher for children and youth with immigrant backgrounds. For past
couple of years, she has been working on global education and youth partici-
pation in Finnish NGOs. She played a key role in the pilot’s material resource
development by mapping out peace education materials already in use and identifying important
themes for The Peace Clubs in Kampala and Yumbe districts. In Uganda she worked closely with
UMYDF and the Peace Clubs supporting their activities, organizing training and creating cohesive,
pedagogical resource material for them - the result being this peace education material.

RIIKKA PÖYHÖNEN is a History and Social Studies teacher from Finland working
as a Teachers Without Borders Volunteer in Uganda in 2022. She supported in
finalizing this manual and has worked with Peace Clubs in Kampala and Yumbe
district. Her work with UMYDF will continue regarding organizing trainings and
supporting The Peace Clubs.

of education and sports and work with local partners.

Finn Church Aid’s (FCA) operations in Uganda span
across the rights to quality education, sustainable
livelihoods and peace. FCA works cut across the
development and humanitarian context grounded
FCA on international and national frameworks. FCA envi-
sions a world consisting of resilient and just societies
Finn Church Aid (FCA) is Finland’s largest international where everyone’s right to peace, quality education
aid organization with operations in 12 countries and and sustainable livelihood has been fulfilled.
more than 70 years of experience. Largely the programs contribute access to inclu-
FCA specialises in supporting local communities sive and quality education services for children and
in three priority areas: Right to Quality Education, adolescent through strategic focus on Education in
Right to Livelihood, and Right to Peace. We work with Emergencies, TVET and linking learning to earning,
people in fragile contexts, regardless of their religious teacher education and education sector development.
beliefs, ethnic background or political convictions. Right to livelihoods focus on ensuring skilling and
FCA is a member of the Core Humanitarian Stan- employment and lifesaving support for livelihood
dard Alliance and works towards the application of recovery and right to peace to facilitate horizontal and
the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS). We have a vertical dialogue for peace between right-holders and
framework partnership agreement with ECHO, the duty-bearers promote the role of women, youth and
Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department of traditional and religious leaders in peace processes
the European Commission, UN-doners, the Ministry and conflict prevention.
4 Peace Education manual

to address root causes and effects of violent con-

flicts; breaking cycles of conflict, promoting healing,
mending broken community relationships, foster-
ing justice, and strengthening community defences
against violence.
The organization’s mission is to contribute towards
UMYDF building more resilient and just societies where every
individual’s right to peace, dignity, and prosperity is
Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum is a fulfilled. Its work addresses a number of issue areas
Non-profit, Peacebuilding and Development or- namely; Peacebuilding, Violent Extremism, Religion
ganisation founded in 2011 by Ndugwa Hassan and and Interfaith, Governance and Fragility, Youth, Peace
Ahmed Hadji after surviving the 2010 terrorist attack and Security, Gender and Peacebuilding, Livelihood
on the Kyadondo rugby grounds in Kampala, Uganda. and Economic Empowerment, Deradicalization, Dis-
The organisation works both directly and with engagement, Rehabilitation and Re-integration, and
grassroots peacebuilders and development actors Caring for Victims of Violence and their Families.

Network strengthens the professional capacity of

teachers and other education sector personnel both
abroad and in Finland.
TWB operates under Finn Church Aid (FCA) as one
of its volunteer networks. The network’s volunteers
primarily serve FCA’s development cooperation pro-
TWB grams that require support to develop the quality of
education. The volunteers support pre- and in-service
Teachers Without Borders (TWB) Finland acts in training, coaching, and mentoring local colleagues:
response to the global learning crisis, promoting teachers, principals, career guidance counsellors
inclusive and equitable quality education for all. Qual- and other actors in the sector from early childhood
ified and motivated teachers are the key to quality and basic education levels to vocational and higher
education. TWB contributes to this by building on education, onsite or via distance. Quality professional
Finnish education expertise, international collab- volunteer work, mutual respect and two-way learning
oration, and contextual needs and resources. The are at the core of TWB’s work.
 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 Introduction
9 Notes for a facilitator

8 ORIENTATION
3 lessons

11 1. Introduction 90 min. 16 3. Key words and goals 90 min.

11 1.1. Warm-up: Welcoming & Round of names 16 3.1. Warm up: Speed dating (20’)
(15’) 16 3.2. Gallery walk – Goals (40’)
11 1.2. Story of a humming bird (20’) 17 3.3. Key word alias (30’)
12 1.3. Expectations, concerns and questions
(40’)
13 1.4. Cool down: Round of feelings (15’)

14 2. Working together 90 min.

14 2.1. Warm-up: Name slap (15’)
14 2.2. Boda bodas (45’)
15 2.3. Group contract (30’)

19 COOPERATION
8 lessons

19 4. Identity & understanding self 90 min. 27 7. Conversation styles 90 min.

19 4.1. Warm up: Circling (15’) 27 7.1. Warm up: Communication styles (30’)
19 4.2. Who are you? (25’) 27 7.2. Types of conversation (30’)
20 4.3. Identity wheel (50’) 28 7.3. Controlled dialogue (30’)

5. Biases, prejudices and stereotypes

22 30 8. Dialogue 90 min.
90 min. 30 8.1. Warm up: Formula (10’)
22 5.1. Warm up: Riddle (20’) 30 8.2. Principles and best practices of dialogue
22 5.2. Draw & Describe (50’) (20’)
23 5.3. Cool down: Video about gender 31 8.3. Role play: Building peace with dialogue
stereotypes (20’) (40’)
32 8.4. Cool down: Where do you stand? (20’)
24 6. Emotions 90 min.
24 6.1. Warm up: Feeling walk (20’) 34 9. Non-verbal communication 90 min.
24 6.2. Pantomime (25’) 34 9.1. Warm up: Match Up (20’)
25 6.3. Helpful/harmful (30’) 34 9.2. What does the body language tell? (40’)
26 6.4. Cool down: Round of feelings (15’) 35 9.3. Silent line (30’)
6 Peace Education manual

37 10. Non-violent communication 90 min. 44 12. Diversity & respect 90 min.

37 10.1. Warm up (10’) 44 12.1. Warm up: Potatoes (25’)
37 10.2. Non-violent communication (20’) 45 12.2. What does respect mean? (15’)
39 10.3. Theatre of the Oppressed (60’) 45 12.3. Respect the diversity! (30’)
46 12.4. Where do you stand? – Cooperation (20’)
11. Equality & understanding others
40
90 min.
40 11.1. Warm up: What do we have in common?
(30’)
41 11.2. Privilege walk – role play (60 mins)

49 CONFLICT
8 lessons

49 13. Conflict versus violence 90 min. 63 17. Conflict analysis 90 min.

49 13.1. Warm up: Tropical rainstorm (15’) 63 17.1. Warm up: Pair discussion (10’)
50 13.2. Conflict versus violence (30’) 64 17.2. Conflict analysis (40’)
51 13.3. News review (40’) 65 17.3. Conflict tree (40’)
51 13.4. Cool down: Thumbs up, thumbs down
(5’) 66 18. Negotiation and mediation 90 min.
66 18.1. Warm up: Betty Bigombe (25’)
52 14. Causes of conflict 90 min. 66 18.2. Negotiation – pair argument (35’)
52 14.1. Warm up: Lap sit (10’) 68 18.3. Mediation – pair argument with
52 14.2. The Blind men and the elephant (25’) mediators (30’)
53 14.3. Spider web – What causes conflicts? (45’)
19. Reconciliation and problem solving
69
55 15. Violence 90 min. 90 min.
55 15.1. Warm up: Have you ever? (20’) 69 19.1. Warm up: The knot (25’)
56 15.2. Gallery walk - Pyramid of hate (50’) 69 19.2. Reconciliation flower (45’)
58 15.3. Levels of violence (20’) 70 19.3. Where do you stand? – Conflict (20’)

60 16. Conflict styles 90 min.

60 16.1. Warm up (15’)
60 16.2. Pull activity (35’)
62 16.3. Living statues - Different conflict styles
(40’)
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 7

73 PEACEBUILDING
6 lessons

73 20. What is peace? 90 min. 83 23. Peacebuilders as role models 90 min.

73 20.1. Warm up: Two tigers (25’) 83 23.1. Warm up: Malala Yousufzai (15’)
74 20.2. Definitions and indicators of peace (35’) 84 23.2. Introducing peacebuilders (45’)
74 20.3. Positive and negative peace (30’) 85 23.3. Party with the famous peacebuilders
– role game (30’)
76 21. Peacebuilding 90 min.
76 21.1. Warm up: The Parable of the Quarry 8624. Meeting or a field visit with a local
(25’) peace builder(s)
76 21.2. Mind map – Peacebuilding (30’)
88 25. Ideal future 90 min.
78 21.3. Head, hands, heart – our knowledge,
skills and attitudes (35’) 88 25.1. Warm up: Think, breathe, peace
– peace meditation (15’)
89 25.2. Visualizing our ideal future (55’)
79 22. Reflecting of peace 90 min.
90 25.3. Where do you stand? – Peacebuilding
79 22.1. Warm up: Speed dating – Peacebuilding
(20’) (20’)
79 22.2. Peace Poetry (50’)
82 22.3. Cool down: Round of feelings (20’)

93 YOUTH PARTICIPATION
4 lessons

93 26.1. Warm up: Follow the leader (15’) 100 28. My right to participate 90 min.
93 26.2. Who decides? (40’) 100 28.1. Warm up (15’)
95 26.3. My Power as a Young Person (30’) 100 28.2. Children’s rights (45’)
95 26.4. Cool down: Thumbs up, thumbs down 101 28.3. My SWOT (30’)
(5’)

96 27. Civic participation 90 min.

96 27.1. Warm up: Vanessa Nakate (15’)
97 27.2. Gallery walk – How to participate? (45’)
98 27.3. Alley of conscience (30’)
8 Peace Education manual

105 TAKING ACTION 6 lessons

105 29. Identifying the needs 90 min. 113 32. Taking action & making change 90 min.
105 29.1. Warm up (15’) 113 32.1. Warm up (15’)
105 29.2. Community walk (40’) 113 32.2. Planning Peace club activities (60’)
106 29.3. Community mapping (35’) 114 32.3. Cool down: Next steps Round of feelings
(15’)
107 30. Participatory action research 90 min.
107 30.1. Warm up (15’) 115 33. What's next? (90 minutes)
107 30.2. Understanding our communities 115 33.1. Warm up (15’)
through participatory action research (30’) 115 33.2. Planning Peace Club activities (60’)
109 30.3. Planning youth Participatory Action 115 33.3. Meeting or a field visit with local peace
Research projects (45’) builder(s)
116 33.4. Opportunities after peace club (50’)
110 31. Advocating for a cause 90 min.
110 31.1. Warm up: What influences our opinions? 117 34.Reflection & closing ceremony 90 min.
(15’) 117 34.1. Warm up (15’)
110 31.2. What is advocacy? (10’) 117 34.2. Round of feelings (25’)
111 31.3.Imaginary demonstration (45’) 117 34.3. Closing ceremony (50’)
112 31.4. Where do you stand?
– Youth participation and taking action (15’)

119 Attachments
145 Sources
 9

NOTES FOR A FACILITATOR

The lessons Key principles

• are suitable for 12-year-olds and older, unless • Learner-centered learning: Involving participants
age-sensitivity is specifically mentioned. at every stage
• can be held outdoors, just prepare by bringing ʖ .e.g., creating the group contract and ground

needed materials outside! rules together, continuous reflection, sharing

of responsibilities, evaluation…
• Inclusion
Key principles • Pair/group discussions & sharing thoughts and
• Every peace club member should be seen, heard experiences
and respected ʖ .equal opportunities to participate

• Creating safe space for the participants by building • Mixing the seats, groups and pairs actively through-
trust and strengthening the group spirit out the year
• Using learner-centred and active learning methods ʖ be sensitive to the context

• Involving the participants at every stage from cre- • Visualization and concretization
ating the ground rules together to sharing respon- • Share the need to observe and honour confiden-
sibilities and to reflection and evaluation tiality within the group.
• Considering inclusiveness carefully
• Sharing thoughts and experiences in pair and group
discussions When facilitating a discussion
• Mixing the groups, pairs and seats actively through- • Prepare thoroughly by thinking about your own
out the year relationship to the issues involved and go through
• Visualizing and concretizing challenging topics possible risks.
• Cherishing and honouring confidentiality within • Be neutral: it’s not your role to advance a particular
the group cause or argument.
• Considering age- and emotion-sensitiveness by • Remind the group about the agreed group contract
making sure that the activities are suitable for all and ground rules.
the participants • Ensure that everyone has their voice heard (or the
opportunity to pass).
Before each lesson • Listen carefully and follow up with questions if
• Read the objectives and activities of the lesson. needed (e.g., “I’m hearing you say x, is that right?”).
• Arrange space to move in the classroom (if you • Guide the participants to not repeat same points,
stay inside). but to add to them.
• Prepare all the materials. • Deal with irrelevant contributions for example by
• Ensure that participants coming for the meeting using “a parking space”: write the ideas you’re not
have a notebook and a pen. focusing at the moment on the blackboard or flip
chart and return to them later. This way the partic-
ipants are reassured that their points will be heard.
If you have a group of more
Source: IGC Essentials of Dialogue
than 30 participants
• Divide the group, if necessary.
• Ø.e.g., you can form 2–3 circles and play the same
game simultaneously with two or more groups
10 Peace Education manual
 ORIENTATION 11

Orientation
3 lessons

1. INTRODUCTION 90 minutes

Objectives • To get to know each-others, break the ice and build trust
• To motivate and engage the participants in Peace club
activities
• To understand the concept of a Peace club
• Share expectations and concerns

Materials • Blackboard/Flip charts or other large papers

• Sticky notes/writing paper
• Pens and markers/chalk
• Small ball (or equivalent)

Notes for a facilitator • Take time to get to know the students and students to
get to know each other to build a trusting environment.

1.1. Warm-up: Welcoming & Round of names (15’)

Stand in a circle so everyone can see each other. Introduce yourself and welcome the partic-
ipants warmly into the Peace club.
Ask participants to say their names and make a specific gesture that characterize them. Ask
the whole group to repeat the name and the gesture after each participant.
Variation: Instead of gesture you can add an adjective or an animal that starts with the same
letter as their first name or their super power (e.g., listening, being funny, running…).
If you want to concentrate on learning the names, each participant can also repeat the
names of everyone who introduced themselves before them.

1.2. Story of a humming bird (20’)

Ask the participants to take a seat or other comfortable position. Motivate and empower
them with a fairy tale “Story of a humming bird” by Wangari Maathai, a Nobel laureate and
internationally acclaimed environmental policy and women’s rights activist from Kenya. The
story can be read out loud or watched from YouTube.
We are constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get
completely overwhelmed.
12 Peace Education manual

The story of the hummingbird is about this huge forest being consumed by a fire.
All the animals in the forest come out and they are transfixed as they watch the forest
burning and they feel very overwhelmed, very powerless, except this little hummingbird.
It says, ‘I’m going to do something about the fire!’ So, it flies to the nearest stream
and takes a drop of water. It puts it on the fire, and goes up and down, up and down,
up and down, as fast as it can.
In the meantime, all the other animals, much bigger animals like the elephant with
a big trunk that could bring much more water, they are standing there helpless. And
they are saying to the hummingbird, ‘What do you think you can do? You are too little.
This fire is too big. Your wings are too little and your beak is so small that you can only
bring a small drop of water at a time.’
But as they continue to discourage it, it turns to them without wasting any time and
it tells them, ‘I am doing the best I can.’
And that to me is what all of us should do. We should always feel like a humming-
bird. I may feel insignificant, but I certainly don’t want to be like the animals watching
as the planet goes down the drain. I will be a hummingbird; I will do the best I can.”

Debrief and discuss with the group:

• Why didn’t the other animals do anything?
• Did the humming bird make a difference?
• What could the hummingbird do to encourage other animals to participate?
• Have you encountered a problem that you felt you couldn’t do anything about?
• Why would it be good if we all acted like the hummingbird?
• How does this story relate to peace building?

In the end you can tell, that conflicts are like the forest fire in this fairy tale: they may seem
impossible to solve and you may feel overwhelmed and powerless in front of them. But we
can all be humming birds in our own communities: we can try our best and inspire others.
Hopefully after the Peace Club we will have a herd of hummingbirds building peace together!

1.3. Expectations, concerns and questions (40’)

A. Continue by asking the participants, what they know about Peace Clubs. Let them share
their thoughts and experiences first. Then briefly describe the goals and contents of the club.
Engage the participants by telling some of the upcoming highlights of the Peace club activities
(e.g., meetings, field visits, games and plays, getting a certificate…).

B. Prepare 3 different flip chart papers or share the black board in three sectors saying “Ex-
pectations,” “Concerns” and “Questions”.
• Explain that “expectations” refers to what we hope to get out of the Peace Club.
• Explain that “concerns” refers to what we are most concerned or worried about the
Peace Club activities.
• Explain that “questions” refers to what they would still like to know about the Peace
Club.

If you have sticky notes, share them to all of the participants and ask them to write down or
draw at least one thought for each topic. Ask them to write/draw only one idea on each note.
If they have more ideas on the same topic, they must write each idea on separate notes. When
 ORIENTATION 13

all the participants have written their answers, ask them to put them on the corresponding
flip charts.
If you don’t have sticky notes, give the participants a moment to collect their thoughts (they
can use notebooks/writing paper if needed) and then come and write their thoughts directly
on flipcharts or the black board.

C. When all the participants have written their answers, cluster similar answers together by
moving the sticky notes or using markers or figures. Then review the clusters and discuss:
• How can we meet the expectations? (Share the purpose and objectives of the Peace
Club. Respond also to expectations that will not be met in the Peace Club activities.)
• How can we respond to the concerns? (Tell and make sure that technical concerns that
participants suggest can be addressed through the ground rules, which are made in
the next lesson.)
• Answer the questions. (If you do not know something, tell the participants that you
are trying to find out the answer for the next lesson.)

1.4. Cool down: Round of feelings (15’)

End the lesson standing again in a circle. Ask everyone to share their current feelings with a
one word or a short speech, depending on how much you have time left. Divide the turns by
throwing a small ball (or another soft object) from one participant to another. At the end of
their turn, the speaker says out loud to whom they are throwing the ball next.
14 Peace Education manual

2..WORKING TOGETHER 90 minutes

Objectives • To build trust and create a safe space

• To create a group contract and ground rules for
working together

Materials • Paper roll (e.g., rolled up newspaper)

• Flipcharts/large papers/blackboard
• Pens and markers/chalk
• Optional: Paints, crayons etc

Notes for a facilitator • Make sure that also the shy students get their voice
heard.

2.1. Warm-up: Name slap (15’)

Form a circle. You can either stand or sit on chairs. If needed, make a quick name round before
starting the game. Decide together a body part, where it is okay to touch softly with a paper
roll. It can be, for example, a shoulder if standing or a knee if sitting.
One participant (“A”) goes in the middle with a paper roll. Another participant (“B”) starts
by saying a name of a third person (“C”). The one in the middle (“A”) tries to now slap the
named person (“C”) with the newspaper softly. However, C tries to say the name of yet another
person ("D") before the slap. Then, A may not hit C but D. Of course, D can say the name of
yet another person and the game continues. If A is fast enough to slap the currently named
person, before they can say the name of another participant, this person has to take up A's
position in the middle, while A may stand in the circle again.
If necessary, remind participants that only soft and gentle slaps are allowed.

2.2. Boda bodas (45’)

A..Ask participants to explain, what kind of means of transport boda boda is (fast, sneaking
around cars and buses, sometimes quite dangerous manoeuvres…etc). The name of the ex-
ercise can vary depending on the context e.g., TukTuk.

B. .Ask participants to pair up, with one who will act as the driver and the other one as the
passenger. Ask the passengers to close their eyes and to put their hands on the shoulder of
the driver as the driver will be driving them across the room emulating the boda boda drivers.
After a couple of minutes, ask to change roles.

C.. At the end, ask all participants to take a seat in circle and debrief first in pairs and then
together as a group:
• .How do you feel? (e.g., with one word representing their feeling right now).
• .What happened during the activity? What did you do? How did you react? Was it
difficult to keep the eyes closed? Why?
 ORIENTATION 15

• H. ow do you interpret this with the key elements/values that we need for working
together? Why it is important to have ground rules and principles?
• .How you would like to feel in the Peace Club meetings? What makes a situation or a
space safe and inclusive?
Based on their answers, start writing key elements/principles needed for them to work as a
group and achieve the objectives of the Peace Club (communication, trust, inclusion, nonvi-
olence, respect, etc.).

D..Once all written on the flipchart/blackboard, ask if anybody has anything else to add and
suggest you create a group contract and ground rules for the Peace Club on the basis of these
key elements and principles.

Source: Youth4peace training toolkit

2.3. Group contract (30’)

A..Explain that “group contract” refers to what kind of rules we will follow to create an open
and respectful atmosphere within the Peace Club and what kind of methods and routines
are used for working together. Look at the written key elements and principles and consider
how they could be formulated into a group contract and ground rules. Make sure that the key
ground rules are written as positive statements (“do’s” instead of “don’ts”) that promote right
behaviours.

B..Discuss and agree also on common working methods and routines.

You might think, for example:
• .Do the participants have some rotating responsibilities? E.g., preparing the classroom,
instructing warm-up games, assisting the patron, cleaning up…
• .Do the participants need to bring something to the meetings?
• E.g., notebook, pen…
• How participants can help facilitators in enforcing the ground rules?

C.. Get a consensus of the group contract and ground rules adopted for the Peace club. Ask
some of the participants to write down the group contract and rules on a flipchart or other
large paper. If you want, you can also take time to colour and decorate the paper or ask the
participants to approve the contract with their signature or handprint. The group contract may
be visible at each peace club meeting.
16 Peace Education manual

3. .KEY WORDS AND GOALS 90 minutes

Objectives • To strengthen the group spirit

• To understand the key words used in the following peace
education modules
• To set personal and common goals for the Peace Club

Materials • Flipcharts/large papers/blackboard

• Sticky notes (or equivalent)
• Pens and markers/chalk
• Key word cards (prepared as a part of the lesson)
• Optional: Music (phone, laptop, speakers)

Notes for a facilitator • Mix the groups and make sure students work in different
groups for different tasks.

3.1. Warm up: Speed dating (20’)

Play some music and tell participants to move around the space. Ask participants to find a
pair (or optionally a small group) every time the music stops. If you don’t have music, clap
your hands when you want the participants to stop moving and find a pair. Once they are in
pairs, provide a guiding question they can ask each other to start getting to know the person
who is in front of them. Examples of questions:
• Why you wanted to join a peace club?
• .What do you like to do in your free time?
• .What kind of family do you have?
• What is your biggest dream?
• .Who is your peace superhero?
• What is your biggest fear? etc…

Give them a few minutes before starting the music again and finding a new pair. In between
pairs the participants can just mingle around and dance if they feel like.
This method can be used for various topics when you want participants to exchange their
views, or if you want to stimulate an exchange of thoughts before collecting the ideas (e.g.,
perception of an issue, evaluation, etc.).

3.2. Gallery walk – Goals (40’)

A..Write each main theme of the Peace club on a large piece of paper (or a divided black board):
1. Cooperation
2. Conflict
3. Peacebuilding
4. Youth participation
5. Taking action

Hang or place the themes in various places around the classroom or outside to create five
 ORIENTATION 17

stations. If you have a big group, you can have 2-3 stations with the same theme. If you have
only a blackboard, you can make ‘thinking stations’ around the classroom and only the recorders
visit the blackboard to read the answers of others and write down new answers.
Share the participants into five groups and each group starts at a different station. Ask the
groups to decide who is a recorder or tell them to switch recorders at each station. At the first
station the group discusses and writes down learning goals related to the theme on the paper or
blackboard. Walk around to monitor the groups and help them if necessary. After 3-5 minutes,
have the groups rotate to the next station. Participants read and discuss the previous group’s
response and add content of their own. Repeat until all groups have visited each station. In the
end have participants to go back to their first station to read all that was added to their first
response. In the end discuss together what was learned and guide the participants to think which
goals would be most interesting and relevant to them.

B.. After the exercise, tell participants to take out notebooks and pens. Ask them to think and write
down, what are the 3 most important goals in the peace club for them in the light of the introduction
to peace given to them earlier. The goals can be shared in pairs or in small groups. The goals may
be recalled throughout the year and they will be reflected in the end of the Peace club. If you want,
you can also decide some common goal for the group. That can be for example something, what
the group wants to achieve together e.g., organize a peace event in their school or community.

3.3. Key word alias (30’)

A..Ask the participants to identify key words from the previous exercise ‘Gallery walk’. Collect
and write down the keywords on the cards or small notes as they suggest them. If necessary,
explain the words and direct the discussion to the desired themes. In the end add missing key
words if needed. Examples of key words:
• cooperation, communication, dialogue, listening
• stereotype, prejudice
• empathy, emotion
• equality, diversity, respect
• conflict, violence
• peace, peacebuilding
• power, participation, advocacy

B..After going through the key words and writing them down in cards or notes, pair up the par-
ticipants and start playing Alias. In Alias you have to say things in “other words”. The idea is to
explain words using synonyms, opposites or clues so that your pair (or team mates) guess as
many words as possible.
In this variation all of the pairs play at the same time. Ask the pairs to decide who explains
first and share each pair one word card faced down. Keep rest of the word cards in your hands
or place them face down on the table in front of the class. Determine the time used in the game
(e.g., 10 minutes) and indicate, when the time starts. After explaining the first word successfully,
the other pair retrieves a new word from you or the table and leaves the one explained. Keep
track on the paper or blackboard of how many words each pair has explained. The pair that has
explained the most words in a given amount of time wins. If you have time, you can change
pairs and repeat the game.

C. .End the class by saying that you will concentrate on the cooperation-module next. If you
wish, you can put the related keyword cards on the board.
18 Peace Education manual
 COOPERATION 19

Cooperation
3 lessons

4. IDENTITY & UNDERSTANDING SELF 90 minutes

Objectives • To explore the concept of identity

• To help youth identify and understand the various factors
that compose and shape their identity
• To explore the diversity in their own communities and
build and strengthen relationships among youth of dif-
ferent identities

Materials • Flipchart/large paper/blackboard

• Markers/chalk
• Pen and paper
• Chairs

Notes for a facilitator • If you are unable to show the video, you can tell the stu-
dents that primary school children were asked to draw a
surgeon, fire fighter and army pilot. Only 5 children draw
females and 61 draw males.

4.1. Warm-up: Circling (15’)

Take chairs and form a circle (if you are outside, you can stand and mark everyone’s places on
the ground). One participant is left without a seat and goes in the middle to tell something
that defines them and answers a question “Who are you?” (e.g., “I am a girl/ 15-year-old/
Ugandan/Muslim/soccer player/Peace club member/brother…” etc). Those who identify with
the same phrase stand up and change places with each other. The one in the middle tries
to steal a seat. The last one without a seat stays in the middle and is the next one to share
something about their identity.
Keep in mind that some aspects of the identity can be sensitive or personal for some par-
ticipants. Remind them that they don’t need to share anything that they don’t want to (e.g.,
religion, family relations…)

4.2. Who are you? (25’)

A. .Begin by explaining the participants that the purpose of this session is to explore what we
mean by ‘identity’. Explain to participants that “Who am I?” is a question we all ask at some
time in our lives. It is an especially critical question for a Peacebuilder. As we search for answers
to this question, we begin to understand and define ourselves.
20 Peace Education manual

B. .Ask participants to group in pairs and for the next two minutes: person A keeps asking person
B “Who are you?” and person B has to reply with one word. What will most probably happen
is that they will first say obvious elements about themselves (name, age, gender, physical
features, etc.) but then they will have to start sharing on more personal things (naming things
they like, etc.). After two minutes, persons A and B exchange roles. Two minutes look short,
but you will see that your participants will struggle, so make sure you ask them to keep asking
and replying for two minutes.

C.. Debrief & discuss: You can reflect with the group on how we might tend to first share the
“visible” or obvious about ourselves before going more into depth, and on the challenge of
defining ourselves with just a series of words (without explaining). You can also discuss if they
learned anything unexpected about the person, they had in front of them when it was their
turn to ask and how it changed their perspective on the other.

Source: Youth4peace training toolkit

4.3. Identity wheel (50’)

A. .Ask the participants to think about the first two activities of the game and the answers that
came to their mind when thinking who they are. Ask what kind of categories they identify from
those phrases. Categories that will emerge may include; family-based categories (e.g., daughter,
sister, son, brother, mother), our hobbies and Professions (e.g., Footballer, Accountant, Farm-
er, Teacher, Business man), and Physical characteristics based (e.g., Tall, Short, Slender, Dark
skinned) others may be based on gender, religion, race, age, nationality, place of residence or
birth, etc.
Point out that while there may be components of our identities that are internal, the vast
majority are generated by the society in which we live. The identity is not static but in constant
change. Remind the participants that:
• .Some aspects of our identities are consistent over our lives e.g., gender, biological
parents, siblings, etc., while others change as we gain skills and have different roles in
life e.g., marital status.
• Some aspects of our identities feel very central to who we are no matter where we are,
while others may be less central. E.g., One individual may feel very strongly about their
ethnicity and have weaker feelings or attachment to their religious identity.

B..Everyone creates an identity wheel for themselves. Participants should work on their own
throughout the activity and should never feel pressured to share anything about themselves
that they wish to keep private.
Use an example (some fictional or historical character) to demonstrate the way that the
wheel should be filled in. If you want you can for example read a story and then fill the identity
wheel together with a group as the main character. After the example ask the participants to
fill in the wheel for themselves.
 COOPERATION 21
COOPERATION 21

Example of identity
Example wheel wheel
of identity
Mother
Gender tongue

Dream
career Parents

I am good at... Number of

siblings

Hobbies Religion

Figure by Figure
Pilvi Ahtinen
by Pilvi Ahtinen

You canYoualsocan alsoon

mark mark
the on the identity
identity wheelcentral
wheel how how central (theon
(the dots dots
theon the example)
example) the sector
the sector is is
in your in
lifeyour life bydots,
by using usingcolours
dots, colours or numbers.
or numbers.

C. Debrief
C. Debrief & discuss
& discuss in pairsinorpairs
smallorgroups:
small groups:
• What•didWhatyoudid youabout
learn learn yourself?
about yourself?
•
• Which parts of the wheel were easiest/hardest
Which parts of the wheel were easiest/hardest to fill out?
to fill out?
• Areimportant
• Are there there important
aspectsaspects
of yourofidentity
your identity thatfit
that don’t don’t fit on
on the the wheel?
wheel?
•
• How is our identity formed?
How is our identity formed?
• How •areHow
our are our identities
identities influenced
influenced by howby wehow weothers
think think others
see us?see us?
• Toextent
• To what what extent
are we are we defined
defined by our by our talents
talents and interests?
and interests? By ourBy our membership
membership in in
a particular ethnic group? By our social and economic class?
a particular ethnic group? By our social and economic class? By our religion? By the By our religion? By the
nation
nation in whichinwewhich
live?we live?
•
• How do our identities inform inform
How do our identities our values,
our values, ideas,
ideas, and and actions?
actions?
• Inways
• In what whatmight
ways wemight we assume
assume different
different identities
identities in different
in different contexts?
contexts?
• How do we manage multiple
• How do we manage multiple identities? identities?

You canYou
endcan
theend the by
lesson lesson by asking
asking each pair/group
each pair/group one highlight
one highlight of theirofdiscussion.
their discussion.

Source:Peace
Source: UMYDF UMYDF PeaceEssentials
Manual, Manual, Essentials of dialogue
of dialogue
22 Peace Education manual

5. BIASES, PREJUDICES AND STEREOTYPES 90 minutes

Objectives • To become aware of their own and others’ biases, prej-

udices and stereotypes
• Be aware of the negative consequences of prejudices
and stereotypes

Materials • Computer (and optionally projector or television) to watch

a video
• Notebooks/drawing paper
• Pens

Notes for a facilitator • Remember to mix the groups, you can find different games
for forming groups in attachment 1

5.1. Warm up: Riddle (20’)

A. Present the riddle followed by the questions that will reveal prejudicial and stereotypical
thinking.

A van driver whistles to a nurse on the street then swerves to miss a parked car and
crashes into a young boy and his father who are driving to school. The father dies at
the scene. The boy is transported to the hospital, taken immediately into surgery...
but the surgeon steps out of the operating room and says, "I can't operate on this
boy - he is my son”!

B. Ask the participants and discuss:

• How can the boy be the surgeon’s son?
• Is the van driver a man or woman?

• How can the boy be the surgeon’s son?

– The surgeon can be a woman and it is her son.

• Is the van driver a man or woman?

– Unknown – it could be man or woman. He or she could be whistling at a male
or female nurse.

Highlight that it is important to be aware of our own prejudicial and stereotypical attitudes
and to think about how they will make other’s feel.

5.2. Draw & Describe (50’)

A. Ask the participants to take out their notebooks or share them paper and pens. Give them
drawing tasks and allow a few minutes to draw each picture.
 COOPERATION 23

Instruct them to draw for example:

• a ballet dancer
• Ugandan
• a president
• a Muslim
• a soccer player
• American

B. After drawing ask them to write at least 3 descriptive words below each picture (e.g., beau-
tiful, strong, a man/ a woman, lazy, loud, small, polite, rude...etc). Instruct them to choose the
first words that come to their minds.

C. Divide small groups of 4-5 participants. Ask them to show their drawings and descriptive
words to each other, compare them and discuss:
• What do the drawings/descriptions have in common?
• What are the differences between them?
• Are you surprised of someone’s drawing/description?
• How your own drawing/description could be different?
• Are all ballet dancers/presidents/Ugandans etc. similar than your drawing/description?
• How would you feel as a ballet dancer/president/Ugandan if you saw these drawings/
descriptions?
• Did you notice some of your own biases or stereotypes while drawing or writing?
• Did the riddle in the beginning of the class affected your drawing/writing?

5.3. Cool down: Video about gender stereotypes (20’)

Tell, that it is understandable that we all have some biases, prejudices and stereotypes as
they start forming already in very early age. The key is to become aware of our own biases,
prejudices and stereotypes so we can try to break them.
Watch a video Inspiring the future: Redraw the Balance. The video provocatively captures,
how early in their education children already define for example career opportunities as male
or female. When asked to draw a firefighter, surgeon and a pilot, 61 pictures were drawn of
men and only 5 were female.

Debrief and discuss:

• How do you feel after watching the video?
• Were you surprised when the firefighter, surgeon and pilot arrived the classroom?
• Can you give examples of biases you have learned through media, school, home, a
religious institution, a cultural institution/norm or other spaces?
• Can you give examples of stories of bias you have heard or experienced in your com-
munity or school? Demonstrating how the story started and how it escalated.
• Have you ever proved any of your own biases, prejudices or stereotypes wrong? How
did it feel like?
• How does it feel when someone has assumptions of you or people with similar identity?
• How could we try to break the stereotypes?
• Why is it important for a Peacebuilder to know who they are, their perceptions, as well
as their biases?
24 Peace Education manual

6. EMOTIONS 90 minutes

Objectives • To practice emotional skills, e.g., identifying and managing

their own emotions and behaviours
• To learn to recognize the feelings and perspectives of
others

Materials • Flipchart/blackboard
• Pens and markers/chalk
• Emotion cards/notes

Notes for a facilitator • Prepare emotion cards or notes.

6.1. Warm up: Feeling walk (20’)

Ask the participants to start moving freely around the space. Tell them to stop, when you
clap your hands (or use some other signal) and name an emotion or feeling (e.g., frustrated,
excited, sad, angry, worried, happy, nervous...). Tell the participants to imagine that they are
feeling the chosen emotion and start moving again as they were feeling that way, using body
language as well as facial expressions. Ask them to notice how their body feels and changes
as they act out the emotion. You can also help to point out some of these movements and
signs by asking questions like:
• Do you drag your feet?
• Do you have a slight bounce in your step?
• Are you moving fast or slow?
• Are you slouched over or do you hold your head up high?
• What are your hands and/or arms doing?
• What does your facial expression look like?
• Are you making any noises as you walk? (e.g., sighing, grumbling, etc.)

In the end ask the participants to shake all the feelings away and come and sit in a circle.

Debrief and discuss together or in pairs:

• How did your walking change with different emotions?
• Where in your body did you feel different emotions?

6.2. Pantomime (25’)

A. Ask the participants to name as many feelings as they can. Record their responses on the
flip chart or a blackboard, calling attention to the fact that these are the names of feelings.

B. Divide the participants into smaller groups. One of the group members starts and decid-
ed one feeling from the list on the board. S/he starts to pantomime (act without words)
the feeling they’ve decided using body language and facial expressions. The other group
members try to guess, which emotion s/he is expressing. Change roles so that everyone
 COOPERATION 25

gets to do pantomime at least once. Walk around to monitor the groups and help them if
necessary. If the participants are shy to act or don’t know how to express the feelings, you
can give few examples at start, e.g.
• Happy (clap your hands, laugh)
• Sad (rub your eyes, pretend to cry)
• Surprised (jump, raise your arms)
• Afraid (shiver, bite your nails)
• Angry (stomp your feet, grit your teeth)

C. If you have time, you can continue with a competition. Give one participant a feeling that
s/he will pantomime in front of everyone. All the groups try to guess the feeling. The group
which guesses the feeling first, gets a point. The one who guessed right, is the next one to
do pantomime.

D. Debrief and discussion:

• Is it easy to read body language and facial expressions?
• Which emotion was the hardest to act our or recognize? Which one was the easiest?
• In which situations would be good to use also words? (You can point out that some-
times body language without using words can be confusing, e.g., people might cry
when they are happy, sad, mad, frustrated, afraid, etc., so sometimes using words
helps to understand emotions).

6.3. Helpful/harmful (30’)

Write down situations on the blackboard or flipchart and ask the participants think what they
would feel in those situations, e.g.:
1. What do you feel when you're blamed for something you didn't do?
2. .What do you feel when someone keeps fouling you on the soccer field?
3. .What do you feel if you are expecting to see a friend, and s/he backs out at the last
moment for no good reason?
4..How does you feel when you work really hard for something and you succeed?
5. .What do you feel when your team keeps losing?
6. .What do you feel when a teacher praises your work?
7. .What do you feel when you do poorly on an exam because you didn't study?
8. .What do you feel when your parent hasn't understood you?

B. Divide the participants into small groups or pairs and share them paper and pens. For each
of the situations given above, ask them to discuss and answer following three questions:
1. Name the feeling.
2. What's a helpful way to deal with it?
3. What's a harmful way to deal with it?

C. Debrief and discuss: Come together. Each group presents at least one of the situations:
names the feeling and shares the helpful and harmful ways to deal with it. Other groups can
add and comment, if necessary.

Source: https://www.goodcharacter.com/middle_school/handling-emotions/
26 Peace Education manual

6.4. Cool down: Round of feelings (15’)

End the lesson standing in a circle. Ask everyone to share their current feelings with a one word
or a short speech, depending on how much you have time left. Divide the turns by throwing
a small ball (or another soft object) from one participant to another. At the end of their turn,
the speaker says out loud to whom they are throwing the ball next.
 COOPERATION 27

7. CONVERSATION STYLES 90 minutes

Objectives • To equip youth with key knowledge, skills and attitudes

for better communication
• To explore different types of conversation and definitions
of dialogue
• Introduce youth to principles of dialogue and active
listening
• To understand and practice different communication
styles

Materials • Flipchart/blackboard
• Pens and markers/chalk

Notes for a facilitator • Remember to mix the groups. You can find games for
forming the groups in attachment 1.

7.1. Warm up: Communication styles (30’)

Divide the participants in two groups, A’s and B’s. Arrange the group in two big nested circles
facing each other, A’s in the outer circle and B’s in the inner circle. Note that the circles have
to be big enough for the participants to hear each other. A’s will talk with B’s changing pairs
after every question. Provide the pairs with a guiding question for conversation and a commu-
nication style for one of the groups. After each question clap your hands (or use some other
signal) and ask the inner circle to move to the next pair on their right. Examples of questions
and communication styles:
• How was your day? (A being mad at B)
• What is your favourite subject at school? (B not listening A)
• How did you come to school this morning? (A listening actively and asking questions)
• What kind of food you like? (B interrupting A all the time)
• Do you like animals? (A debating with B)
• Where do you live? (B being absent)
• What do you like to do on your free time? (A and B trying to have a dialogue, where
both listen actively and speak equally) …etc

Debrief and discuss briefly with the group:

• How did you feel during the activity?
• What kind of disruptive /negative communication styles did you identify?
• What kind of constructive/positive communication styles did you identify?
• When did you manage to have the best conversation? Why?

7.2. Types of conversation (30’)

A. Explain to the participants that there are four types of conversation as illustrated in the
figure below by David W. Angel. Elaborate that it is helpful to know what type of conversation
2828Peace Education
Peace manual
Education manual

youyouareare
in,in,
when
whentalking with
talking someone.
with someone. YouYoucan dodo
can soso based
basedonona conversation's
a conversation's direction of of
direction
communication (a one-way or two-way street) and its tone/purpose (competitive
communication (a one-way or two-way street) and its tone/purpose (competitive or coop- or coop-
erative). If you
erative). areare
If you in in
a one-way
a one-way conversation,
conversation, you
youareare
talking at at
talking someone,
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rather thanwith
with
someone. If you are in a two-way conversation, participants are both listening
someone. If you are in a two-way conversation, participants are both listening and talking. and talking. In In
a competitive
a competitive conversation,
conversation, people
peopleareare
more
more concerned
concerned about
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their own perspective,
perspective,whereas
whereas
in in
cooperative
cooperative conversation
conversation participants areare
participants interested
interestedin the perspective
in the perspective of of
everyone
everyoneinvolved.
involved.

• •Debate
Debateis aiscompetitive,
a competitive, two-way
two-way conversation.
conversation. The goal
The is to
goal winwin
is to ananargument
argumentor or
convince
convince
someone, such as the other participant or third-party observers.
someone, such as the other participant or third-party observers.
• •Dialogue
Dialogue is ais cooperative,
a cooperative, two-way
two-way conversation. The
conversation. goal
The is for
goal participants
is for to to
participants exchange
exchange
information and build relationships with one
information and build relationships with one another.another.
• •Discourse
Discourse is aiscooperative,
a cooperative,one-way
one-way conversation. The
conversation. goal
The to to
goal deliver information
deliver informationfrom thethe
from
speaker/writer to the listeners/readers.
speaker/writer to the listeners/readers.
• •Diatribe is aiscompetitive,
Diatribe a competitive, one-way
one-way conversation.
conversation. The goal
The is to
goal express
is to expressemotions,
emotions,browbeat
browbeat
those that disagree with you, and/or inspires those that share the same
those that disagree with you, and/or inspires those that share the same perspective. perspective.

COOPERATIVE

Discourse Dialogue
Style: 1-way and Style: 2-way and
cooperative cooperative
Purpose: to deliver Purpose: to exchange
information information and build
relationships

1-WAY 2-WAY

Diatribe Debate
Style: 1-way and Style: 2-way and
competive competive
Purpose: to express Purpose: to win or
emotions, browbeat, convince
or inspire

COMPETITIVE

Source: TheThe
Source: Four Types
Four of Conversations:
Types Debate,
of Conversations: Dialogue,
Debate, Discourse,
Dialogue, andand
Discourse, Diatribe, David
Diatribe, W. Angel
David https:/
W. Angel /davidwangel.
https://davidwangel.
com/the-opportune-conflict/2016/12/28/the-four-types-of-conversations-debate-dialogue-discourse-and-diatribe
com/the-opportune-conflict/2016/12/28/the-four-types-of-conversations-debate-dialogue-discourse-and-diatribe

7.3.
7.3.Controlled
Controlleddialogue
dialogue(30’)
(30’)
This exercise
This makes
exercise people
makes peoplelisten carefully
listen to to
carefully other people’s
other arguments,
people’s asas
arguments, only when
only whenthese
these
areare
correctly understood is one allowed to bring one’s own thoughts into a discussion.
correctly understood is one allowed to bring one’s own thoughts into a discussion.
 COOPERATION 29

A. Let the participants think about some controversial topic they could discuss (e.g., one should
always tell the truth, violent movies should be forbidden, mobile phones should be switched
off in meetings…)

B. Divide participants into groups of four (A, B, C, D) and instruct them:

• Two (A&B) agree to discuss on one of the controversial topics, but before bringing in
their own arguments, each one has to summarize the argument of the other one to
their satisfaction first.
• C&D observe the discussion and prepare to give feedback.
• Let the discussion go on for some minutes.

C. After the discussion the observers (C&D) give their feedback:

• What went well?
• Where to improve?
• What were the difficulties?
• Did the listener understand what the message was about?
• Did the listeners repeat and summarize correctly?
• Did the listeners interpret?

D. Change the roles, so that C&D start a discussion and A&B become observers.

E. When all the groups have finished, sit in a circle and share what you have learned. Guide
the discussion with questions as stated above in the observer’s feedback.

Source: Methods and Games to facilitate trainings on peace

30 Peace Education manual

8. DIALOGUE 90 minutes

Objectives • To equip youth with key knowledge, skills and attitudes

for better communication
• Introduce participants to principles of dialogue and active
listening
• To practice dialogue and active listening

Materials • Blackboard/ flip chart

• Pens and markers/chalk
• Two pillows (or other similar soft items)

Notes for a facilitator • You may want to remind students to respect every one's
point of views before starting the role play.

8.1. Warm up: Formula (10’)

Split the group into two equally sized teams, A’s and B’s. Ask them to stand or sit in a big
circle, with members of both teams standing/sitting alternately (A, B, A, B and so on). Each
team gets one pillow. Give the pillows to participants who are approximately opposite sides
of the circle, so that both groups have the same distance to travel. When ready to start, signal
both teams to hand the pillow clockwise to the next person in their own team. The aim of the
game is that one pillow will catch up with or even overtake the other team’s pillow.
Note that it is not allowed to throw the pillow, skip people or hinder the other team’s pillow.
The game can be played again with different groups to strengthen the participant’s cooper-
ation skills.

8.2. Principles and best practices of dialogue (20’)

A. After introducing the different conversation types and giving an example of a dialogue in
the previous lesson, continue into the principles and best practices of dialogue. You can first
repeat the definition of dialogue: it’s a cooperative, two-way conversation. The goal is for par-
ticipants to exchange information and build relationships with one another.

B. Then, divide the participants to smaller groups and ask them to list at least 10 important
principles or best practices of dialogue. Give them around 10 minutes time.

C. Ask each group to share 1-3 principles/best practices and start collecting lists on the flipchart
or blackboard. In the end, ask if some of the groups have still something to add. Make sure the
lists cover the most important principles and best practices of dialogue and. Example of lists:

Principles of dialogue
• Create a safe space
• Agree, that the purpose is learning
• Use appropriate communication skills
 COOPERATION 31

• Surface what is hidden

• Maintain a trusting relationship/suspend judgments
• Stay through the hard places
• Be willing to change and keep an open mind
• Transparency
• Include all concerned actors
• Credible convener/ trusted by both warring parties
• Have an agenda that addresses root cause of conflict
• Clear mandate and appropriately tailored structure, rules, and procedures
• Have agreed mechanisms for implementation of outcomes
• Have a long-term perspective (To find sustainable solutions requires time and patience.
The process can be painstakingly slow and incremental, lasting anywhere from ten
minutes to ten years or more—one-off interventions very often do not work to address
deeply-rooted causes of conflict or to fully deal with complex issues.)

Best practices of dialogue

• Speaking clearly and confidently – it is critical that as we communicate our experiences
and ideas to others, our explanations are clear so that everyone understands. They
should be free from jargon, slang or cultural assumptions.
• Active listening – dialogue requires us to communicate effectively, and effective com-
munication involves both speaking and listening skills. Active listening in particular
requires one to pay attention to a speaker’s verbal and non-verbal language to fully
understand what they're trying to communicate, withhold judgment, reflect on what
a speaker shares, clarify with a speaker a point you have not understood, and respond
appropriately where you find it necessary.
• Critical thinking - Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, under-
standing the logical connection between ideas, or the objective analysis and evaluation
of an issue in order to form a judgment.
• Questioning - questions evoke someone to think, cause clarity, introspection, lead
to enhanced creativity, and help provide solutions. They also show one’s interest in
learning new things. Good questions don’t just give us more information, but enable us
to dive into the experience of other people and to start to appreciate and understand
the way that they see the world and why that is the case. Good questions are often
response questions, that is, questions that arise from what has been heard.
• Reflection – to take time out to think about (analyse) what you have learned, or done,
how you feel about it, its impact on you, and whether you could have done it differently
or better. In relation to dialogue, taking time to reflect on what we have heard helps one
decide on possible strategies for moving from the problem, to the solution, to action.
Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

8.3. Role play: Building peace with dialogue (40’)

A. First, introduce the participants to the proceedings of dialogue:
1. Prepare well in advance before the dialogue – Determine goals for the dialogue, build a
team to host the dialogue, decide and invite participants, select a facilitator, set place,
date and time and involve a rapporteur to take notes and report in the proceedings of
the dialogue.
2. Meeting and greeting participants as they arrive – It is encouraged that the dialogue
facilitator participates in greeting and welcoming participants as they arrive to develop
rapport, and make the participants feel at ease from the onset.
32 Peace Education manual

3. Introduction – The facilitator introduces themselves to the participants and thanks

them for attending. They thereafter brief participants about the background, objec-
tives, and expected outcomes of the dialogue. The facilitator can close this segment of
the dialogue by asking participants to suggest ground rules that will enable a smooth
running of the dialogue.
4. Initiation of the dialogue – Prior to the dialogue, the facilitator works with the dialogue
team to develop discussion questions for each dialogue objective. The idea being that
through discussing and engaging with these questions, the organizers will be able to
realize the outcomes of the dialogue. Both the objectives and outcomes of the dialogue
have to be kept in focus through the entire dialogue to ensure the audience does not
lose focus.
5. Concluding the dialogue – At the end of the dialogue, the facilitator can remind the
participants that taking their time to share their ideas during the dialogue has been
invaluable. They can then invite the participants to suggest ideas for next steps and a
way forward.
6. Ending the dialogue – Invite the rapporteur to summarize the key proceedings and
next steps from the dialogue to ensure they are a true representation of what has been
discussed and agreed upon. At this point, responsibility can also be shared among
dialogue participants on who will take what role in meeting and following up the res-
olutions of the dialogue. The facilitator can close by introducing the dialogue team to
the participants and inviting the team leader to give official closing remarks.

B. Continue with a role play. Give the whole group a scenario of a community conflict or ask
them to come up with one. Do a role play of how they would solve such a conflict through
dialogue.
First, determine goals for the dialogue and share roles: decide the members of the dialogue
team, facilitator(s), rapporteur(s) and participants (you can also decide, that all the rest are
taking part of the dialogue). Remind everyone about their responsibilities during the dialogue
and about the proceedings. If you wish, you can also share different roles for participants, e.g.,
defenders and opponents or even prepare role cards for them.
Use at about 20 minutes for the dialogue -role play and then ask the facilitator and rap-
porteur to end and conclude the dialogue. If you have used roles in the dialogue, shake them
off in the end.

C. Debrief and discuss:

• How did it feel like to take part in a dialogue?
• How were the best practices of dialogue reflected in this dialogue?
• What are the advantages of a dialogue? How about challenges?
• Why dialogue is important in peacebuilding?
• Imagine an international conflict involving people from different cultures or back-
grounds. How might having a dialogue help in this situation?
• Can you give an example, where dialogue has been used to solve complex conflict
situations in your communities, nationally, internationally etc.?

8.4. Cool down: Where do you stand? (20’)

A. Tell that you will evaluate what you have learned about communication and dialogue with
an activity. Put signs on opposite walls or set up two chairs a long way apart and put a sign
on them saying ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’. Read out a statement and ask everybody to choose a
 COOPERATION 33

place to stand in between the walls or the chairs that they feel represents their view. The nearer
they stand to one of the walls/chairs, the stronger the opinion they are expressing. Those who
don’t know, are open-minded or don’t want to say can move to the middle. Emphasize that
everybody’s point of view will be respected and encourage each person to decide for them-
selves. Give them a few moments to make their decision.

Examples of statements:
• I learned something new today
• Listening is an important part of dialogue
• In dialogue, only words matter not the gestures
• I want to be a better listener
• I should develop my communication skills

B. Once they have chosen their spot, you can ask individuals why they chose to stand where
they are and ask more specific questions (e.g., what did you learn, what did you like etc). Gather
few opinions and thoughts from different places in the line. Finally, you can ask if anyone would
like to change position now that they have heard differing points of view.
34 Peace Education manual

9. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION 90 minutes

Objectives • To understand the importance of non-verbal commu-

nication
• To equip youth with key knowledge, skills and attitudes
for better communication
• To understand and practice different communication
styles

Materials • Flipchart / blackboard

• Pens and markers / chalk
• Matching word or picture cards of local things

Notes for a facilitator • Prepare the matching word or picture cards of local things
(student and school, egg and chicken, rice and farmer, bus
and driver, etc.).

9.1. Warm up: Match Up (20’)

A. Have matching word or picture cards of local things prepared before the class. Examples
of matching pairs: student and school, egg and chicken, rice and farmer, bus and driver, chair
and table, plate and fork, child and toy, plant and flowerpot, etc.

B. Give each individual a label with a name to tape to their back or forehead. Ensure that they
do not see what is written on the label. Tell the participants that each one of them have a
word or item that is related to another person’s word. Without speaking or asking questions,
they need to find their matching word. They can act out other labels to the person wearing
that label. Allow participants 5 minutes to find their matching label in verbal silence.

C. When everyone has found their pair, let them discuss briefly together:
• What was easy or difficult about this activity?
• When did they realize they are a pair? What helped?
• What are some common nonverbal communication gestures you can make using your
eyes, body movement, arms and mouth?
• In the end let several participants share their experiences.

Source: Youth peace ambassador training guide

9.2. What does the body language tell? (40’)

A. Ask the participants: “Did you know that 90% of our message is communicated non-verbally
and only 10% is actual words?” and let the participants answer by showing either thumbs up
or thumbs down.
Tell that non-verbal communication is the unspoken communication that goes in every
face-to-face encounter with another person. It tells you their true feelings towards you and
how well your words are being received.
 COOPERATION 35

Ask the participants what kind of different forms of non-verbal communication and body
language they know and write them on the blackboard/flip chart. List of different forms of
non-verbal communication:
• facial expression (e.g., smile, frown)
• body contact (e.g., shaking hands)
• closeness (e.g., invading someone’s space)
• eye/hand/head movements (e.g., waving, winking, nodding)
• posture (e.g., slouching)
• appearance (e.g., untidiness)
• ways of talking (e.g., pauses, stress of words)
• sounds (e.g., laughing, sighing)

B. Ask a volunteer to go in the front of the group. If you are a big group, you can also divide
into smaller groups and ask one volunteer of each group. Give the volunteer(s) a scenario to
act out for the rest of the group (on the card or tell them so that the others don’t hear). In the
first round all of the other participants close their eyes and the volunteer acts out their sce-
nario so that only the words can be heard. After that the participants open their eyes and the
volunteer acts out the scenario again, so that everyone can see also the body language, facial
expressions etc. Change the volunteer after each scenario.
• Examples of scenarios:
• Sit with your legs crossed and have your arms crossed while telling the other person
that s/he is your favourite person.
• Smile and look directly at the other person and tell them s/he is your favourite person.
• Smile while saying “I really didn’t like the way you just talked to me”.
• Looking down at the floor while saying “great job”.
• Frown and get very close and ask why they are here.
• Greet person while talking on phone or texting and ask their name.
• Greet the other person with a smile, shake hands and ask their name.
• Get very close to the other person without touching them and ask how their day has
been.

C. Debrief and discuss after each scenario or at the end of the activity:
• Did the spoken words match the nonverbal communication?
• How did the person make you feel when you heard just the words? What changed
when you saw the body language?
• How does, what is being said and the nonverbal ques effect how you react to another
person?

9.3. Silent line (30’)

A. Tell participants that they will arrange themselves in a line according to the month and day
(not year) of their birthdays. But they will do this without talking, whispering, writing, or using
any props. In other words, participants must find another way to communicate. Explain that
this activity is meant for practicing cooperation and non-verbal communication.
The exercise must be done with the month followed by the day; it will not work if they arrange
themselves by day, then month. You may choose to start the exercise by indicating which part
of the classroom is January 1, and which is December 31, or you can let them determine this
on their own.
36 Peace Education manual

Allow time to work through the task. If participants struggle with completing the line-up,
give them a time limit to finish. Once they have finished the birthday line-up, ask the group
to check their work by saying the month in which they were born.

Variation: If participants are quick and successful the first go around, have them do it again
with a higher level of difficulty such as:
• Alphabetical order by middle/last name
• Largest to smallest by animal size (for this version, the facilitator would secretly assign
a different animal to each student)

B. After the activity guide students to reflect on their role in this activity and how they helped
achieve success. Link the discussion back to previous conversations on leadership or other
skills, and what evidence they saw of those skills in themselves or their classmates. Questions
for reflection:
• What did you notice as the line was forming?
• Do you think the group was successful? Why or why not?
• What strategies were helpful for you or the group? What strategies were least helpful?
• What principles of leadership/assertiveness/problem-solving, etc… did you see?
• Who did you see “being a leader” during this activity? What specifically did they do?
• How do we communicate with each other without using words?
• What are the functions of body language and facial expressions in communication?

Source: GPC Educator Toolkit

 COOPERATION 37

10. NON-VIOLENT COMMUNICATION 90 minutes

Objectives • To understand the principles of non-violent commu-

nication
• To practice empathy and non-violent communication

Materials • Flipchart/blackboard
• Pens and markers/chalk

Notes for a facilitator • Theatre of the oppressed is an age sensitive activity, make
sure the scenarios are suitable for your age-group.

10.1. Warm up (10’)

Start the lesson with a brief and energizing warm up game. It can be one of the warm up
games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If possible, let some of the
participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

10.2. Non-violent communication (20’)

A. Ask the participants to take the closest person next to them and talk for 2 minutes, about
what kind of negative communication styles they know (blaming, judging, defending, doubt-
ing…) and in what kind of situations they are normally used.

B. Discuss briefly and collect the negative communication styles on the blackboard or flipchart.
Tell, that without noticing, we tend to use unpleasant communication styles and language
that can be for example aggressive, blaming or judging. We basically tend to place the fault
and responsibility on the other, making them feel guilty rather than opening up and sharing
our feelings and needs. We often construct stories through language that can be violent. That
causes misunderstandings and conflicts.

C. Take a look at the communication model called Nonviolent Communication (NVC) devel-
oped by Marshall Rosenberg:
• It is an approach to communication based on principles of non-violence. It is not a
technique to end disagreements, but rather a method designed to increase empathy
and improve the quality of life of those who utilize the method and the people around
them.
• Nonviolent Communication can support a reflection on the language we use. The
model is developed so that communication and language could be used in a more
empathic way, connecting with the humanity of the person in front of us while we are
focusing on our needs, avoiding the situation to escalate into violence.
• The model involves:
• “I-messages”: speak from your own perspective, opinions, feelings and needs. Do not
pretend you know what is happening inside the other person or why she/he acted
like that. We do not know.
38 Peace Education manual

• Active listening: be silent and listen, listen deeply and carefully, connecting with the
needs of the person, not taking anything personally.

According to Rosenberg’s model, there are four steps to communicating non-violently, as follows:

1. Observation without • You start by describing the action or the situation that is
evaluation causing the problem. This usually can be understood as
a neutral statement: you state what you observe from
your perspective without introducing any judgement or
accusation.
• Example: Yesterday I could not sleep because the music
was loud.

2. Express your feelings • In this step, you express your feelings, you take respon-
sibility for them and do not blame others. Share with the
other how you feel in that particular situation, which are
the emotions that you feel.
• Example: I felt deeply frustrated and stressed as I could
not fall asleep.

3. Connecting feelings to • The next step involves trying to describe why you had
needs the feeling you just expressed. You have to express the
hidden need behind the feelings, but at the same time, it
is crucial to separate positions and interests from needs,
as they really are different (remember the onion tool). The
needs are what you need to achieve in order to feel secure
and fulfilled. Try to be honest and open as you express
your needs. Entering into NVC is also an act of faith and
vulnerability as you express your deep needs.
• Example: I need to have at least eight hours of sleep to be
able to function correctly at work and I am afraid to lose
my job and miss my family responsibilities.

4. Making requests not • The last step is to express your preferred outcome with
demands no demands. This means that you have to decide what
you would like to happen, and what you would like your
conflict partner to do. It is important to be as specific as
possible and to try to come up with creative solutions. It
is helpful to provide as many options as possible, leaving
the choice of solution open to the other person.
• Example: I would like to ask you to please turn off the
music from 10pm.

D. After hearing about NVC, ask the participants their thoughts about the communication model.

Source: Youth 4peace training toolkit

 COOPERATION 39

10.3. Theatre of the Oppressed (60’)

A. Divide your group of participants into groups of around 8 participants each (maximum).
First, ask them to share a conflict situation from their own life in smaller groups. After everyone
has shared, they have to pick one story from what they have heard.

B. Second, ask them to create/prepare a role play of the chosen conflict situation. In the per-
formance of the roleplay, they should clearly identify the main victim, main perpetrator and
other characters. Ask them to think of the different characters and on how each of them reacts
in that particular situation. Remind them to create clear dialogues. Give them around 20 min-
utes to prepare and practice their play. Each role play should not take more than 2 minutes.

C. Each group performs the full completed story and will repeat. During the repetition of the
performance, other participants who are in the audience can stop the play and change the
actions/responses of the main character to use non-violent communication and empower
him/her into a more resistant role. Each group goes through the same process of performance
(one full performance and one interrupted to transform the character/victim into an active
resistant.)

D. Debrief & discuss with the whole group on their feelings.

• How did they feel when seeing these injustices and when the character was transformed?
• How does it relate to everyday life?
• How do they think their society/communities are accepting of these resistant roles?

Note: Theatre of the oppressed is a very strong tool but you also need a good debriefing/
reflection at the end to highlight the key learnings you want your group to leave with. Some
groups take it lightly because it is a performance and seems more as a relaxing time. Make
sure you pass the message on the key learnings behind your session learning outcomes.

Source: Youth 4peace training toolkit

40 Peace Education manual

11. EQUALITY & UNDERSTANDING OTHERS 90 minutes

Objectives • To equip youth with key knowledge, skills and attitudes

to understand others
• To understand that all people have something in com-
mon with one another
• To promote empathy with others who are different
• To raise awareness of various forms of privilege and the
inequality of opportunities in society
• To understand the intersectionality of race, socioeco-
nomic class, gender and other demographic variables
that shape individuals
• To foster an understanding of possible personal con-
sequences of belonging to certain social minorities or
cultural groups
• To appreciate the diversity of individual backgrounds

Materials • Paper and pens

• Role cards for Privilege walk

Notes for a facilitator • Print or prepare role cards for privilege walk
• Privilege walk is an emotion- and age-sensitive activity that
requires trust building and safety for participants. Take into
account the participants with similar backgrounds or life
experiences described in the role cards. Also, if you have
young participants, make sure all the roles are suitable for
their age. Underline the importance of getting in and out
of the role and monitor the conversation.

11.1. Warm up: What do we have in common? (30’)

A. Break into groups, so each group has about an equal number of participants (approx. 4-8).
Pass out paper and pens to each group. The groups take up space so they cannot hear the
discussion of other groups. Set a timer for a defined time (of time (e.g., 10 minutes). Tell the
participants, that this is a playful competition. Each group is to discuss what they all have in
common and identify at many commonalities as possible in the defined amount of time and
write them on a paper. Before starting, tell the commonalities:
• Can be hobbies, music, interest, favourite foods, family traditions, etc.
• Should not be body parts, clothing, or outwardly identifiable items.
• The more unique the items are, the better.

After the defined time, come together so all the groups can see and hear each other. Each
group shares out their items. This can be done by each group just reading off their all items
at once and counting how many commonalities they’ve found or as “a battle”. In the battle,
the groups tell one commonality at a time, trying to beat the other groups by telling the most
commonalities. The group that can continue the longest is the winner of the battle. You can
display the papers in the classroom after the activity is complete.
 COOPERATION 41

Discussion:
• How the groups came to identify that it was a commonality?
• Did they find identifying the commonalities easy or difficult?
• Would it be easier or more difficult to identify differences?
• Was there something surprising?
• Do people always have something in common?

Make certain to point out the fact that no matter what you may think or know about others,
we all will have something in common with one another.

Variation: If you don’t want a competition, you can also make this activity together with the
whole group and try to find out as many similarities as possible within the whole group.

11.2. Privilege walk – role play (60 mins)

Throughout the privilege walk, the following statements are read by the facilitator and the
participants are asked to take a step forward based on their role and responses. This activity
forces participants to confront the ways in which society privileges some individuals over others.
It is designed to get participants to reflect on the different areas where people have privilege
as well as the areas where they don't. The exercise is done with role cards to avoid comparison
among the participants and sensitive topics in their own lives.

A. Create a calm atmosphere. Tell them the purpose of this exercise (above), to help provide
context for the exercise. Emphasize that this is a role play, so they will act as someone else in
this activity. Hand out the role cards at random, one to each participant. Some participants
can also have same roles (without knowing). If you don’t have physical role cards, you can also
ask them to make a line, come to you one by one and memorize their own character.
Tell them to keep the role to themselves and not to show or tell it to anyone else. Invite
them to sit down on the floor and to read their role card. Ask them to begin to get into role. To
help, read out some of the following questions, pausing after each one, to give people time
to reflect and build up a picture of their character and their lives:

What was your childhood like? What sort of house did you live in? What kind of games
did you play? What sort of work did your parents do? What is your everyday life like now?
Where do you socialize? What do you do in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening?
What sort of lifestyle do you have? Where do you live? How much money do you earn
each month? What do you do in your leisure time? What you do in your holidays? What
excites you and what are you afraid of?

B. Now ask people to remain absolutely silent as they line up beside each other across the
room/space (like on a starting line). Tell the participants that you are going to read out a list
of situations or events. Every time that they can answer “yes” to the statement, they take an
average length step forward. Otherwise, they stay where they are and not move. Variation: If
you want, you can also tell the participants to take a step back every time they can answer
“no” to the statement.

Read out the situations one at a time aloud. Pause for a while between each statement to
allow people time to step forward and to look around to take note of their positions relative
to each other. The activity is done in silence.
42 Peace Education manual

At the end invite everyone to take note of their final positions. Let everyone reveal their roles
by reading their role card out loud. If some participants have same roles, you can point out,
that you can end up in a different place with the exactly same role, depending on how one
has envisioned the rest of the character’s life. That happens also in real life: one’s life can be
different even with similar backgrounds.
Then give them a couple of minutes to come out of their roles by shaking or dancing the
role off before debriefing in plenary.

C. Debrief and discuss:

Start by asking participants about what happened and how they feel about the activity and
then go on to talk about the issues raised and what they learnt.
• How did people feel stepping forward - or not?
• For those who stepped forward often, at what point did they begin to notice that others
were not moving as fast as they were?
• How did it feel to be one of the students on the “back” side of the line? How did it feel
to be one of the students on the “front” side of the line?
• If anyone was alone on one side, how did that feel?
• Did anyone think they had experienced an average amount of privilege, but it turned
out to be more or less than they thought?
• Did anyone feel that there were moments when their basic human rights were being
ignored?
• Could people guess each other’s roles?
• How easy or difficult was it to play the different roles? How did they imagine what the
person they were playing was like?
• Does the exercise mirror society in some way? How?
• Which human rights are at stake for each of the roles? Could anyone say that their
human rights were not being respected or that they did not have access to them?
• What first steps could be taken to address the inequalities in society?

Situations and events:

• You go to school.
• You can eat dinner at home every night.
• You can go to the doctor and buy medicine when you need.
• You have never encountered any serious financial difficulty.
• You have a house with a telephone line and television.
• You feel your language, religion and culture are respected in the society where you live.
• You feel that your opinion on social and political issues matters, and your views are
listened to.
• Other people consult you about different issues.
• You are not afraid of being stopped by the police.
• You know where get advice and help if you need it.
• You have never felt discriminated against because of your origin.
• You can go away on holiday once a year.
• You can invite friends to your home and offer them food.
• You can study and follow the profession of your choice.
• You are not afraid of being harassed or attacked in the streets, or in the media.
• You can vote in national and local elections.
 COOPERATION 43

• You can celebrate the most important religious festivals with your relatives and close
friends.
• You can go to the cinema or the theatre.
• You are not afraid for your own future.
• You can buy new clothes at least once every three months.
• You can fall in love with the person of your choice.
• You feel that your competence is appreciated and respected in the society where you live.
• You can use and benefit from the Internet.
• You have an interesting life and you are positive about your future.

Roles
There are two role lists: the ones are more suitable for advanced groups with fluent English.
The others are better for beginner groups with some language barriers. Before starting the
activity, make sure, that all the participants understand their roles. Help them, if needed. Also,
check that the role cards are appropriate for your cultural context and participants’ age and
backgrounds. Create new roles if needed. You can find role cards for advanced and beginner
groups in attachment 2 and 3.

Source: Manual on Human Rights Education with Young People – Council of Europe
44 Peace Education manual

12. DIVERSITY & RESPECT 90 minutes

Objectives • To discuss and learn about diversity and equality

• To appreciate the diversity of individual backgrounds
• To promote empathy with others who are different
• To learn about respect for others

Materials • Potatoes (or stones or other fruits/vegetables)

• Flipchart/blackboard
• Markers/chalk
• Notebooks and pens

Notes for a facilitator • Prepare by reading and collecting information about the
diversity in your country, community or school.

12.1. Warm up: Potatoes (25’)

A. Ask participants to sit in a circle and take a potato from a basket that is quickly passed around.
Ask participants to examine their potato carefully – its weight, its smell, its peculiar features.

Variation: Use can use stones or some other vegetables or fruits instead of potatoes.

B. Have participants discuss their potato with the person next to them and be able to recognize
their potato with their eyes shut. In pairs, have one person shut his or her eyes and the other
hold the potatoes. The person with eyes shut must pick his or her potato. Have pairs reverse
roles. Then, do this in groups of fours.

C. Have participants return to the circle and collect all the potatoes. Pass the potatoes from
hand to hand, behind people’s backs, so they cannot see the potatoes. Ask participants to keep
their potato when they recognize it. Keep passing the potatoes until everyone claims one. End
the game when all, or at least most, participants have found their potatoes. If participants are
having trouble identifying their potatoes, you may want to end the activity within a reasonable
amount of time to avoid participants getting too frustrated or tired.

D. Debrief & discuss together:

• What was your first impression when you were given a potato (or equivalent)?
• How did you identify your potato (or equivalent)?
• What feelings did you experience during the process?
• What did you learn about yourself?
• What did you learn about how you relate with others?
• What does this exercise highlight for diversity, equality and respect? How about for
working together?

Source: Peacebuilding: A Caritas Training Manual

 COOPERATION 45

12.2. What does respect mean? (15’)

Discuss about respect with the whole group. Write the word ‘respect’ on the flipchart or black-
board and collect the participant’s thoughts at least on the following questions:
• What does respect mean?
• Who or what do you respect?
• How can we show respect?

While discussing, make sure to bring out…

• that respect means that you accept somebody for who they are, even when they're
different from you or you don't agree with them. It doesn't have to come naturally – it
is something you can learn.
• that respect builds feelings of trust, safety, and wellbeing in your relationships.
• that there are many ways you can be respectful, for example by…
– respecting yourself
– respecting others
– respecting the environment
– respecting your school
– respecting your community (village, neighbourhood) …etc.
• that we can show respect by:
– considering others
– listening to others
– saying kind things to others
– not controlling other person’s choices
– waiting our turn
– including others in our activities
– using good manners
– keeping our environment clean
– following school rules…etc.

12.3. Respect the diversity! (30’)

A. Share facts about the diversity in your country, community or school with the participants.
You can address for example, how many different
• nationalities
• tribes
• languages
• religions there are in your country/community/school.

You can also ask, what the participants already know about the diversity in their own commu-
nities and let them share their knowledge.

B. Divide into small groups and ask them to discuss and write down, what a) benefits and
b) challenges diversity brings.
Give them about 5 minutes for the discussion. In the end, collect some thoughts from each
group and write them on the flipchart or blackboard.
46 Peace Education manual

C. Conclude by saying that there is an ethic rule that can be found in the tenets of most reli-
gions through the ages. It is called “The Golden rule”- the principle of treating others as one
wants to be treated. Ask the participants and discuss together:
1. Have you heard about the golden rule before?
2. Is it found in your own religion? In what form?
3. How the golden rule relates to diversity?
4. What would happen if everyone lived according to the golden rule?
5. How the golden rule is shown in your own life?
6. Is it sometimes difficult to treat others the way you would like to be treated? In what
kind of situations?

12.4. Where do you stand? – Cooperation (20’)

Repeat the ‘Where do you stand’ activity (8.3.) after the whole Cooperation module. You can
use and modify this activity every time you want to evaluate learning, collect feedback or get
to know participant’s feelings or thoughts.

Examples of statements in the end of the Cooperation module:

• I’ve learned something new about cooperation in the Peace club
• I know the other members of the Peace club
• Our Peace club has a strong group spirit
• Listening is a communication skill
• It is not allowed to disagree with others
• Equality is not achieved in the school/community/Uganda
• I’ve had fun in the Peace club meetings
COOPERATION 47
48 Peace Education manual
 CONFLICT 49

Conflict
8 lessons

13. CONFLICT VERSUS VIOLENCE 90 minutes

Objectives • To explore definitions of conflict and violence

• To understand the difference between conflict and vio-
lence
• To introduce participants to levels of conflict
• To explore what kind of different conflicts surround us

Materials • Flip chart/blackboard

• Markers/chalk
• Optional: sticky notes
• Pens and paper/notebooks
• Newspapers (old or new)

Notes for a facilitator • Before the lesson, find old or new newspapers. You can
ask the old ones for example from your local kiosk.
• Conflict is an age-sensitive topic. If you have young par-
ticipants, use examples suitable for their age and monitor
the conversation.

13.1. Warm up: Tropical rainstorm (15’)

A. Create a tropical rainstorm together. Ask participants to stand in a circle. Ask them to copy
the actions of only the person on their right, regardless of what s/he is doing. Begin by rubbing
your hands together. Ensure that the person to your right follows your action, followed by the
next person, until everyone in the circle is rubbing his or her hands together. Move to clicking
your fingers until everyone in the circle is clicking their fingers. Start clapping your hands, fol-
lowed by slapping your thighs, and finally stamping your feet following the same technique
of waiting until the previous action is almost all the way around the circle. To end the storm,
follow the same pattern in reverse. Move from stamping your feet to slapping your thighs,
clapping your hands, clicking your fingers, and finally rubbing your hands together. You can
repeat and create the rainstorm again.

B. Debrief and discuss: What similarities do you find to rainstorms and conflicts?

After hearing some of the thoughts you can tell, that the sounds and dynamics of a rainstorm
are very similar to conflict—like thunderstorms, conflicts begin quietly and gather momen-
tum and energy as they build (escalation). You can hear and see them coming. Storms and
conflict then sweep in, through and over you, focusing all of your attention on them and the
50 Peace Education manual

destruction they may bring. Finally, thunderstorms, like conflict, slowly recede into the distance
(de-escalation) and you are left in quiet.

Source: Youth Peace Ambassador training guide

13.2. Conflict versus violence (30’)

A. Tell the participants, that in the next meetings you will focus on conflict and violence. Write
down words “conflict” and “violence” on the blackboard or on the flip charts. Ask the participants
to tell what comes to their mind when hearing those words and write their thoughts down. You
can also collect their definitions and ideas with sticky notes and read them out loud in the end.

B. After collecting their ideas, go through the distinction between “conflict” and “violence.”
Tell, that conflict is
• normal (experienced by people everywhere, every day)
• neutral (it’s not the conflict itself that is negative, it’s how we sometimes handle it)
• natural (conflict is bound to come up because we all have different perspectives,
priorities and goals).

Conflict is part of life when we feel there is an incompatibility between our goals, when our
needs are unmet, or when expectations are unfulfilled. Conflict may be defined as a disagree-
ment or struggle between/among people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values or goals.
It occurs when two or more parties have incompatible goals or interests (normal/natural). We
may face many different conflicts of varying levels of intensity, regardless of our societal status,
gender, nationality, age, culture, ideology or religion. Conflict is inherent in human interactions
and can have either constructive or destructive outcomes (neutral). Conflict may be invisible;
we cannot see it as it is not always expressed. Latent conflict can be destructive and is one of
the key concerns of peacebuilders.

Violence is one way of dealing with conflicts. We can choose not to use violence in dealing
with conflict. Violence often happens when a conflict has been systematically mismanaged
or neglected, and when violence is accepted and seen as a legitimate way of responding to
conflicts within society. While violence may result in some possible outcomes to the con-
flict—winning or beating the other—it cannot transform the conflict constructively, and often
leads to an ever-worsening cycle of violence. Violence is always destructive. Violence can be a
response to conflict, a cause and effect of conflict. It is a cyclical link. Thus, preventing conflict
from escalating into violence and reducing violence when it has occurred are some of the other
key concerns of peacebuilders.

C. Ask the participants to take out their notebooks and pens and draw a conflict situation
that could lead to violence. Give them about 5 minutes drawing time. Then ask them to show
their drawings to their neighbours (in pairs or small groups) and reflect on the similarities and
differences. They can also think, how the violence could be avoided in the situation.

Source: Youth Peace Ambassador Training Kit

 CONFLICT 51

13.3. News review (40’)

A. Introduce the participants to five levels of conflict. Define:
1. Intrapersonal/internal conflict – within an individual
2. Interpersonal conflict - between individuals
3. Intragroup conflict - within a group
4. Intergroup conflict - between groups
5. Intraorganizational conflict - within organizations

Tell that the conflict can also be:

• personal conflict
• local conflict (regional/communal)
• international conflict

B. Divide the participants into smaller groups. Give a newspaper or few pages of a newspaper
for each group. The newspapers can be old or new. You can ask old newspapers for example
from your local kiosk/newspaper seller. Ask the groups to go through the newspapers/pages
and mark with a pen all the news that are somehow related to conflict or violence.

C. Then, tell them to sort the news by conflict levels and count how many conflicts they have
found from each level. Record the calculations on the board, e.g., with the logger's accounts.

D. Debrief and discuss together:

• How did you feel when reading the news?
• Did you expect to find less/more conflicts on the newspaper?
• What kind of conflicts made it to the newspaper (reflecting on the levels of conflict)?
• Did you find any solutions to the conflicts from the newspaper?

13.4. Cool down: Thumbs up, thumbs down (5’)

End the session with a brief self-evaluation of the learning. Tell few statements and ask the
participants to use their hand to signal their opinion or depth of understanding:
• A thumbs up = “I have a good understanding” or “I agree”
• A thumb to the side = “I still have some questions” or “I am not sure”
• A thumb down = “I didn’t understand” or “I disagree”

Examples of statements:
• I understand the difference between conflict and violence.
• Conflict is a normal part of life and cannot be avoided.
• I know what is an intrapersonal conflict.
• Violence can be avoided.
• I remember all the levels of conflict.
• I learned something new today.
52 Peace Education manual

14. CAUSES OF CONFLICT 90 minutes

Objectives • To reflect on causes and drivers of conflict

• To explore ways to avoid conflicts
• Practice cause-and-effect thinking

Materials • Flip chart/blackboard

• Markers/chalk
• Ball of wool/yarn

Notes for a facilitator • Conflict is an age-sensitive topic. If you have young par-
ticipants, use examples suitable for their age and monitor
the conversation.

14.1. Warm up: Lap sit (10’)

A. Have everyone stand in a circle facing their left, so everyone is looking at the back of the
person in front of them. Make sure they are very close to each other. If they need to get closer,
they can take a step into the circle. This will tighten the circle. Tell students that when you say
“sit,” they should slowly sit on the lap of the person behind them. The exercise only works if
everyone sits at the same time.

Note: Consider different circles for different genders depending on the cultural context.

B. Debrief and discuss together:

• How did it feel to do this exercise?
• Was anyone nervous? Why? How did you overcome your nervousness?
• What was the role of trust in this exercise?
• What is the role of trust in conflicts and when trying to manage them?

Source: GPC Educator Toolkit

14.2. The Blind men and the elephant (25’)

The Blind Men and the Elephant is a fairy tale from India that has been adapted by many
religions and cultures. It is about a group of blind men who attempt to learn what an elephant
is, each touching a different part, and disagreeing on their findings. Their collective wisdom
leads to the truth.

A. Ask the participants to take a seat or other comfortable position. Read James Baldwin’s
version of ‘The Blind Men and the Elephant’ out loud or watch the story from Youtube.

There were once six blind men who stood by the road-side every day, and begged from
the people who passed. They had often heard of elephants, but they had never seen
 CONFLICT 53

one; for, being blind, how could they? It so happened one morning that an elephant
was driven down the road where they stood. When they were told that the great beast
was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him. Of
course, they could not see him with their eyes; but they thought that by touching him
they could learn just what kind of animal he was.
The first one happened to put his hand on the elephant's side. "Well, well!" he said,
"now I know all about this beast. He is exactly like a wall." The second felt only of the
elephant's tusk. "My brother," he said, "you are mistaken. He is not at all like a wall. He
is round and smooth and sharp. He is more like a spear than anything else." The third
happened to take hold of the elephant's trunk. "Both of you are wrong," he said. "Any-
body who knows anything can see that this elephant is like a snake." The fourth reached
out his arms, and grasped one of the elephant's legs. "Oh, how blind you are!" he said.
"It is very plain to me that he is round and tall like a tree." The fifth was a very tall man,
and he chanced to take hold of the elephant's ear. "The blindest man ought to know
that this beast is not like any of the things that you name," he said. "He is exactly like a
huge fan." The sixth was very blind indeed, and it was some time before he could find
the elephant at all. At last, he seized the animal's tail. "O foolish fellows!" he cried. "You
surely have lost your senses. This elephant is not like a wall, or a spear, or a snake, or
a tree; neither is he like a fan. But any man with a particle of sense can see that he is
exactly like a rope."
Then the elephant moved on, and the six blind men sat by the roadside all day, and
quarrelled about him. Each believed that he knew just how the animal looked; and each
called the others hard names because they did not agree with him. People who have
eyes sometimes act as foolishly.

B. Debrief & discuss: Remind students that conflict often arises when the parties involved
differ in their perception of the problem. Discuss the story using the following questions.
• Who do you think is right? (The correct answer is: they are all right and they are all wrong!)
• What do you think the lesson of the story is?
• How does it relate to perception and conflict?
• How can you relate this to your life?
• What are some examples of situations in real life that result in misunderstandings
because of different points of view? What are some steps that could resolve these
situations?
Source: GPC Educator Toolkit, Methods and games to facilitate trainings on peace

14.3. Spider web – What causes conflicts? (45’)

This activity serves as a metaphor for conflicts surrounding us and in the other hand, shows
that there are a lot of solutions.

A. Stand in a circle. If you have a group of over 20 students, create many circles. The facilitator
gives the ball of yarn or string to one participant and asks them to name one thing, that can
cause conflicts or problems. Then they throw it to another participant while holding onto the
end of the yarn. The process continues until everyone has shared. Record the answers on the
flip chart or blackboard. When the yarn runs out, the facilitator asks participants to look at the
web of causes of conflicts they’ve created.
54 Peace Education manual

B. Then the group starts to unravel the web from the last one to the first. The one who shared
the cause of a conflict last, starts by naming one thing, that helps to avoid conflicts. It can, for
example, be a solution to the cause of the conflict they have named themselves e.g., misun-
derstandings could be avoided by dialogue and active listening.

Examples: How to avoid conflicts? Examples: What causes conflicts?

• misunderstandings • dialogue
• stereotypes/biases/prejudices • being aware of the stereotypes/biases/
• poor communication prejudices
• self-interest • non-violent communication
• challenges with emotion management • emotion management
• lack of empathy • active listening
• not listening to others • empathy
• desire for power • equal opportunities
• disagreements • mutual understanding
• ignorance • tolerance
• making assumptions • respect
• intolerance • describing your needs specifically
• needs not met • compromises
• fear • talking about issues, not people
• lack of compromise • avoiding to become defensive
• personal differences • understanding differences

C. Debrief & discuss:

• How did it feel to create the web of causes of conflicts?
• Did you realize anything new about conflict?
• How did it feel to unravel the web and share ideas, how conflicts could be avoided?
• Did you realize something new about conflict resolution?
 CONFLICT 55

15. VIOLENCE 90 minutes

Objectives • To explore definitions and dynamics of violence

• To explore types of violence present in communities
and how different kinds of violence relate to each other
• To explore theories and root causes of violence
• different forms of violence

Materials • Notebooks/paper
• Large papers (e.g., flipcharts)
• Pens/markers

Notes for a facilitator • Violence is an age-sensitive topic. If you have young par-
ticipants, use examples suitable for their age and monitor
the conversation.

15.1. Warm up: Have you ever? (20’)

A. Ask the participants to take out their notebooks and write number from 1 to 10 below each other.
Read out loud “Have you ever?” -questions and ask the participants to mark after each question yes
(x) or no (-) on their notebook, depending on which one captures their experiences. Assure them that
their answers are to be treated with at most confidentiality, and are not to be shared with anyone.

Have you ever…

Gossiped about another person behind her/his back?
1. Overheard a joke that made fun of a person of a different ethnic background, race or
religion?
2. Been the target of name calling because of your ethnic group, race or religion?
3. Made fun of someone different from you?
4. Left someone out of an activity or denied them an opportunity because s/he was dif-
ferent from you?
5. Not been invited to attend an activity or social function because many of the people
there where different from you?
6. Engaged in stereotyping e.g., lumping together all people of a particular race, religion or
ethnicity, for example lumping a group of people as terrorists or a whole tribe as stupid?
7. Been threatened by someone who is different from you because of your difference?
8. Committed an act of violence against someone because that person was different from
you?
9. Witnessed violence in your school?

B. Debrief and discuss:

• What forms of violence can you find in the examples above? (Physical, psychological…)
• Is violence always physical?
• Why do you think people tell religious or ethnic jokes about other groups, insult others,
or exclude them socially?
• Where do you think people learn to disrespect people who seem different?
56 Peace Education manual

15.2. Gallery walk - Pyramid of hate (50’)

A. Introduce briefly five levels of the Pyramid of hate, so that the participants understand
the words. Don’t give examples yet – tell that in the next activity they will come up with the
examples themselves.

B. Write each level of the Pyramid of Hate into a large paper (or divided blackboard):
1. Biased attitudes
2. Individual acts of prejudice/bias
3. Discrimination
4..Bias-motivated violence
5. Genocide

Hang or place the themes in various places around the classroom or outside to create five sta-
tions. If you have a big group, you can have 2-3 stations with the same theme. If you have only
a blackboard, you can make ‘thinking stations’ around the classroom and only the recorders
visit the blackboard to read the answers of others and write down new answers.
Share the participants into five groups and each group starts at a different station. Ask the
groups to decide who is a recorder or tell them to switch recorders at each station. At the first
station the group discusses and writes down 1-3 examples of the level of violence to exemplify
each level. Walk around to monitor the groups and help them if necessary. After 3-5 minutes,
have the groups rotate to the next station. Participants read and discuss the previous group’s
response and add content of their own. Repeat after all groups have visited each station. In
the end have participants to go back to their first station to read all that was added to their
first response.

C. After the Gallery walk, introduce the Pyramid of hate to the participants properly. Draw a
pyramid on the blackboard or flipchart and share it to five sections. Review each level of the
Pyramid of hate starting from the bottom and go through their own examples from the Gallery
walk-activity. Add examples if needed.
 The Pyramid shows biased behaviors, growing in complexity from the bottom to the top. Although the
behaviors at each level negatively impact individuals and groups, as one moves up the pyramid, the
behaviors have more life-threatening consequences. Like a pyramid, the upper levels are supported by CONFLICT 57
the lower levels. If people or institutions treat behaviors on the lower levels as being acceptable or
“normal,” it results in the behaviors at the next level becoming more accepted. In response to the
questions of the world community about where the hate of genocide comes from, the Pyramid of Hate
demonstrates that the hate of genocide is built upon the acceptance of behaviors described in the lower
levels of the pyramid.

© 2018 Anti-Defamation League

Source: https://www.adl.org/

D. Debrief and discuss with the same groups:

• In which levels have you witnessed/experienced violence? (Remind the participants
that they don’t need to share anything they don’t want)
• Share an example of genocide in which people were discriminated against based on
the race, ethnicity, religion etc (e.g., Rwandans, Armenians, Muslim Bosnians, Jews,
Native Americans, and Aboriginals of Australia).
• What level of the pyramid it would be easiest to intervene?
• Give any examples of activities they could organize at such a level to intervene and
prevent the hate from escalating.

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

58 Peace Education manual
58 Peace Education manual

15.3. Levels of violence (20’)

15.3. Levels of violence (20’)
A. Start by sharing aloud Jamil Salmi’s definition of violence with the participants. Jamil Salmi
A.
is Start by sharing
a global aloud
education Jamil
expert Salmi’s
and definition of violence with the participants. Jamil Salmi
economist.
is a global education expert and economist.

““
Any act that threatens a person’s physical or psychological integrity.”
Any act that threatens a person’s physical or psychological integrity.”
Jamil Salmi (1993) Violence and Democratic Society
Jamil Salmi (1993) Violence and Democratic Society

Ask the participants, how they understand this definition. Continue by telling them that when
Ask the participants,
conflict how they understand
occurs and individuals this definition.
or communities Continue
choose to resolve by telling
it through them that
violence, the when
result
conflict occurs Add
is distraction. and individuals or communities
that however, many peoplechoose
tend totodefine
resolveviolence
it through in violence, the result
narrow terms, and
isthat
distraction. Add that however, many people tend to define violence in narrow
this lesson is meant to help them understand violence and its dynamics at a deeper levelterms, and
that this lesson
so that they areisinmeant
bettertoposition
help them understand
to address signsviolence and
of it early its dynamics at a deeper level
own.
so that they are in better position to address signs of it early own.
B. Introduce the levels of violence. According to Van Soest & Bryant (1995), violence happens
B.
at Introduce theindividual,
three levels: levels of violence. According
institutional, to Van Soest & Bryant (1995), violence happens
and structural-cultural.
at three levels: individual, institutional, and structural-cultural.

Visible Area INDIVIDUAL

Invisible,
Submerged INSTITUTIONAL
Area

STRUCTURAL-CULTURAL
 CONFLICT 59

1. Individual level (visible area): The top of the triangle represents harmful actions against
people or property. The violence at this level, which is the type of violence most often
considered and quickly condemned, is the most visible and the easiest form to assess,
because it usually involves direct actions and means and immediate consequences.
The perpetrator and his/her motivations and the victim and his/her injuries can be
identified and assessed.
2. Institutional Level (invisible, submerged area): The institutional level of violence is
submerged from view so that its forms are almost completely invisible. Violence at
this level includes harmful actions by social institutions and their various organizational
units that inhibit social progress and development of individuals from certain groups,
while giving undue advantage to others. Institutional violence is more complex than
individual violence because it’s not very visible. It’s indirect and undercover but may
have long term and more dangerous consequences.
3. Structural-Cultural Level (invisible, submerged area): The base of the triangle is a firmly
embedded foundation containing the normative and ideological roots of violence that
undergird and give rise to the institutional and individual levels. The structure of social
reality, conventional values, and everyday social relations form a collective way of thinking
that becomes part of both individual and societal psyches. Williams (1979) described
how value orientations, repeatedly experienced and reformulated by large numbers of
persons over extended periods, will eventually become intellectualized as components
of a comprehensive world view. A given subset of value orientations may so monopolize
attention and legitimacy as to constitute the very context (or framework) within which
more particular ideologies and major societal and political issues are defined, discussed
and fought over. This comprehensive worldview provides the cultural foundation for
institutions that function as mechanisms for the race and gender programming that
ensure structural inequality. Change at this level involves strong psychological tensions
and ambivalence and accentuated polarization between advocates of change and
defenders of deeply held values.

C. .Debrief and discuss together or in small groups:

• How has your definition of violence changed as a result of the knowledge we just shared?
• Can we share examples of forms of violence in our communities based on Jamil Sal-
mi’s definition of violence?
• Give examples of individual/ visible forms of violence you have witnessed in your
community and work place based on Van Soest & Bryant’s definition of individual
levels of violence.
• Give examples of institutional, and structural-cultural levels of violence in your com-
munity and workplace based on Van Soest & Bryant’s conceptualization of violence.
• How do the different levels of violence feed or relate to each other?

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

60 Peace Education manual

16. CONFLICT STYLES 90 minutes

Objectives • To learn and understand different conflict styles

• To reflect one’s own conflict styles
• To reflect on how the conflicts can be avoided

Materials • Tape or string to mark the line for Pull activity

Notes for a facilitator • Preparation: make a long straight line in the middle of the
room using tape or string.
• Conflict is an age-sensitive topic. If you have young par-
ticipants, use examples suitable for their age and monitor
the conversation.

16.1. Warm up (15’)

Start the lesson with a brief and energizing warm up game of your peace club’s choice. It can
be one of the warm up games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If pos-
sible, let some of the participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

16.2. Pull activity (35’)

A. Prepare by making a long straight line in the middle of the room using tape or string. Ask for
10 volunteers (5 pairs) for this activity). Ask each pair to position themselves standing opposite
each other (facing each other), one foot away from the line (with the line in between them).
Make sure the line is long enough so that the 5 pairs are not cramped up and have space to
move. Give the group the following instruction once:
1. To the rest of the group: please observe the volunteers and take notes if you want.
2. To the 5 pairs: you have 2 minutes to accomplish your task. Your task is to get the person
in front of you (your partner) on your side of the line.

Start the activity and observe the strategies the pairs are using when trying to get the pair to
their side. After 2 minutes, stop the activity and ask participants to sit in a circle.

B. Debrief and discuss:

First ask the observers to share what they have seen and then take each pair and ask them to
share about their process: what did they do? Did they accomplish their task?

C. Then introduce the conflict management styles one by one and emphasize on the win/win,
win/lose aspects. Explain that everyone has their own responses to conflict and there are a
number of different conflict styles. Your conflict resolution style can be determined from how
you respond to a situation and is influenced by your concerns over the relationships and the
issue about which you have a disagreement. These are the five main styles of conflict resolution:
 CONFLICT 61

1. Avoiding: Walk away from the situation, ignore it, or deny that there is a problem.

Avoiding can either be physical or psychological and involves one having less concern for
self and other actor’s interests in a given conflict situation. Avoiding is best used when
an issue is trivial to you, where there is no long-term relationship with the other conflict
parties, or when you are a lower party to the conflict.

2. .Accommodating: Do what others want, even if you disagree or it is not what you want.

This involves demonstrating concern for other actor’s interests and needs in a conflict
and ignoring your own. You may be accommodative when the conflict issues are trivial
to you, when the relationship with the other conflicting parties is more important, or
when you want to build trust in the other by demonstrating a protection of their interests

3. .Competing/forcing: Try to convince someone of your point or stand up for what you
believe; getting what you want, no matter what.

Here you focus on achieving your own needs and interests in a conflict situation, while
ignoring needs of the other actors in the conflict. Competing is useful when stakes are
high, and other parties to the conflict are in competition with you too.

4. Compromising: Make a compromise. Each person wins some and loses some.

This is a win-lose situation where you show concern for your own needs and interests in
a conflict but are also willing to lose your own benefit in the conflict for the sake of the
other parties. Compromise is desirable when you want to maintain relationships with the
other conflicting parties, where you feel letting go of some of your needs is trivial to you,
or where to know there are no other opportunities to share among the conflicting parties

5. Collaborating: Find a solution that makes everyone happy by looking closely at the
sources of conflict.

When you are interested in maximizing your own gains as well as the others in a given
conflict situation, and are even committed to working together with other conflict parties
to find solutions to the conflict. Collaborating is very desirable when you are involved
in are long term relation with the other conflicting parties or when collaboration makes
the work load lighter.

D. While the volunteers are still in the middle of the room, ask them to show (1 pair each) each
of the conflict management styles/strategies in this activity (avoidance, accommodation,
competition, compromising, collaboration).

Source: Youth 4 peace training toolkit

62 Peace Education manual

16.3. Living statues - Different conflict styles (40’)

A. Statues is drama activity in which the participants shape quickly their own bodies to create
a frozen “statue” that represents the situation.
Invite the pairs to find their own space in the room and ask them to make “a statue” of
a conflict situation between two persons. It can be some situation they’ve experienced or
witnessed or an imaginary conflict. Encourage them to use their whole bodies including their
faces. In the end, ask them to give the statue a name (e.g., “Who does the housework?” or
“Don’t be always late!”)

B. When the pairs have formed their statue, ask one pair at the time first say the name of their
statue and then hold it. Others look at the statue and interpret the seen conflict situation. If
you have a big group, you can divide into groups of 10 to look and discuss about the statues.
You can ask few observers their thoughts about the statue. The statue remains quiet and
motionless.
Then, ask one of the participants to name one of the learned conflict styles. After getting a
conflict style, the statue comes alive and starts moving and talking. The pair improvises and
ends their conflict with the given conflict style.

Example situation:
– Statue “Who does the homework?”: a mother and daughter argue over whether
the daughter can see her friends or whether she needs to do housework
– Conflict style: Compromising
– End of the conflict: They make a deal, that the daughter helps first with cooking
and cleaning and after that she can still play with her friends

C. Debrief and discuss after the activity in pairs or small groups:

• How did it feel to present a conflict situation?
• How did it feel to end the conflict with a given conflict style?
• What things affect the choice of a conflict style?
• What happens if both of the parties have different conflict styles?
• Which conflict style would fit the best in your conflict situation?

D. Conclude by telling it is important to recognize the feelings we experience in a dispute - are

we stressed, do we have a desire to compete, are we withdrawing or are we cooperating? The
most effective way is to find a solution together, but we all have our own style of resolving
conflicts. Over time, we can also learn new, more constructive ways.
 CONFLICT 63

17. CONFLICT ANALYSIS 90 minutes

Objectives • To reflect on conflicts in participants’ own communities

• To understand the concept of conflict analysis and why
it matters.
• To enable youth to understand how to undertake a
conflict analysis.
• To apply the concept of conflict analysis to investigation
and reflection on the compendium of conflict in Uganda

Materials • Markers
• Blackboard/Flip charts
• Sticky notes
• Masking tape
• Optional (for finding information for conflict analysis):
computers or phones with internet books or printed
information about different conflicts, some teachers
(e.g., history and geography teacher) to share knowledge
and help the groups

Notes for a facilitator • Conflict is an age-sensitive topic. If you have young par-
ticipants, use examples suitable for their age and monitor
the conversation.

17.1. Warm up: Pair discussion (10’)

A. Divide the participants in pairs. Ask them to think of a conflict between two persons that
they have witnessed and share it with their group. Reiterate that what is discussed during this
workshop is meant to stay in the workshop and should be kept confidential.

B. Ask the pairs to discuss:

• What was the spark/trigger of the conflict?
• Who was involved in the conflict? Do they have equal power?
• What do you think are the conflict styles of the two actors?
• Think and reflect back about how you felt when you heard and saw the conflict?
• How did you feel?
• What was your reaction? (Did you watch, but not do anything? Did you support one of
the parties? Did you try to help resolve or did you remove yourself from the situation?)

Source: Youth Peace Ambassador Training guide, UMYDF Peace Manual

64 Peace Education manual

17.2. Conflict analysis (40’)

A. After your group is clear on the basic concepts of conflict and violence, continue by em-
phasizing the importance of analysing a conflict: before attempting to address any conflict
(apparent situation of disagreement) one must understand its context, the actors involved,
needs and interests from the different actors, what divides them, what connects, etc.
Before starting, you can also give an example of conflict analysis with some local conflict
(e.g., South Sudan South-Sudan.) Tell about the actors, issues, interests, capacities and history
of the conflict. You can find the conflict analysis worksheet on attachment 4 and an example
of the conflict analysis of the Rwanda genocide in attachment 5.

B. Divide the participants into small groups of about 5-6 people. Assign each group a different
level of conflict. If you have a big number of participants, there can be more than one group
with the same level and they can then choose different conflicts.
• Group 1: Example of an inter-personal conflict
• Group 2: Example of an intra-group conflict
• Group 3: Example of a communal conflict (e.g., Karimojong Cattle Rustling)
• Group 4: Example of a national level conflict (e.g., South Sudan, Lord’s Resistance
Army, Libya, Ethiopia-Tigray conflict, Burma-Rohingya etc.)
• Group 5: Example of an international conflict (e.g., DRC conflict, Al-Shabaab-Somalia
conflict, Russia-Ukraine conflict etc.)

Give each small group a big piece of paper and markers. Ask the participants to first discuss
and choose a conflict they want to analyse.

Note: If you have a beginner group, help the participants to select a conflict not too compli-
cated for them.

C. Ask the groups to collect what the know about the conflict by answering to the questions
mentioned below on their notebook or paper. If possible, prepare some tools and materials
for collecting information in the classroom (e.g., computers/phones with internet, books or
printed information about different conflicts). You can also ask if some of the school teachers
(e.g., history and geography teacher) could join the Peace club meeting to share their knowledge
of the conflicts and help the groups.

Variation: You can also task the groups to return home with the questions and find more
information about the conflict for example from elders and online, so that they can analyse
the conflict later with full facts. Then in the next Peace Club meeting the groups can get back
to the analysis in detail.

Questions for conflict analysis:

• Actors: Who are the parties to this conflict? Is it between individuals, local communities,
two nationals, or many nations? What is the relationship between the actors involved?
• Issues: What are the issues driving the conflict? What does each party want? Is it about
economic gain, political control, social control, or a clash of socio-economic beliefs?
• Interests: Why does each party want what they want?
 CONFLICT 65

• Capacities: What are the capacities of the different actors to resolve or cause an esca-
lation of the conflict in question? Capacity can be in the form of financial capacity,
military capacity, support networks, or local knowledge.
• History: How long has the conflict been going on? In what ways have the different
conflicting parties been resolving the conflict over the years? Why were the conflict
resolution methods used earlier unsuccessful? Have new actors joined the conflict
over the years? If yes, who are they and what are their interests.

D. When the conflict analyses are ready, ask the groups to present them to others.

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

17.3. Conflict tree (40’)

After analysing the conflict every group makes a conflict tree for other groups to review. The
trunk represents the core issue (the conflict), the roots are the causes and the branches are
the results/consequences of the conflict.

A. Give the groups large papers and markers. Ask them to draw a large tree on the paper and
write the name of the conflict/problem on the tree trunk.

B. Have the group members think of different causes for the problem and write all the causes
on separate sticky notes. Attach these sheets to the tree roots. You can arrange the sheets
so that similar causes are close to each other. The group will make sure that every cause has
been accounted for. If you don’t have sticky notes, ask the group to write the “roots” (=causes)
straight on the paper.
When the roots are ready, have the group move on to the branches. Ask each of the group
members to think about the effects of the conflict/problem and write them on different
coloured sticky notes. Attach these to the treetop. You can arrange them in the same way you
arranged the causes in the roots. If you don’t have sticky notes, you can just write the results/
consequences on the branches of the tree. Note: Depending on the complexity of the conflict,
the groups might realize that the consequences might also be root causes and vice versa.
Finally, ask the group to make sure they have written all the effects down. After this, have
the group draw proposals for a solution as ‘bugs’ in the tree. Place the bugs (=solutions) into
the tree according to which cause or effect they can solve. Usually, the best solutions are the
ones that solve the cause and not the effect!

C. Have the groups hare their conflict trees with the rest of the group. Ask the group to revise
and improve the problem tree on the basis of the new information that might come from
the other groups. In the end hang the conflict trees on the wall of the school as an exhibition.

Source: Taksvärkki, Youth4Peace training toolkit

66 Peace Education manual

18. NEGOTIATION AND MEDIATION 90 minutes

Objectives • Introduce trainees to the definitions of negotiation and

mediation
• To expose participants to the benefits of mediation and
negotiation as channels for non-violent conflict resolution
• Explore process and procedures of a negotiation process
• Explore process, procedures and best practices in medi-
ation of conflict

Materials • Objects (pens, fruits, vegetables or equivalent) for the

pair argument
• Computer (or projector/television) for watching the video

Notes for a facilitator • The video of Betty Bigombe is age-sensitive. Watch it

before the session to see if it’s suitable for your participants.

18.1. Warm up: Betty Bigombe (25’)

A. Watch a video Betty Bigombe: Building Peace in Uganda from YouTube. Betty Bigombe is a
Ugandan peacebuilder. For more than two decades, she has been involved in negotiation and
mediation efforts to resolve the long-running conflict between the government of Uganda and
the Lord’s Resistance Army. She continues to work for a peaceful end to the country’s violence.

B. Debrief and discuss:

• What stood out to you in this story?
• What risks did Betty face as she engaged with the Lord’s Resistance Army?
• How Betty Bigombe’s gender affected her work as a peacebuilder and ability to works
with the Lord’s Resistance Army?
• How would you describe Betty? Are these characteristics gender-specific?
• Do you know some other women working for peace around the world? Who are they
and what do they do?
• What kind of qualities and skills you need to have to able to meditate a conflict and
build peace?
• How can you develop these qualities in yourself?

18.2. Negotiation – pair argument (35’)

A. Share with the participants a famous quote from Albert Einstein, German-born physicist who
developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921:

“ We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created
them.”

Albert Einstein
 CONFLICT 67

Ask the participants to share, what they think the quote means. After hearing couple of thoughts,
conclude the discussion by telling, that creativity is many times the key to conflict resolution: you
have to look for ideas outside the usual and familiar patterns and understand different point
of views. There are many ways to mediate conflicts and disputes. It often takes time to find a
solution that satisfies everyone. Everyone must be consulted and all parties should be allowed
to express their views and their thoughts. The more possible solutions we come up with, the
more options we have to resolve the conflict peacefully and constructively. The other party is
also less likely to resort to violence if they feel they have few options. Also, the more the parties
begin to trust each other, the lower the risk of violence. And the more clearly the real goals of
each are known, the more room is left for creativity and finding new solution.

B. Tell, that negotiation and mediation are both conflict resolution techniques. Introduce the
difference between them to the participants.

• Negotiation is a process in which parties with conflicting interest come together to dis-
cuss and decide the outcome which can be adopted to manage and resolve the dispute.

Example: Ugandan peacebuilder Betty Bigombe (introduced in the beginning of the

lesson) represented the Government of Uganda in negotiations with Joseph Kony. Betty
was part of government of Uganda herself.

• Mediation is an assisted negotiation in which a mediator is appointed by the par-

ties concerned so as to listen to both the parties and assist them in finding a better
solution. The mediator has to be a neutral third-party they both trust and respect.

Example: Kofi Annan mediated between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki after the 2007
post-election violence in Kenya. As a globally respected diplomat, Mr. Annan mediated
the conflict on behalf of the African Union, which ultimately led to dealing with violence
that had erupted in Kenya.

C. Divide participants into pairs. Give each pair one object (it can be a pen, a fruit, a vegetable…). Tell
them they're arguing which one of them will get the object and they need to come up with as many
alternative ways as possible to resolve the conflict. Do not give any further instructions, even if partic-
ipants have any questions. If desired, place the object on the table equally far from both participants.
Then give them 10-15 minutes to negotiate and come up with solutions and write them on paper.

D. Ask the pairs to read aloud the results of their reflection and give each idea a number (or
numbers), which correlates to a list of five items:
1. Y wins and X loses
2. X wins and Y loses
3. Both parties will reach a compromise
4. Both parties withdraw / disappear
5. The parties work together to find a solution and overcome the conflict
6. together (settle above the conflict).

E. End the exercise by telling, that you will try to solve a conflict with a mediator in the next activity.

Source: Ahtisaari-päivä
68 Peace Education manual

18.3. Mediation – pair argument with mediators (30’)

A. Ask all the pairs to form a group with another pair. Ask one of the pairs repeat the same
argument (or come up with a new one, if you wish) and act it in front of the other pair. The
other pair acts as mediators and tries to help them to come up with a win-win solution. The
mediators need to listen to both of parties individually and together and try to suggest the
best possible solution. After 5-10 minutes, change roles.

B. After the activity, ask the groups to reflect their solutions and give the solutions again a
number(s), which correlate the list introduced in the previous exercise (18.2. D).

C. Debrief and discuss:

• What did it feel like to be part of the conflict?
• How was the communication between the pair? Did it change over time?
• What did the pair say to each other? Did they ask questions or did they make demands?
Did they try to understand the other party and their reason for pursuing the item?
• How would you describe a good negotiator?
• How the reconciliation process was different with a third-party mediator?
• What kind of skills you need to be able to mediate a conflict?

D. Conclude by saying, that one of the most important skills of a peace mediator is the ability
to negotiate and ask good questions. If you have to in the middle of a dispute, one must try
to understand the other party (or partner, depending on the point of view). If we do not know
what the other party wants, we cannot reach a compromise, let alone a win-win situation. The
key questions are to try to figure out what the other party says they want (position) but also
what they really want (goal). Negotiation at a deeper, more concrete level of “objectives” is
much more fruitful than at a superficial level of “positions”.

Source: Ahtisaari-päivä
 CONFLICT 69

19. RECONCILIATION AND PROBLEM SOLVING 90 minutes

Objectives • To practice team work and problem solving

• Identify the elements of reconciliation.
• To reflect on how the conflicts c

Materials • Flipcharts/large papers

• Pens and markers

Notes for a facilitator • Remember to mix the groups. You can find games for
forming the groups in attachment 1.

19.1. Warm up: The knot (25’)

The idea of the game is to form a human knot out of the participant’s arms. The goal is to
untangle the knot without letting go of the hands you are holding. After untangling, you will
be standing once again in a regular circle, without any joined hands in the middle.

A. Start by forming a large circle or divide the group for 2-3 different circles. The ideal number
of players for this game is 8 - 20, though you can play with as few as five people. Ask the
participants to stand shoulder to shoulder. First, instruct everyone to lift their left hand and
reach across to take the hand of someone standing across the circle. Next, have everyone
lift their right and reach across to take the hand of another person standing across the circle.
Make sure that no one is holding hands with someone standing directly beside the person.
The group must communicate and figure out how to untangle the knot without ever letting
go of any hands. Not all human knots are solvable and can remain knots or may end up as
two or more circles. To increase the difficulty level, participants can be blindfolded or required
that the game be played without talking.

B. Debrief & discuss:

• How well do you think the group worked together?
• What do you think you should have done differently?
• What did you learn from this activity that can be applied in everyday life?

19.2. Reconciliation flower (45’)

A. Divide participants into small groups. Ask the small groups to draw a flower on their piece
of paper, and then ask them: “If reconciliation were a flower, what does it need to bloom?” For
example, what would be the earth, water, oxygen, sunshine, roots, etc.? Ask groups to draw
those elements on their flower petals and leaves.

B. After groups have drawn their picture, have them briefly present them to the rest of the group.
70 Peace Education manual

C. Debrief and discuss:

During the discussion, ask participants to identify similarities and differences across the dif-
ferent images – highlight any cultural and religious differences that may be evident.
• Why did your group include those particular elements?
• How does culture or religion affect reconciliation processes?
• Would your flower have the same elements if it were planted in a different country or
context?

Source: Peacebuilding: A Caritas training manual

19.3. Where do you stand? – Conflict (20’)

Repeat the ‘Where do you stand’ activity (8.3.) after the whole Conflict module. You can use
and modify this activity every time you want to evaluate learning, collect feedback or get to
know participant’s feelings or thoughts.

Examples of statements in the end of the Conflict module:

• I’ve learned something new about conflict in the Peace club.
• The Pyramid of Hate illustrates the prevalence of bias, hate and oppression in our
society.
• I remember all the five levels of conflict.
• I can name at least one ongoing war.
• Hate speech is violence.
• I’ve reflected my own conflict styles after learning about them.
• I’ve tried a new conflict style after learning about them.
• Accommodation is a useful conflict style, in my opinion.
• Listening and asking questions are important skills for a negotiator.
• I was introduced to some new learning methods.
71
72 Peace Education manual
 PEACEBUILDING 73

Peacebuilding
6 lessons

20. WHAT IS PEACE? 90 minutes

Objectives • To explore definitions and theories of peace

• To explore levels and indicators of peace
• To understand the difference between positive and neg-
ative peace
• To form one’s own definition on peace

Materials • Blackboard/flip chart/manila paper

• Chalk/markers
• Sticky notes/paper
• Optional: Music (phone, laptop, speakers)

Notes for a facilitator • With an advanced group you can also introduce the con-
cepts of inner, environmental and social peace.

20.1. Warm up: Two tigers (25’)

A. Start the session by sharing this reflective short story “Two tigers”:

There was once an old man who told a group of youths in his village, “I have two tigers
struggling with each other inside of me. The first is the tiger of peace, love and kindness.
The other tiger is fear, greed and hatred.”
Which tiger will win, grandfather?” asked the young boys and girls. The old man calmly
answered: “Whichever one I feed.”

B. Continue by asking an open question:

We face conflicts daily, perhaps every hour or even more often for some. However, the
way we deal with this conflict is our own choice. Who do we feed? The first tiger of peace,
love and kindness, or the second tiger of fear, greed and hatred inside us?

Ask the participants to take out their notebooks and pens and to sit alone for few minutes to
reflect on this question, the story they heard, the feelings they sensed or felt, and the experiences
related to that, through drawings, doodles, poetry, etc. Let the participants know that they are
not required to share their notebooks or hand them in. They may share later with someone
only if they choose to. You can play quiet music in the background, if you want.
74 Peace Education manual

C. Debrief & discuss:

• What is the lesson of this short story?
• What positive qualities (knowledge, skills and values) do I have and contribute to my
community as a peacebuilder?
• What can I do to improve my inner peace?
• What can I do to improve internal group cohesion and peaceful coexistence in my own
communities, for example at school?

Source: CRS - Youth Peace Ambassador Training Guide

20.2. Definitions and indicators of peace (35’)

A. Divide the participants into pairs or small groups. Share them sticky notes or paper and ask
them to first discuss and then write down a definition of peace.

B. Ask the participants to come and stick/tape the definition on the flipchart, blackboard or
a wall. Read or ask some of the participants to read the definitions aloud. Emphasize that
there are multiple perspectives about peace, and that they should keep their minds open to
different perspectives.

C. After sharing, ask the same pairs/small groups to continue discussion and think about at
least 3 indicators for peace and write them on sticky notes or papers. Collect them around the
definitions of peace and read again aloud.

D. Debrief and discuss together:

• What differences and similarities have you notices in all the definitions shared?
• What difference and similarities have you seen in the peace indicators presented?
• Why do you think the difference arose? (Only if any differences where highlighted)

20.3. Positive and negative peace (30’)

A. According to the Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, we should distinguish between
positive peace and negative peace. Take participants through concepts of positive peace and
negative peace.

• Negative peace describes the absence of overt violence. Galtung assumes that negative
peace is always unstable and will eventually result in violent conflict. Negative peace,
for instance, would be a context where the war ended. However, that would not mean
that parties affected by the armed conflict have found reparation and reconciliation.
• Positive peace stands for the ideal state of a world without any violence, overt or covert
(structural). In a world of positive peace, social injustices would be entirely absent in
so that everyone is able to achieve their full potential. Referring to the earlier example,
positive peace would then be that context where there is the presence of all conditions
necessary to promote justice and peaceful coexistence.
 PEACEBUILDING 7575
PEACEBUILDING

WHAT
WHATISISPOSITIVE
POSITIVEPEACE?
PEACE?

– +
NEGATIVE POSITIVE
PEACE PEACE
...is the absence of ...is the attitudes,
violence or fear of institutions & structures
violence that create and sustain
peaceful societies

Source: Galtung and the Conflict Triangle, Maria Hernandez, https://sites.chapman.edu/capstoneprojectsinpeace-

Source: Galtung and the Conflict Triangle, Maria Hernandez, https://sites.chapman.edu/capstoneprojectsinpeace-
studies/2019/02/22/galtung-and-the-conflict-triangle/comment-page-1/
studies/2019/02/22/galtung-and-the-conflict-triangle/comment-page-1/

B.B.Continue
Continueworking
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Askthe
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reflecton
onreal
reallife
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C.C.After
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Source: UMYDF Peace Manual
Source: UMYDF Peace Manual
76 Peace Education manual

21. PEACEBUILDING 90 minutes

Objectives • To understand what is peacebuilding

• To get motivated to build peace
• To equip youth with key knowledge, skills and attitudes
for peacebuilding
• To reflect on their own knowledge, skills an attitude as
peacebuilders

Materials • Flip chart/Blackboard

• Markers/Chalk
• Paper/notebooks
• Pens (preferably coloured pens)

Notes for a facilitator • Make sure that students understand the concept of peace
building for example by using following quotation: “Peace-
building is fundamentally about dealing with the reasons
why people fight in the first place, while also supporting
societies to manage their differences and conflicts without
resorting to violence. “
Source: International-alert.org

21.1. Warm up: The Parable of the Quarry (25’)

A. Read the Italian folklore “The parable of the Quarry” below or ask one of the participants
to read it.
One day, a woman walked through a quarry and asked three different workers what they
were doing. The first worker responded, “I am here breaking stones.”
The woman walked on through the quarry and asked a second worker the same
question. The second responded, “I am earning a living.”
She walked farther yet and asked a third worker the same question. The third responded,
“I am building a bridge!”

B. First, ask the participants, how they think these three answers could relate to peacebuild-
ing. Then invite them to think about how the three answers from the quarry workers help us
understand peacebuilding better:
1. Sometimes we are just breaking stones, and we are focused on the immediate task,
which is very hard work.
2. Sometimes we are focused on earning a living, which is important for our survival and
our family’s survival and health.
3. Sometimes we also understand that our work is part of a much larger vision that involves
many other workers; hewing stone is part of building a bridge for the community, and
working on local relationships and programs is part of building long-term peace for
many to enjoy.
 PEACEBUILDING 77

C. Debrief and discuss:

• Do you think these three laborers can always work in harmony? Why or why not?
• What kind of disagreements or conflicts you think these laborers could face?
• Who do you think could be best qualified to be the foreman of the quarry: the man
with the vision (building bridge), the man with a zest for technical skills (breaking
stones), or the man with his feet on the ground and a penchant for personal finance
(earning living)? Why?
• Can you come up with some real-life examples of being a peace builder: when do we
“break stones”, “earn living” or “build a bridge”?

Source: Peacebuilding – A Caritas Training Manual, CRS - Youth Peace Ambassador Training guide

21.2. Mind map – Peacebuilding (30’)

A. Tell the participants that the objective of this activity is to understand, how broad concept
peacebuilding is. It includes a wide range of different actions and efforts by diverse actors. It
aims at improving the quality of life by preventing, reducing, transforming and helping people
to recover from violence in all forms. Peacebuilding creates the capacity within communities
to meet all forms of human needs and rights.

B. Write the word “peacebuilding” on the flipchart or blackboard and add questions around
the word (what, who, where, when, why).
Explain, that:
• “What?” refers to peacebuilding activities
• “Who?” refers to people, organisations or other parties working for peace
• “Where?” refers to places or areas where peacebuilding is needed
• “When?” refers to situations when peacebuilding is needed
• “Why?” refers to reasons why we need peacebuilding

C. Divide the participants into pairs and give each pair one of these questions (1.-5.) to discuss.
Ask them to write answers on the question either on sticky notes or their notebook.

• If you have sticky notes, share them to all and ask them to write/draw only one idea
on each note. If they have more ideas on the same topic, they must write each idea
on separate notes. When all the participants have written their answers, ask them to
come and put them under the right question.
• If you don’t have sticky notes, give the participants a moment to collect their thoughts
(they can use notebooks/writing paper if needed) and then come and write their
thoughts directly on flipcharts or the black board.

D. When all participants are ready and you have all the answers under each question, you can
group them and read a few of them aloud.

E. Debrief & discuss:

• Did you learn or realize something new during this activity?
• Do you think peacebuilding is more like a process or a goal? (Correct answer: It’s both!
It is a means to an end.)
78 Peace Education manual

21.3. Head, hands, heart – our knowledge,

skills and attitudes (35’)

A. Share the participants paper and pend or ask them to open their notebooks. Ask them to
draw a simple figure with a head, arms and hands—and a heart—on paper, horizontally.

B. Explain that...
• a head represents knowledge
• hands represent skills
• a heart represents attitudes

C. Ask participants to reflect and then write or draw on the paper next to each body part:
• Head: what do I know that can contribute to peace? (What do I want to know?)
• Hands: what skills or talents do I have to contribute to peacebuilding? (What do I feel
like I need to learn?)
• Heart: what values and attitudes do I have that help peacebuilding? (What values and
attitudes do I have that hinder peacebuilding?)

Ask participants to write (or draw) these answers on the same page, preferably using a different
colour marker, for example: black for head, blue for arms and hands and red for heart.

D. When everyone is ready, ask them to hang their papers on the wall of the room. Ask a few
volunteers to briefly share their drawing.

E. Conclude that participants around the room already have a lot of knowledge, skills and
attitudes that contribute to Peacebuilding.

Source: CRS- Youth Peace Ambassador Training guide

 PEACEBUILDING 79

22. REFLECTING ON PEACE 90 minutes

Objectives • To get motivated to build peace

• To equip youth with key knowledge, skills and attitudes
for peacebuilding
• To reflect on peace through a creative activity

Materials • Notebooks/paper
• Pens
• Optional: Coloured pens

Notes for a facilitator • Instead of writing a poem students can also write lyrics
for song.

22.1. Warm up: Speed dating – Peacebuilding (20’)

Repeat the ‘Speed dating’ activity (3.1.) with peacebuilding-theme. The method can be used for
various topics when you want participants to exchange their views, or if you want to stimulate an
exchange of thoughts before collecting the ideas (e.g., perception of an issue, evaluation, etc.).
Play some music and tell participants to move around the space. Ask participants to find
a pair (or optionally a small group) every time the music stops. If you don’t have music, clap
your hands when you want the participants to stop moving and find a pair. Once they are in
pairs, provide a guiding question they can ask each other to start getting to know the person
who is in front of them. Examples of questions:
• What kind of skills and knowledge one needs to become a great peacebuilder?
• Do you think age or gender affects one’s possibilities or ability to work as a peacebuilder?
• What is your biggest motivation for getting involved in peacebuilding activities?
• Tell one experience of a conflict that you have witnessed, and what did you do.
• If you were to rewrite the history, what changes would you make?

Give them a few minutes before starting the music again and finding a new pair. In between
pairs the participants can just mingle around and dance if they feel like.

22.2. Peace Poetry (50’)

A. Read or watch a peace poem of your choice. There are two examples, you can use:

1. Watch Ugandan poet Hawa N. Kimbugve performing her poem Mirembe, they call it
or read it aloud.
80 Peace Education manual

Mirembe, they call it

If the world hates you,

Know that it hated me first
Prized out of me its trust so never do I quench my thirst
Because above me is gravity and beneath me is up thrust
Forces that pull and push me away
It’s only through hell and high water that I find my way

To a path,
A path filled with skulls, corpses and broken glasses
Hoping, skipping and jumping, I trot
And cave into a place I’d never crave, the grave.
To finally peace the pieces with in
But I lay restlessly here in
I still hear the homo sapiens on the other side
I hear men crying like women for what they can’t defend
I hear men becoming women in bid to amend the rend they fail to mend

I envision them walking with eyes covered with nets

Pockets full of pistols filled with bullets
Hearts out of their thoracic cavities
Their head raised high on top of their necks
Fingers pulling triggers
Their feet trembling on their heels tip toeing.

I view their souls collapsing in unrelenting agony

Trying hard to crawl out of this mess
Not to lose face
But it’s too late
We’re verily in total loss, mate
Innocent people lost lives to calamities so artificial
Guilty ones acting superficial

I’m compelled to ask myself

What is this? What is this?
What happened?
What happened to Shalom
Where harmony and laughter were louder than silence?
But now we Life is worse than a death sentence,
We live but as survivors
Existing only because Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Paris, Libya and Nigeria are not our residences
All we do is face book about their occupants’ incidences
And still remain with the moral audacity to introduce ourselves as human beings

I guess this is what they mean when they say “there’s a difference between a human
being and being human.”
 PEACEBUILDING 81

What happened? What happened to Mirembe?

Where we were concerned more about the neighbour next door than owning a Louis
Vuitton
But now we live encaged in gates and fences
With our eyes glue-stuck on movies and series,
That preach distrust, revenge, hatred and not Love, Trust, Forgiveness
So our happiness is derived from “anti-depressant pills”
Because trusting the media has got us thinking our closest allies may actually be our
greatest enemies.
Yet we heedfully pick leaves and amazons from it.

Whoa! On to us, for now our minds browse and process evil perceiving it as good business
Our actions are a delusion
An illusion of sorts,
Where we fight for Peace and Liberty
But we often take paths that lead us to crossroads that get us taking sides.
Where Abdul Raheem and Ibrahim can’t talk to Malcolm and Tom.
And Flower the mini skirtie can barely stand Hawa the hijabie

What happened to Salaam

Where unity was an SI unit of humanity
But now humanity has been narrowed and streamlined to flow along religious, cultural,
technical know who’s and racial lines.

Never considering the fact that these are just acquired impositions
And before all of them we are all humans

But we proceed by all means,

To live like a nest of cockroaches that camouflage and hide in crevices in the absence
of darkness
But wander about contaminating and predating whatever surrounds them in the absence
of light.
Only difference is cockroaches do not discriminate.

So I’m now unlearning to re-learn

To give Peace, Salaam, Shalom and Mirembe not names but attributes.
I’m seeking to give Peace, Salaam, Shalom and Mirembe
I’m giving to seek Peace, Salaam, Shalom and Mirembe.
…Peace, Salaam, Shalom and Mirembe…
…Peace, Salaam, Shalom and Mirembe…
82 Peace Education manual

2. Read aloud “A call for Peace” written by Ntezimaana Devis, a student and a Peace club
member from Kololo Secondary school in Kampala, Uganda.

A call for Peace

A Virtue, accompanied with Respect and Love

A foster of love, unimaginable
Peace!

That begins with an individual,

In family and spreads to community
Creating a means of mutual understanding between parents and their children
Parents bearing the special responsibility
To teach their children respect and love
That accompanies Peace,
Spread to those in their communities and trickle to the world

For when the love in us, for us over powers

The love for power
We all live in peace

If you cannot be a pencil to write Peace

In other people’s lives
Be a rubber to rub their pain

This is not a Poem

It’s a call for Peace
Spread Peace!

Discuss briefly about the poem(s) with the participants.

B. Ask the participants to write their own poems about peace independently or in pairs. They
can be performed later in some peace club activity, either at school or in the community. If
some participants finish the poems quickly, you can ask them to draw a picture of the poem.

C. If you have time, let the participants perform their poems for the others and discuss about
them:
• How did it feel to write and reflect on peace?
• Did you get new perspectives on peace when listening to other’s poems?
• Do you think one can make change with art (poetry, music, visual arts…)?

22.3. Cool down: Round of feelings (20’)

End the session with standing in a circle. Ask everyone to share their current feelings with a
one word or a short speech, depending on how much you have time left. Divide the turns by
throwing a small ball (or another soft object) from one participant to another. At the end of
their turn, the speaker says out loud to whom they are throwing the ball next.
 PEACEBUILDING 83

23. PEACEBUILDERS AS ROLE MODELS 90 minutes

Objectives • To get to know world-famous and local peacebuilders

and get inspired by them
• To find peacebuilders for role models
• To get examples about peacebuilding

Materials • Computer (or projector/television) for watching the video

• Internet or printed profiles of peacebuilders
• Cards/notes with the names of peacebuilders

Notes for a facilitator • Prepare the cards/notes with the names of peacebuilders
before the class.
• Arrange space to move in the classroom.

23.1. Warm up: Malala Yousufzai (15’)

Share with the participants a famous quote from Malala Yousufzai:

“ If you want to end the war then Instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of
sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers.”

Malala Yousafzai

Explain, that Malala Yousufzai is a Pakistani education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate. Awarded when she was 17, Malala became the youngest person to receive the Nobel
Peace Prize for her work. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of
women and children. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement.
After the quote, read Malala Yousufzai’s story aloud or watch a video Malala Yousufzai – The
Youngest Nobel Prize Winner from Youtube.

For the right of every child to receive an education

Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for the right of every
child to receive an education. She was born in the Swat Valley in Pakistan in 1997. When
the Islamic Taliban movement took control of the valley in 2008, girls’ schools were
burned down. Malala kept a diary of the events, which was published in 2009 by BBC
Urdu. In her diary she spoke out against the Taliban’s terrorist regime. An American
documentary film made Malala internationally famous.
It was not long before the Taliban threatened her life. In 2012, Malala was shot in the
head on a school bus by a Taliban gunman. She survived, but had to flee to England
and live in exile there because a fatwa was issued against her.
In 2013, TIME magazine named Malala one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the
World.” On her 16th birthday she spoke in the United Nations. In her speech Malala called for
the equal right to education for girls all over the world, and became a symbol of this cause.

Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/yousafzai/facts/
84 Peace Education manual

B. Debrief and discuss:

• What stood out to you in Malala Yousufzai’s story?
• How would you describe Malala?
• What risks and dangers did Malala face as an activist?
• How do you think Malala’s gender or age affected her work as a peacebuilder?
• Do you know some other young people working for peace around the world? Who are
they and what do they do?

23.2. Introducing peacebuilders (45’)

A. Start with discussion together or in small groups:
• Do people need role models? Why or why not?
• Do you have any role models? Let those who have role models mention examples.
• What qualities do you admire in your role models?
• What have been the benefits of having role models? (Make list of benefits of role models
prior to the class that you can share with the youth to supplement the conversation)
• How have you emulated your role models in your daily life?

B. Tell, that you will learn about some world-famous peace builders. Prepare by printing the
profiles of the peacebuilders (attachment 6) and writing numbers on them. Place the profiles
around the space (or even around the school compound): hang them on the wall, place them
on tables etc. Pair up and give each pair a number. If you are a big group, many pairs can have
a same number. Ask the pairs to find a peacebuilder profile with the same number they were
assigned and read about the peacebuilder.

C. After reading you can either

ask each pair to share their knowledge about their peacebuilder with the others or
ask them to find the next number and go through all of the peacebuilder profiles in pairs.

Variation: If you have internet access and computers/phones to use, you can also divide into
groups and ask the participants to find information about the peacebuilders themselves. In
the end each group can share their findings and knowledge with others.
They can also make boards about peacebuilders and hang them on the wall or organize an
exhibition in the school to share knowledge about the peacebuilders outside the Peace club.

Examples of peacebuilders

Jane Addams, Martti Ahtisaari, Kofi Annan, Awista Ayub, Betty Bigombe, Ralph Bunche, Jim-
my Carter, Henry Dunant, Shirin Ebadi, Elman family, Leymah Gbowee, Mikhail Gorbachev,
John Hume, Martin Luther King, Jr. Fredrik Willem de Klerk, Aung San Suu Kyi, Dalai Lama,
Jakob Lund, Nelson Mandela, Vanessa Nakate, Barack Obama, Theodore Roosevelt, Mayerly
Sanchez, Albert Schweitzer, Nayachangkouth Tai, Mother Teresa, David Trimble, Rigoberto
Menchu Tum, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Lech Walesa, Elie Wiesel, Woodrow Wilson, Liu Xiaobo

LOCAL PEACEBUILDERS
Ndugwa Hassan, Rt. Rev. Dr David. Zac Niringiye, Victor Ochen, Rt. Rev. Bishop Macleod Baker
Ochola II, The Most Rev. John Baptist Odama, Jolly Andruvile Okot, Simon Marot Touloung
 PEACEBUILDING 85

You can find the profiles of the peacebuilders that are underlined in attachment 6.

D. Debrief and discuss:

• Did you know any of these peacebuilders beforehand? Who? Where did you find out
about her/him?
• Who of these peacebuilders could be your role model? Why? What impressed you?
• Source: GPC Educator Toolkit

23.3. Party with the famous peacebuilders – role game (30’)

A. Play a game “Party with the famous peacebuilders”. The twist of the role game is, that the
participants do not know who they are – they need to find it out! Each participant is assigned
a role card with a name of a peacebuilder, that is then placed on his/her back or forehead
without them seeing the card. Make sure, you only add peacebuilders that you have intro-
duced to the participants. You can also hang the profiles of the peacebuilders on the wall for
help. Depending on the group size many participants can also have the same roles (without
knowing). Aspects and rules to go through before playing:
• Don’t cheat! Looking at the name on your card will spoil the fun.
• Only ask questions that the other players can answer with “yes” or “no” (e.g., “Are you
a woman?”, “Are you Ugandan?”, “Have you won the Nobel prize?” etc.).
• Try to answer questions as accurately as possible with your own knowledge.
• If a player asks a question that you don’t know the answer to, you are able to consult
other players.
• If, for any reason, a player can’t identify the peacebuilder when the time is running out,
you can agree to give him/her a couple of hints.

B. The participants start moving around and asking yes/no-questions to other players until
all the players identify their characters. If you have limited time, you can also decide together
on a number of questions that each player is allowed to ask. Anywhere from 10 to 20 sounds
reasonable enough.

Variation: To add some extra excitement to the game, you can have each player sit down as
soon as he/she guesses the character. The last one standing loses.
86 Peace Education manual

24. MEETING OR A FIELD VISIT WITH A LOCAL PEACE BUILDER(S)

Objectives • To get to know some local peace builder(s) and/or actors

• To inspire the Peace club members
• To give examples of taking action and making change
• To understand different approaches to peace
• To connect and possibly collaborate with local peace
builders
• To understand how to act as a peacebuilder outside of
school context

Materials • Notebooks and pens for participants for taking notes

Notes for a facilitator • You can either organize a field visit for the peace club or
invite some local peacebuilder(s) to visit your school.
• Contact the desired person/entity and make an appoint-
ment well in advance
• Make the necessary preparations before the field trip or
visit: transportation, food and drink, program etc.

23.1. Warm up: Malala Yousufzai (15’)

Share with the participants a famous quote from Malala Yousufzai:

“ Peacebuilding includes a wide range of efforts by diverse actors in government

and civil society at the community, national and international levels to address
.the immediate impacts and root causes of conflict before, during and after violent
conflict occurs.”

Lisa Schirch
Professor of the Practice of Peacebuilding & Tech
University of Notre Dame

Arrange a field visit or meeting with a local peacebuilder or other actor of interest. You can ask
ideas from your Peace club members and even vote, who they would like to meet.
You can inform Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum about your plans as well: you
can work in partnership to secure an opportunity for the youth to meet the role model or other
actor selected.
After you have determined how you will reach the peacebuilder or actor in question, work
with the youth to compose a letter to peacebuilder/another actor requesting to meet them.
Explain in the letter that it would be an interactive meeting where youth in a local peace club
ask questions. You can also suggest, that the questions can be complied and sent in advance.
If you secure the appointment, inform the Peace club about this progress, and organize a
second meeting to make an agenda and determine roles for the meeting (e.g., hosts, inter-
viewers, photographers etc.).
Work with Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum to coach the selected members and
 PEACEBUILDING 87

ensure they are confident and well set for the meeting. If the meeting shall require a translator,
ensure this is planned for in advance.
Additionally, if the peacebuilder sought after is international, consider organizing a virtual
meeting. It can be still highly interactive and exciting for the participants!
After the meeting, organize a debrief meeting with the youth to capture their experiences
and lessons learnt during this activity.

Examples of peacebuilders/actors/places to visit:

• a local or international peacebuilder (e.g., human rights activist)
• a non-profit organization (e.g., an expert, a director)
• a ministry (e.g., a minister, a specialist)
• an artist or a musician who takes a stand in peace with their art/music
• a mediator
• a journalist
• a security officer (e.g., a police)
• a university (e.g., a researcher, a professor)

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

88 Peace Education manual

25. IDEAL FUTURE 90 minutes

Objectives • Imaging a peaceful future and discuss how we could

build it
• To reflect on peace through a creative activity

Materials • Large papers (e.g., manila paper, flipcharts)

• Pens, crayons, paints…

Notes for a facilitator • The Ideal world can be drawn individually, in pairs or in
small groups.

25.1. Warm up: Think, breathe, peace – peace meditation (15’)

A. Tell the participants, that you will start with a peace mediation today. To be able to be a
successful peacebuilder, one has to find a peace within themselves. Tell that meditation is
a powerful way to calm yourself, even in conflicts and other stressful situations. Meditation
has been practiced in cultures all over the world for thousands of years. Nearly every religion,
including Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, has a tradition of using
meditative practices.
What is meditation? There are many different types of meditation, but in general, med-
itation can be defined as a set of techniques that are intended to encourage a heightened
state of awareness and focused attention. The goal is to really experience whatever you are
focusing on, whether it's your breath, a specific word, or an issue in order to reach a calm and
peaceful state of being. Meditation has been shown to have a wide number of benefits on
psychological well-being.

B. Ask the participants to sit in a comfortable position and close their eyes. Start guiding the
meditation with a calm voice. Tell the participants to…
• Close your eyes and relax your shoulders. Let go of any tension through your body.
• Inhale deeply, exhale fully. Focus on your breath for a few moments, allowing the
natural rhythm of your breathing to bring a sense of relaxation to you.
• Begin to think of a situation of conflict or unrest and construct a picture of it in front
of you. The situation could be with someone you know, for example a family member
or a friend, or perhaps of something that is happening in the world.
• Once this picture has formed, imagine you are breathing peace and calm down through
the crown and into your heart. As you breathe out send this peace and calm towards
the picture in front of you.
• Continue this for several breathes. Breathing in and drawing peace through the crown
to the heart, breathing out and sending peace towards the picture in front of you.
• Imagine the peace touching the people or places involved in the conflict, and see the
pain and suffering begin to dissolve and peace gradually take its place.
• Watch smiles and relief coming onto the faces of the people in your picture.
• When you feel the transformation is complete, allow the image in front of you to fade,
take your awareness to the peaceful and calm feeling which has hopefully filles you
and simply rest in silence.
 PEACEBUILDING 89

• Feel yourself centering, balancing and becoming present. Carry on with your day from
this space of peace, calm and presence.
• When you’re ready, you can start opening eyes at your own pace.

Give the participants some time to end the meditation before the debriefing.

C. Debrief and discuss:

• How did the meditation feel?
• Have you tried calming yourself during conflict or any difficult situation? How? Did
you succeed?
• Why do you think it’s important for a peacebuilder to know how to calm themselves?

D. Conclude by telling, that this meditation can be repeated independently as often as nec-
essary. You can also tell, that even only focusing on the breath is usually very powerful way of
finding serenity in the stressful conflict situations. Breath brings us into the present moment,
unravels tension and helps us to take challenges as we feel the world around us from a place
of peace and calm.

Source: https://www.worldpeaceflame.org/mediation/

25.2. Visualizing our ideal future (55’)

A. Ask the participants to think about 3-5 words that describes their ideal future world and
write them down on their notebooks. You can help them with asking:
• “What kind of world or society you would like for the next generation (your children or
grandchildren) to inherit?”

B. Divide the participants into small groups. Ask them to first share their descriptions of the
ideal future with each other.

C. Share them large papers (e.g., manila paper) and pens, crayons, paints or any other craft
supplies. Ask them to draw/paint/create a picture that represents their ideal future world. You
can make an exhibition of the pieces later, if you want.

D. When they finish, hang the pieces on the wall and let each group share their own vision briefly.

E. Debrief and discuss together on how to realize the visions. You can write the ideas on the
blackboard or flipchart.
• How can we as young people help to make this vision of peace actually happen?
• What will we and other people have to do to make these dreams real in the immediate
one to two years?
• What needs to happen in the next 5 years to make this happen?
• What needs to happen in the long-term 10 years to make this happen?
• Ask the participants to consider, if they need to add a specific reference about women
and girls or other specific groups in their vision.

Source: Youth Peace Ambassador Training Guide

90 Peace Education manual

25.3. Where do you stand? – Peacebuilding (20’)

Repeat the ‘Where do you stand’ activity (8.3.) after the whole Peacebuilding module. You can
use and modify this activity every time you want to evaluate learning, collect feedback or get
to know participant’s feelings or thoughts.

Examples of statements in the end of the Peacebuilding module:

• I have learned something new about peace in the last sessions.
• I can define peace.
• I know the difference between positive and negative peace.
• It is safe for everyone to live in Uganda.
• One person cannot contribute to world peace.
• I know how I can build peace in my own community (e.g., family, school) better.
92 Peace Education manual
 YOUTH PARTICIPATION 93

Youth participation
4 lessons

26. POWER 90 minutes

Objectives • To discuss and learn about power structures and oppor-

tunities to participate
• To understand how participation changes power relations
• To reflect on who decides in our communities and societies
• To understand the power, we have within us

Materials • Signs for the “Who decides?”-activity

Notes for a facilitator • Make sure that everyone understands that when choosing
the corners in exercise 26.2 B they can also stand in the
between the corners if they for example think they can
partly decide themselves but not completely.

26.1. Warm up: Follow the leader (15’)

All participants except one are in a circle; one participant is in the middle. The middle player closes
his/her eyes and the rest of the group quietly chooses a leader. The middle player opens their
eyes and tries to guess the leader by actions. The entire group follows the leader, in everything s/
he does. As soon as the middle player discovers who the leader is –the game is over. Encourage
the participants to be as specific as they can with each movement. This only works if movements
are clear, not too fast, and if the group follows the leader as fast and as precisely as possible.

26.2. Who decides? (40’)

A. Start by explaining the definition of power:

“ A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not
otherwise do.”

Robert A. Dahl

Power can be negative or positive: there can be a punishment if you don’t do something or
a reward if you do. Power is always communication between people, a relationship of some
kind. Who has the power? For example, the teacher gives you grades and police can arrest you,
the bigger student can beat you up, your mother can leave you without dinner or your boss
can give you a pay raise. Advice from a priest is followed because of respect or peacebuilders
have power because they make a difference.
94 Peace Education manual

Power has many forms. You can have…

• Power over is built on force, domination and control, and motivates often through
fear. It relies on a belief that power is a finite resource that can be held by individuals,
and that some people have power and some people do not.
• Power with is shared power that grows out of collaboration and relationships. It is built
on respect, mutual support, shared power, solidarity, influence, empowerment and
collaborative decision making.
• Power to is built on the unique potential of every person to shape their life and world.
It is the power to be productive, make a difference, to create something new, or to
achieve goals without using relationships of domination.
• Power within involves people having a sense of their own capacity, self-worth and
self-knowledge. It includes an ability to recognize individual differences while respect-
ing others.

Source: VeneKlasen, L., & Miller, V. (2007)

Discuss briefly:
• What is the difference between these different forms of power?
• Which forms of power you see as negative and which as positive? Why?

B. Name three corners of the classroom or three sides of the space with signs “I decide myself”,
“Family or teacher decides”, “We negotiate together”. Read out a statement and ask everybody
to choose a corner that they feel represents their experience. Those who can’t decide or don’t
want to say can move in between of two corners or to the middle. Emphasize that everybody’s
point of view will be respected and encourage each person to decide for themselves. Give
them a few moments to find their place.

Examples of statements: Who decides…

• with whom I spend my free time?
• what I do after school?
• what time I have to come home?
• what I wear?
• when will I get married?
• which profession I will seek?

C. Once they have chosen their spot, you can ask individuals why they chose to stand where
they are and ask more specific questions (e.g., Are you happy with the situation? Do you think
it will change over time? etc). Gather few experiences and thoughts from different places.

D. Debrief and discuss: Divide the students into small groups where you talk about the activity.
• Was it difficult to decide which corner to choose?
• What kind of thoughts or emotions did taking the activity evoke in you?
• Do all young people have equal opportunities to decide on things that concern them?
Why do you think so?
• In which things would you like to have more influence in your life? Why do you think so?
• Can adults always make decisions themselves? Why or why not?
 YOUTH PARTICIPATION 95

26.3. My Power as a Young Person (30’)

A. Divide the participants into groups of 4-6. Ask them to think of an example of one youth
that has made a different in the world, in their country or in their village. (Give an example of
a young person that you know will be recognized by the participants—like Malala Yousafzai.)

Ask them to think about...

• What kind of power these youth have?
• Where or from whom would the power to make the change come from?
• Who has power over them?
• How can power contribute peace and social cohesion? How can it be used to benefit
others?

B. Ask participants to reflect on their own lives and share their groups members, what power
they think they have—as an individual youth and as a group.

C. Ask the small groups to share their results with the entire group.

Source: Youth Peace Ambassador Training Guide

26.4. Cool down: Thumbs up, thumbs down (5’)

End the session with a brief self-evaluation of the learning. Tell few statements and ask the
participants to use their hand to signal their opinion or depth of understanding:
• A thumbs up = “I have a good understanding” or “I agree”
• A thumb to the side = “I still have some questions” or “I am not sure”
• A thumb down = “I didn’t understand” or “I disagree”

Examples of statements:
• I learned something new today.
• I can make a change as a young person.
• I can decide about my life by myself.
• Young people have power.
• I would like to have more power.

You can ask individuals why they chose to put their thumbs up/to the side/down and ask more
specific questions (e.g., what did you learn, why do you think that etc). Gather few thoughts.
96 Peace Education manual

27. CIVIC PARTICIPATION 90 minutes

Objectives • To empower the participants to civic participation

• To strengthen young people’s civic skills
• To understand different ways and levels of participation
• To discuss about our responsibilities as peacebuilders

Materials • Large paper (e.g., flipcharts or manila paper)

• Markers, pens
• Optional: Computer (or projector/television) for watching
the video
• Optional: Sticky notes

Notes for a facilitator • At first tell students that civic participation means that
either individuals or communities get involved at the
local, district or national level participating in democratic
processes. This can mean voting, volunteering, taking care
of the school garden etc.
• Ask some students to choose warm up came for the next time.

27.1. Warm up: Vanessa Nakate (15’)

A. Watch the video Vanessa Nakate: Leading Africa’s climate activists from YouTube or read
about her aloud:

Vanessa Nakate is a climate activist from Uganda. She was the First Fridays For
Future climate activist in Uganda and founder of the Rise up Climate Movement, which
aims to amplify the voices of activists from Africa. Her work includes raising awareness to
the danger of climate change, the causes and the impacts. She spearheaded the cam-
paign to save Congo’s rainforest, which is facing massive deforestation. This campaign
later spread to other countries from Africa to Europe. She is working on a project that
involves installation of solar and institutional stoves in schools.
She holds a degree in Business Administration in Marketing from Makerere University
Business School. Vanessa was one of the young climate activists who were chosen to
speak at the COP25 gathering in Spain, and she was one of 20 climate activists who
penned a letter addressed a letter to the participants of the World Economic Forum in
Davos, calling on them to stop subsidizing fossil fuels.

Source: https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/vanessa-nakate/

B. Debrief and discuss together or in small groups:

• Vanessa Nakate is an activist. What does it mean?
• What stood out to you in Vanessa Nakate’s story?
• How would you describe Vanessa Nakate?
• What motivates Vanessa for her activism?
 YOUTH PARTICIPATION 97

27.2. Gallery walk – How to participate? (45’)

Write on a large piece of paper (or a divided black board):
1. Home
2. School
3. Community (village, town etc)
4. National
5. Global

Hang or place the themes in various places around the classroom or outside to create five
stations. If you have only a blackboard, you can make ‘thinking stations’ around the classroom
and only the recorders visit the blackboard to read the answers of others and write down new
answers.
Share the participants into five groups and each group starts at a different station. Ask the
groups to decide who is a recorder or tell them to switch recorders at each station. At the first
station the group discusses and writes down examples, how they could participate in each of
the levels. Walk around to monitor the groups and help them if necessary. After 3-5 minutes,
have the groups rotate to the next station. Participants read and discuss the previous group’s
response and add content of their own. Repeat after all groups have visited each station. In
the end have participants to go back to their first station to read all that was added to their
first response.

B. In the end go through all the answers. Use this list to add ideas, if needed:

Different ways to participate and make change

• Your own life choices: Everyone can make a change by showing an example to others
e.g., friendly and peaceful behaviour, collecting trash,
• Information sharing: Information can be shared in many ways, for example brochures
sharing, talking at dawn or by talking.
• Art: Art (e.g., visual art, videos, pictures, music) can be used to open up a conversation
or provoke thoughts or add to it knowledge.
• Media: Media can be used as an aid in many ways such as writing an opinion piece.
• Social media: In social media (e.g., Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram), anyone can, for
example, tell their opinions, share information or encourage others to influence and
participate.
• Volunteering: A good way is also look for an organization or other actor that works for
the issue and get involved in its activities as a volunteer.
• Organizing events: Makes an impact by organizing various events such as a panel
discussion.
• Lobbying: For example, for someone for someone in a high position can send a letter
or email.

C. Debrief & discuss together what was learned and guide the participants to think which ways
to participate would be most interesting and relevant for them.
98 Peace Education manual

27.3. Alley of conscience (30’)

A. Ask the students to imagine this situation and read aloud:
Your parent (or a guardian) has asked you to hurry home straight after school because
they have some urgent and important errands to run and you need you to help with
housework and take care of your siblings. On the way home you see two students from
your school bullying a younger student. They are shoving and bashing the younger one.
You look around and see that you’re the only one to witness the situation. There is no
one else around. You stop and think: Should you go and help the younger student?
It can cause you to get into a conflict yourself and be late from home. Your parents/
guardian will be in trouble if you don’t show up on time and they will be very angry at
you. You are also afraid of the bullies and scared that they will start persecuting you. On
the other hand, the young student seems to really need help and can hurt themselves
badly. It feels bad not to do anything in the moment.
You have to decide: Should you take a risk and go in the middle of the conflict letting
your family down? Or should you take care of your responsibilities and obligations, go
straight home?

Variation: You can change the situation or come up with something else that better suits your
group or the local context.

B. To reflect on the situation, use a drama technique ‘Alley of conscience’. It is a useful tool
for exploring any kind of dilemma faced by a character, providing an opportunity to analyse a
decisive moment in greater detail.
The group forms two lines facing each other so that an alley is formed between them. Each
participant goes to the start of the alley in their own turn and walks between the lines, preferably
eyes closed. Each participant standing on the line speaks their advice. It should be organised so
that those on one side give opposing advice to those on the other side: one side of the alley is
tasked to convince the person to go straight home and deal with the situation later, when the
other side is tasked to convince him/her to go and try to help the bullied student straight away.
When the person reaches the end of the alley, s/he makes his/her decision by choosing a
side and standing as the last person in either one of the lines. This might lead to the situation
that, with the last person walking through, there are only people of one opinion left. If this is the
case, the facilitator can stand on the opposite to represent the other opinion. Emphasize that
everybody’s point of view will be respected and encourage each person to decide for themselves.

C. Debrief and discuss:

• How did it feel like to walk down the alley?
• How did it feel like to try to persuade the person to your side? Was it easy to come up
with reasons?
• Did you think that one of the sides had better reasons? Why do you think so?
• Was it hard for you to make the decision in the end?
• When you were making your decision, did you think of the choices of the other people
in your group had made or were going to make?
• Do you often think of what other people think of you?
• Do you think it’s a civic responsibility to help or stand up if you witness injustice?
• Have you ever been in a situation in your life where it was hard to choose, what to do?
Can you share an experience?
 YOUTH PARTICIPATION 99

D. Conclude by explaining, that we can all make a change and participate in our everyday life.
Our responsibility as Peace club members is to try to make our schools, communities and
societies safer and more peaceful. However, there are many ways to make a right thing. There
are no right or wrong solution on this situation. The most important thing is, that you do some-
thing. Even though you are too scared to go into middle of a conflict, you could for example,
go to the closest house, ask some adult for help and report the situation at school next day.

Note: If you have time, repeat this exercise with another situation suggested by the partici-
pants. Think of other common situations where young people have to make a moral choice.
Write down the ideas on the board and decide by voting which situation(s) you could process
by forming an alley of choices.
100 Peace Education manual

28. MY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE 90 minutes

Objectives • To empower the participants to civic participation

• To learn about the children’s rights
• To understand one’s rights and responsibilities
• To think about one’s own strengths, weaknesses, oppor-
tunities and threats as a peacebuilder

Materials • Blackboard/Flipcharts
• Pens/markers/chalk
• Optional: Sticky notes

Notes for a facilitator • If your students are over 18 years old, you can use The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights instead of The
Convention on the Rights of Child.
• You can find The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(shorth version) and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child in attachment 7.

28.1. Warm up (15’)

Start the lesson with a brief and energizing warm up game of your Peace club’s choice. It can
be one of the warm up games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If pos-
sible, let some of the participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

28.2. Children’s rights (45’)

A. Start with asking all the participants, who have heard about Children’s rights to raise their
hands, to see how new the topic is for them. Tell them that:

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an important, international
agreement by countries who have promised to protect children’s rights.
The Convention explains children’s rights and the responsibilities of governments. All
the rights are connected, they are all equally important and they cannot be taken away
from children. Any person under the age of 18 is considered as a child in the agreement.

B. Introduce Children’s rights to the participants (attachment 7) and have a brief group discussion:
• Why do we need a Convention of the Rights of the Child?
• Did some of the rights surprise you? What and why?
• Why is it important to know one’s own rights?

C. Draw or ask some of the participants to draw a child figure on the board. You can give the
character a name.
 YOUTH PARTICIPATION 101

D. Divide the participants into groups of 3–4. Give the groups different coloured sticky notes
or ask them to take out their notebooks and write down things…
1. …that the child cannot live without.
2. …that can help the child to get a better future.
3. …that they enjoy in their own lives.

If the task seems challenging, you can use thought-provoking sentence starters to help, for
example:
• To live I need… (What?)
• What will help me grow up to be what I want to be?
• When I can I like to do/have/experience… (What?)

If you have sticky notes share three different coloured sticky notes to all the groups and ask
them to write down at least one thought for each topic. Designate each topic a colour e.g.,
use the red notes for things that the child cannot live without, use the blue notes for things
that can help the child to get a better future and use the green notes for the things you enjoy
in your own lives. Each thing is written on its own sticky note. If they have more ideas on the
same topic, they must write each idea on separate notes. When all the participants have written
their answers, ask them to bring them on the blackboard/flipchart. Red notes are brought to
the child's feet because they form the basis. The blue notes are brought to the middle of the
body and the green notes around the child's head.
If you don’t have sticky notes, give the participants a moment to collect their thoughts (they
can use notebooks/writing paper if needed) and then come and write their thoughts directly
on flipcharts or the black board. Designate each topic an area: write the needs to the child's
feet because they form the basis, things that help to get better future to the middle and things
that they enjoy around the head.

E. Debrief and discuss:

• First, you can summarize what kind of things are written around the drawn child. You
can also ask the groups to justify their answers, if you want. Then discuss together:
• Which one of the things are essential for a child?
• How you reflect on this to the children’s rights introduced before?
• Are there some things that only some children need but not necessarily all? What
and why?

Source: Plan International Finland – Lapsen oikeuksien kymppi

28.3. My SWOT (30’)

A. Explain that in every stage of life, there are things that we do well that add value, things
that we could improve on, things that you can engage in to gain advantages or success, and
things that we need to overcome to achieve our goals. This is true for individuals as well as
groups. Say: When we do not know what those things are, we are not in a capacity to partici-
pate meaningfully in making change.
In this activity, we will assess our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTs)
as young people desiring to lead communities in change.
102 Peace Education manual

B. Draw 4 quadrants on a flip chart or blackboard. Give participants the sticky notes for the
activity or ask them to take out their notebooks.
Introduce the first two quadrants – Strengths and Weaknesses. Ask participants to please
write on the sticky notes or on the notebook some:

Strengths — one or two things that the youth do well or positive attributes or assets that the
youth have that can help the community.

Weaknesses — one or two things that the youth could improve on or attributes that are a
limitation in the community.

Ask them to reflect about what they have practiced daily and what they still need to strive
for. Invite them to place the sticky notes on the corresponding quadrant; put similar answers
together. If you don’t have sticky notes, you can write or ask the participants to write them
straight on the blackboard/flipchart. Invite two participants to read the clusters of the strengths
and weaknesses of young people, clarifying if needed, but not eliciting a discussion yet.
Introduce the next two quadrants—Opportunities and Threats. Ask participants to write
down on the sticky notes or on the notebook some:

Opportunities—two external existing conditions that can help the youth achieve their plans at
the moment or in future. List any specific opportunities for young men and for young women.

Threats—two external conditions that could prevent the youth from achieving their plans.
Name specific threats for young men and for young women.

Invite them to place the sticky notes or write on the corresponding quadrant, put similar an-
swers together. Then ask a couple of participants to present the clusters of the opportunities
and threats facing young people, specifically young men and young women.

C. Conclude that as young people we would like to:

• Build our strengths.
• Eliminate our weaknesses.
• Explore our opportunities.
• Mitigate all threats.

Source: Youth Peace Ambassador Training Guide

YOUTH PARTICIPATION 103
104 Peace Education manual
 TAKING ACTION 105

Taking action
6 lessons

29. IDENTIFYING THE NEEDS 90 minutes

Objectives • To explore the definition and value of community

• To equip youth with Participatory Action Research skills
to study and understand their communities, commu-
nity needs, challenges, conflict dynamics, and begin to
reflect on how they would like to shape and transform
their communities.
• To identify the needs of their school or community
• To engage youth to plan and lead implementation of
peace activities based on the identified needs of their
communities

Materials • Materials needed for the facilitated activity planning e.g.,

pens, paper, blackboard…

Notes for a facilitator • If you need any help or support with the Peace club
activities, please, be in contact with UMYDF.

29.1. Warm up (15’)

Start the lesson with a brief and energizing warm up game. It can be one of the warm up
games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If possible, let some of the
participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

29.2. Community walk (40’)

A. Explain to the participants that a community may be defined as a group of people linked by
common characteristics, beliefs, values, or geography. Being part of a community may come
with its challenges but also has a number of benefits.

B. Take a physical tour (30-40 min. walk) of the community to observe, how people live and
how they use their days. If you have a beginner group or your school is far from the houses,
you can also start from your own school compound and walk there, observing the spaces,
teachers, students…etc.

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

106 Peace Education manual

29.3. Community mapping (35’)

A. On returning from the walk, divide the participants into small groups of 4-5. Distribute
them a community mapping worksheet (attachment 8) and give them time to respond to the
different components of the worksheet. If you don’t have the printed worksheets, write the
questions on the blackboard or flipchart and ask them to write their answers on a notebook.

B. Debrief and discuss:

• What did you learn on your community walk?
• How about when doing the community mapping?
• How we could use this information when planning Peace club activities?

Conclude by telling them the participants that you will soon start planning the next Peace club
activities based on these observations. If you still have time, you can already start discussing
in small groups and identifying some problems or challenges in their school or community, on
which they would like to influence. Otherwise, you will continue that in the lessons 32 and 33.

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

 TAKING ACTION 107

30. PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH 90 minutes

Objectives • To explore the definition and value of community

• To equip youth with Participatory Action Research skills
to study and understand their communities, commu-
nity needs, challenges, conflict dynamics, and begin to
reflect on how they would like to shape and transform
their communities.
• To identify the needs of their school or community
• To engage youth to plan and lead implementation of
peace activities based on the identified needs of their
communities

Materials • Materials needed for the facilitated activity planning e.g.,

pens, paper, blackboard…

Notes for a facilitator • If you need any help or support with the Peace club activ-
ities, please, be in contact with UMYDF.

30.1. Warm up (15’)

Start the lesson with a brief and energizing warm up game. It can be one of the warm up
games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If possible, let some of the
participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

30.2. Understanding our communities through

participatory action research (30’)

A. Tell to the participants that one option to identify the need of the community and make a
change is through Participatory Action Research (PAR). First, explain the definitions of research
and PAR:

Research is defined as an orderly study that entails collection of data, documentation of

critical information and analysis and interpretation of that data/information, in accor-
dance with set research standards.
Participatory Action Research is a particular form of research which focuses on the
co-generation of knowledge with community-level stakeholders. The participants and
clearly involved in the process, so it’s subjective, rather than objective. There is action
within the process of the research itself, in that stakeholders and researchers are actively
making change happen during the research. The research cycle leads to more action as
an output of the research.
Rather than outsiders working to solve community problems through externally orga-
nized research and reports, PAR process builds the capacity of people in the community
who have the lived daily experience of the particular issue at hand. It supports them
to gather information, analyze and generate practical and applied solutions which are
108 Peace Education manual

driven by their needs and aspirations. The target research participants are involved at
every stage of the research process, so that the research focus and results can be more
relevant to a specific community.

Then explain, that the objective of equipping them with participatory action research skills in
to enable them generate new knowledge that helps them and other youth better understand
the needs, challenges, opportunities, and conflict dynamics in their communities. PAR aims
at challenging them to take action to resolve some of the challenges of their communities that
they identify during their research. It positions them to begin to play a more active role in the
affairs of their communities rather than be bystanders. This is important because youth who
are more connected and engaged in the affairs of their communities are for example, more
grounded and likely to resist the propaganda of violent extremist recruiters.

B. Tell that the Participatory Action Research benefits both participants and communities. Di-
vide into pairs and ask them to discuss and come up with at least one benefit for an individual
being part of PAR and one benefit for the community. If you have sticky notes, you can collect
the thoughts with those or then write their thoughts directly on the blackboard or flipchart.

Examples of the benefits

Participant Community
Research skills Promotes unity and togetherness
Gives a voice Collaboration with community members
Gaining social support Breaking down stereotypes and prejudices
Networking Social change
Advocacy skills
Personal empowerment

C. Introduce the PAR Process briefly:

1. Identify the problem: What youth issues would you like to learn more about and address
in your community?
2. Review of existing information/literature: What can we already find out?
3. Clarify the problem: What do we want to know?
4. Define your research sample: Who are we targeting? (Age, gender, religion etc.)
5. Determine your research team: Who are you working with?
6. Look for funding, if needed: How to cover the costs?
7. Develop a research plan: How, when, and where data will be collected? How and when
data will be analyzed? How, to whom, and when research findings will be disseminated?
8. Collect data: How and when are you collecting information?
9. .Data analysis: How will the collected information be interpreted?
10. Presentation of results: How and to whom will you present the results of the study?
11. . Take action: How will you act on the results/findings of the research?
12. Reflection and evaluation: How did we succeed?
 TAKING ACTION 109

30.3. Planning youth Participatory Action Research projects (45’)

A. Divide youth participants into 2-4 groups of 10-20 participants in each. Ask them to
brainstorm the biggest challenges to peace, youth development or any other relevant topic
of your choice in their community and generate a list of core challenges. Ask them to review
each challenge and interrogate its root causes and think about which problem has the most
significant impact on the topic that they would like to study more about and help address.

B. After each group has determined their topic of focus, work with each to develop a detailed
research design document explaining in detail how the process of research would be handled.
Each group can also attach a tentative budget for their PAR project.

C. Ask the groups to present their research plan to the others and give feedback to other groups.
In the end you can for example vote by closed ballot, which research they would like to which
research (1-2) they would like to implement as a Peace club.

D. If you wish to continue implementing the research contact and work with Uganda Muslim
Youth Development Forum. Decide a team to raise funds for the research. After funds have
been secured, work behind the curtains to mentor the youth through their first PAR project
experience from initiation to project closure. You can document their experiences at every
stage and share this with partners that might be interested in following the youth across their
research journey. More information about the PAR process can be found in the Uganda Muslim
Youth Development Forum Peace Manual.

Note: You need time to carry out the whole PAR process, so it is not included to these lesson
plans.

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

110 Peace Education manual

31. ADVOCATING FOR A CAUSE 90 minutes

Objectives • To understand the meaning of advocacy

• To get ideas, how one can advocate for a cause

Materials • Blackboard/Flipchart
• Chalk/Markers
• Cardboard or paper for demonstration signs
• Marker, pens, crayons, paints…
• Optional: Computer (or projector/television) to watch
a video
• Signs for the Where do you stand? -activity

Notes for a facilitator • You can do imaginary demonstration or write opinion

piece or do the both.

31.1. Warm up: What influences our opinions? (15’)

A. The purpose of this activity is to reflect upon the greatest influences in the participants lives.
First, ask the students to think about, who or what can influence their thoughts and opinions.
They can either write them on the sticky notes or collect them as a list on blackboard or flipchart.

B. Ask the participants then to take out their notebooks and divide the page into four sections
or give each a piece of paper and ask them to fold it twice to divide up into four equal sec-
tions. Ask the participants to write four important influences on their lives. Each one should
be written in one quarter.

C. Divide the participants into small groups. Ask them to introduce their influences, compare
them with each other and discuss:

• Which similarities do you have in your influences? How about differences?

• Why these people/parties have been strong influences for you?
• Not all influences are good, can we think of any negative ones?
• How should we deal with negative influences?

Source: IGC – Essentials of Dialogue

31.2. What is advocacy? (10’)

A. Tell the participants a definition of advocacy:

It is the act or process of writing or speaking in favor of someone or something, or sup-

porting a cause.
The word ‘advocacy’ comes from the Latin ‘advocare’ and literally mean ‘to call out
 TAKING ACTION 111

for support’. Ritu R. Sharma describes advocacy as a tool for “putting a problem on the
agenda, providing a solution to that problem and building support for acting on both
the problem and the solution.” Dr Sharma says, even if most of the time advocacy is
defined as speaking on behalf of others, one of its aims must be raising the public’s
consciousness about a particular issue.

Source: UMYDF Peace Manual

B. Ask the participants to pair up and think about some examples of advocacy. Collect their
answers on the blackboard or flipchart.

31.3. Imaginary demonstration (45’)

A. Start by explaining the participants what is a demonstration and how it relates to advocacy.

A demonstration is usually a march or gathering which people take part in to show their
support or opposition to a specific issue. We often think demonstrations as negative,
‘against’ something, but they can also be positive, supporting something. They are
usually meant to influence the way people think or how things are done. They can be
aimed at politicians, bureaucrats, corporations or the general public.

Demonstration can serve many different goals, for example:

• Advocacy
• Support
• Protest
• Counter-demonstration
• Public relations
• Action
• A combination of any or all of the above

B. Show a video of a demonstration. Examples:

• Black Lives Matter protests around the world by Great Big Story.
• Students around the world go on climate strike by The Guardian.

If you don’t have a possibility to show videos, share some examples of demonstrations, e.g.,
Black Lives matter or Fridays for Future movement.

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a political and social movement that
wants to highlight racism, discrimination and inequality experienced by black people.
It started following the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Pamela
and Rekia Boyd followed by many other, for example George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
The supporters of BLM come together primarily to protest incidents of police brutality
and racial violence against black people. The movement is a decentralized network of
people and organizations with no formal hierarchy.

Fridays For Future is an international youth-led and -organized movement for protesting
for climate. Friday for Future (also called as FFF) began in August 2018, after 15-year-old
Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for
112 Peace Education manual

three weeks to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. Since then, millions
of people have participated in Fridays for Future protest around the world. FFF protest
every Friday to demand that people in power would for example, keep the temperature
rise below 1.5 C compared to pre-industrial levels, follow the Paris climate agreement
and ensure the climate justice and listen to the best united science currently available.
Fridays for Future is part of a hopeful new wave of change and inspires millions of people
around the world to take action on the climate crisis.

After the videos/examples, briefly discuss:

• Have you heard about these movements before?
• Have you heard about any other demonstrations locally or internationally?
• Do you find demonstrating a good way to try to make a change? Why?

C. Make your own protest signs! Work in pairs or as individuals. Ask them to think about
something they would like to change in their school, community, society or even globally. Ask
them to think about some informative and catchy slogan to write on a protest (or support)
sign. Share them materials to make the signs (e.g., paper or cardboard and markers, crayons,
paints…). Put the signs on the wall of the classroom or organize an exhibition in the school or
somewhere in the community.

Variation: Instead of the protest signs, you can also ask the participants to write an opinion
piece of the same topic. You can also first craft the signs and continue bye writing about the
issue more in detail. You can add the opinion pieces to your protest sign exhibition.

31.4. Where do you stand? – Youth

participation and taking action (15’)
Repeat the ‘Where do you stand’ activity (8.3.) in the end of the year or when finishing all of
the Peace education modules. You can use and modify this activity every time you want to
evaluate learning, collect feedback or get to know participant’s feelings or thoughts.

Examples of statements:
• Participating and taking action is easy.
• Politics is the only way to make a change in Uganda.
• Small actions can have a big meaning.
• I can influence on things happening on the other side of the world.
• I feel that I can influence on things in my school.
• I would like to participate more in my school and/or community.
• Art can make a change.
• Collecting rubbish from the ground makes a change.
• Everyone should vote in elections.
• Everyone over the age of 12 should have the right to vote.
• are
 TAKING ACTION 113

32. TAKING ACTION & MAKING CHANGE 90 minutes

Objectives • To put the lessons learned into practice

• To engage youth to plan and lead implementation of
peace activities based on the identified needs of their
communities
• To plan positive change and actions in the school or
community

Materials • Materials needed for the facilitated activity planning e.g.,

pens, paper, blackboard…

Notes for a facilitator • If you need any help or support with the Peace club activ-
ities, please, be in contact with UMYDF.

32.1. Warm up (15’)

Start the lesson with a brief and energizing warm up game. It can be one of the warm up
games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If possible, let some of the
participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

32.2. Planning Peace club activities (60’)

Start planning the next peace club activities. You can use the facilitation methods of your
choice. Here is an example, how to start planning new activities with a big group.

A. Note: You can skip this part, if you’ve already covered the identification of needs during
previous sessions (31 & 32) and you know on what you want to influence on or if you’re planning
activities for some special event or day, e.g., the International Day of the Peace.
If you haven’t identified the needs during last two sessions, start this session by thinking
about the needs in your schools or communities. The Peace Club activities should be based on
the identified needs of the school or community. For example, there is no need to organized
an anti-bullying day if there’s no bullying in your school. Divide the participants into smaller
groups and ask them to identify problems/challenges in their school or community, on which
they would like to influence. Collect their ideas on the blackboard/flipchart. You can either use
sticky notes or write them directly on the board or paper.
After collecting the ideas decide together on what topic you would like to influence on next.
If one topic is mentioned more than once, you can agree on that. You can also vote, which
topic will be chosen. Record the topics that were not chosen - you can choose them as a topic
for the next activity!

B. Continue working in the same groups and collecting ideas for activities. Give the groups a
task depending on your current objectives. The task can, for example, be one of these:
• How to promote peace in our school/community?
• How to celebrate the International Day of Peace?
114 Peace Education manual

• How to bring different schools/Peace clubs/communities together?

• How to be visible in our school/community?

It can be also related to some more specific challenge or problem, for example:
• How to overcome tribalism/racism?
• How to help refugees to integrate better in our community?
• How to strengthen our school unity and togetherness?
• How to help mediating conflicts in the school?
• How to end domestic violence?
• How to stop bullying?

Give the groups time to discuss together about then given topic and brainstorm ideas. The
groups can either try to come up with as many ideas as possible or decide and plan one
detailed idea. Encourage students to come up with realistic ideas that they could really im-
plement. If you need help or support of any kind, be in contact with Uganda Muslim Youth
Development Forum.

C. After the brainstorming, collect the ideas on the blackboard/flipchart (on sticky notes or
directly on the board or paper) and go through them. Ask the groups to present their ideas to
the others.
After hearing more about the ideas, decide as a group which activity or activities you want
to implement. You can do that for example by voting.

D. Note: After deciding on the topic and activity, you can continue planning the event in your
next meeting.
When you have decided the topic and activity you can start planning it in detail. Assign
different responsibilities for different groups. Examples of responsibilities:
• planning the budget and contacting UMYDF if needed
• communication (in the school/community/media/any other involved parties)
• visibility of the activity (advertisement, signs etc.)
• timetable and general coordination of the project
• documentation of the activity (pictures, videos etc)
• purchases or refreshments, if needed…etc.

E. End the planning meetings always by determining the next steps for the planning and or-
ganizing. Decide the time for the next meeting and assign tasks for different groups, if needed.

32.3. Cool down: Next steps Round of feelings (15’)

End the meeting standing in a circle. Ask everyone to share their current feelings with a one word
or a short speech, depending on how much you have time left. Divide the turns by throwing
a small ball (or another soft object) from one participant to another. At the end of their turn,
the speaker says out loud to whom they are throwing the ball next.
 TAKING ACTION 115

33. WHAT’S NEXT? 90 minutes

Objectives • To give ideas and share opportunities what the members

can do after the peace club
• To empower the Peace club members to continue being
peacebuilders also outside the school in their own com-
munities and societies

Materials • Blackboard/flipchart
• Markers/chalk

Notes for a facilitator • Before the class, find out about organizations that work for
peace in your area. There are some ideas in attachment 9.

33.1. Warm up (15’)

Start the lesson with an energizing warm up game of your peace club’s choice. It can be one
of the warm up games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If possible, let
some of the participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

33.2. Planning Peace Club activities (60’)

Continue planning the Peace club activities. Check the lesson plan “32. Taking action & making
change” for facilitating ideas and instructions. Work in smaller groups. Assign a responsibility
or a task for each group e.g., budget, communication, visibility, coordination, purchases…etc.

33.3. Meeting or a field visit with local peace builder(s)

Arrange another field visit or meeting with a local peacebuilder or other actor of interest. Check
lesson plan “24. Meeting or a field visit with a local peacebuilder” for the instructions.

33.4. Opportunities after peace club (50’)

A. Start with a discussion together or in smaller groups:

• What have you learned in the Peace club? How could you use those skills and knowl-
edge after school?
• Where peacebuilders are needed in the community/society?
• How can you be a peacebuilder after the Peace club?
• Do you know any organizations or other parties working with peace?

B. Ask the groups to share their thoughts. Start collecting a list of things, what peacebuilders
could do and how they could use their skills and knowledge after the Peace club.

C. When you’ve collected the ideas from the groups, introduce some realistic possibilities
and options for how they can continue to build peace in their communities and societies. You
116 Peace Education manual

can, for example, brief about different organizations working in your area or in your country
(attachment 9).

33.5. Where do you stand? – Reflection of the year (25’)

Repeat the ‘Where do you stand’ activity (8.3.) in the end of the year or when finishing all of
the Peace education modules. You can use and modify this activity every time you want to
evaluate learning, collect feedback or get to know participant’s feelings or thoughts.

Examples of statements in the end of the module:

• I’ve learned something new about cooperation in the Peace club
• I know the other members of the Peace club
• Our Peace club has a strong group spirit
• Listening is a communication skill
• It is not allowed to disagree with others
• Equality is not achieved in the school/community/Uganda
• I’ve had fun in the Peace club meetings
 TAKING ACTION 117

34. REFLECTION & CLOSING CEREMONY 90 minutes

Objectives • To reflect everything learned in the Peace club

• To thank the active participants

Materials • Peace club certificates

• Optional: refreshments

Notes for a facilitator • Print and prepare the Peace club certificates (attachment
10) to those members, who have completed Piece Club
activities.

34.1. Warm up (15’)

Start the lesson with an energizing warm up game of your peace club’s choice. It can be one
of the warm up games introduced in this learning material or some local game. If possible, let
some of the participants decide and instruct the warm up game.

34.2. Round of feelings (25’)

End the closing ceremony with a reflective round of feelings, so all the participants have a
possibility to share their thoughts. Stand or sit in a circle. Ask everyone to share their current
feelings with a short speech. It can be something they’ve learned or experienced or just a
feeling they have. Divide the turns by throwing a small ball (or another soft object) from one
participant to another. At the end of their turn, the speaker says out loud to whom they are
throwing the ball next.

34.3. Closing ceremony (50’)

Organize an official and festive closing ceremony for the Peace club members. Peace club
certificates are distributed to those who have been active in the peace club. You find a template
for the certificate as an attachment (attachment 10). Include an encouraging and empower-
ing speech for all the Peace club members and thank them for active participation. After the
distribution of certificates, you can have some informal celebration for example with some
refreshments, if you wish.
118 Peace Education manual
 ATTACHMENTS 119

ATTACHMENTS
1. Examples for start-ups and other games
2. Privilege walk roles for beginner groups – lesson 11
3. Privilege walk roles for advanced groups – lesson 11
4. Conflict analysis work- lesson 17
5. Example of filled work sheet with Rwanda genocide – lesson 17
6. Profiles of famous peacebuilders – lesson 23
7. The List of Children’s rights (simplified version) and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights -lesson 28
8. .Community mapping worksheet –lesson 31
9. List of organizations working with peacebuilding in Uganda – lesson 35
10. Peace club certificate – lesson 36
120 Peace Education manual

ATTACHMENT 1

Examples for start-ups and other games

Warm Up

BOOKIE MAN TAG

Students stand in pairs holding arms together, one is the Bogie making scary noises and trying
to catch on the student who has no pair and tries to run to safety. The running student can be
safe when he or she holds someone's arm. When are t are three people holding hand the third
one becomes the bookie man and the first boogie man start now running to get in safety, if she
or he can't get to safety before the bookie man touches, he or she becomes the Bookie man.

1-2-3
Students take pair and b which one is A and which one is B. A says 1 and B two and then A
one 3. Now B says 1 and A says 2 and so on.
After a while you say stop and number 1 changes to clapping hand so A claps her or his
hands and B says 2, A says 3, B claps her/his hand and so.
After a while you say stop and 2 becomes thumping legs: A claps hands, B thumps legs, A
says 3 and so on.
After a while, you say stop and 3 becomes making a fanny face (with sounds if you like). A
claps hands, B thumps legs and A makes a fanny face, B claps hands and so on.

SWISH, BOING, PANG, YOU

Students stand in a ring. Student A swings his/her hands sending a sign to one standing next
to her or him saying swish. This student continues with swish sending the “message” forward
or she or he can say Boing and raise her or his hand to stop the movement. Then A continues
to send the “message” using a swish to the other direction or says you pointing to someone
standing in a ring. (You can use these also in the middle of session to energizers or keeping
concentration on.)

Forming groups

DIVIDE GROUPS
Divide groups by the first letter of their first names, by their birth month, by their length, shoe
size etc

STRINGS WITH DIFFERENT COLOURS

Students hold one end of the string (you should have different colour strings and hold them in
the middle so that the ends are hanging in the air). If you have 20 students you should have
10 strings and if you want to form groups of 4 use two strings of the same colour).

DIFFERENT ITEMS
You can use colours, letters, sticks of different lengths, animals (sounds written in piece of paper
and learners have to find someone who is making the same sound), fanny things, emotions etc.
 ATTACHMENTS 121

BODY PARTS TOGETHER

Ask students to form different groups by firstly joining three heads, then five arms, then six
toes together etc. See that the last group that you ask your students to form have suitable
number of participants for example “join five foreheads together”.

Ending sessions

PINKIE FINGERS AND THUMPS TOGETHER

Students stand in the ring close to others. At first, they tie their own thumps together and
then tie the pinkie fingers with both the students standing next to them. When this is done
students should try to hold their fingers together while lowering their hands to the ground and
back up. For the first time, this can be challenging but you can use this after every time you
end sessions and see the progress with students.

SHAKE IT OFF
Students start moving their toes, then knees, hips, middle body, hands and last the head. You
can use music or clapping hands and with speeding the rhythm.

OUR SONG
Use a song to sing, poem to read together or a rhythm that you use after ending every session
122 Peace Education manual

ATTACHMENT 2

Role cards for the Privilege Walk

Beginner group
Source: Manual on Human Rights Education with Young People - Council of Europe

You are a single mother without a job. You are a daughter of a local businessman.

You are a 24-year-old university student. You are a muslin girl with a very religious family.

You are a disabled young man moving in a wheel- You are a 17-year-old girl who dropped from
chair. school as a kid.

You are an HIV-positive girl. You are an immigrant from the Democratic Re-
public of the Congo.

You are the president of the political youth organ- You are the son of a Rwandan immigrant who
isation. runs a successful business.

You are the daughter of a president. You are a 15year-old member of a violent street
gang.

You are a drug addict. You are a fashion model.

You are a homeless man, 25 years old. You are an 18-year-old son of a farmer in a vil-
lage in the mountains.

You are a daughter of a minister/ RWC 3 (Refugee You are a teenage mother going back to school.
welfare committee leader).

You are 16-year-old and your parents have died. You are a high school student who plays foot-
ball.

You are a 14-year-old school dropout begging on You are the president of a student union in your
the street. secondary school.

You are 15 years old and dreaming of becoming a You don’t have friends and you become inter-
politician. ested in violent extremism.

You are the oldest brother of 10 children in a small You are a young entrepreneur selling your own
village. handicraft at the market.

You are a South Sudanese refugee and don’t have You a blind and you live in Kampala with your
a job. family.

You are an 18-year-old high school student who You are a 14-year-old school dropout begging
wants to become a doctor. on the streets.
 ATTACHMENTS 123

ATTACHMENT 3
Advanced group
Source: Manual on Human Rights Education with Young People - Council of Europe.

You are an unemployed young single mother with You are the daughter of the local bank manager.
three kids.
You are a 24-year-old refugee from South Sudan. You are 19-year-old Ugandan studying econom-
ics at university.
You are a Muslim girl living with your parents who You are a disabled young man who can only
are devoutly religious people. move in a wheelchair.
You are a 17-year-old girl who never finished prima- You are an HIV-positive young woman.
ry school.
You are an illegal immigrant from the Democratic You are the president of a party-political youth
Republic of the Congo. organisation whose “mother” party is now in
power.
You are the son of a Rwandan immigrant who runs You are the daughter of the American ambassa-
a successful fast-food business. dor in the country where you are now living in.
You are a 15-year-old member of a violent street You are the girlfriend of a young artist who is a
gang. drug addict.
You are a fashion model of African origin. You are a homeless young man, 25 years old.

You are the 19-years-old son of a farmer in a re- You are a son of a minister.
mote village in the mountains.
You are a teenage mother getting back to school You are a 16-year-old orphan taking care of your
after a three-year break. five younger siblings.

You are a 17-year-old school student, who wants to You are a 14-year-old school dropout, begging on
become a famous soccer player. the streets of Kampala daily.

You are a hard-working secondary school student You are a young human rights activist, who hopes
and a president of the student union. to become a politician one day.

You are a bullied and lonely high school student, You are the oldest brother of 10 children living in
who is looking for a feeling of belonging and ac- a small village.
ceptance from the violent extremist movements.
You are a young entrepreneur selling your own You are an unemployed refugee living in Uganda
handicrafts at the market. and looking for a job.
You are a blind secondary school student from You are an 18-year-old girl finishing high school
Kampala living with your mother and three siblings. and hoping to start studying to become a doctor.
124 Peace Education manual

ATTACHMENT 4

Conflict Analyses Worksheet

Title of the Conflict:

Actors
Who are the parties to this conflict? Is it between
individuals, local communities, 2 nationals, or
many nations? What is the realationship between
the actors involved?

Issues
What are the issues driving the conflict? What
does each party want? Is it about economic gain,
political control, social control, or a clash of so-
cio-economic beliefs?

Intrests
Why does each party want what they want?

Capacities
What are the capacities of the different actors
to resolve or cause an escaltion of the conflict in
question? Capacity can be in the form of financial
capacity, military capacity, support networks, or
local knowledge.

History
How long has the conflict been going on? In what
ways have the different conflicting parties been
resolving the conflict over the years? Why were the
confict resolution methods used earlier unsuc-
cessful? Have new actors joined the coflict over
the years? If yes, who are they and what are their
interrests.
 ATTACHMENTS 125

ATTACHMENT 5

Conflict Analyses Worksheet Example

Title of the Conflict: The Rwanda Genocide 1994

Actors • Two national groups: Tutsi and Hutu

Who are the parties to this conflict? Is it between • Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a military group
individuals, local communities, 2 nationals, or mostly Tutsi origin- civil war against the govern-
many nations? What is the realationship between ment, mostly Hutu origin
the actors involved? • United Nations, monitoring the implementation
of the Arusha Accords

Issues • High population growth, decreasing food pro-

What are the issues driving the conflict? What duction and decreases in the price of coffee
does each party want? Is it about economic gain, and tea increased led to competition between
political control, social control, or a clash of so- Tutsi and Hutu.
cio-economic beliefs? • The weakened authority of the regime, regional
bias and corruption of the central government.
• Pressure to form a democratic regime by the
international community (Arusha Accords)
• Elite manipulating ethnic identity.
• Civil war between RPF ( Rwandan Patriotic Front)
and the Rwandan government.

Intrests • Hutu vs Tutsi competition for control of land

Why does each party want what they want? and power.

Capacities • Rwandan government lacks the support of the

What are the capacities of the different actors people and have economic challenges.
to resolve or cause an escaltion of the conflict in • RPF was skilled and experienced armed force.
question? Capacity can be in the form of financial • UN forces lacked the mandate to get involved
capacity, military capacity, support networks, or or to act during the massacres.
local knowledge.
126 Peace Education manual

History • Originally Hutus and Tutsis were different only

How long has the conflict been going on? In what by their means of livelihood (cultivators and
ways have the different conflicting parties been pastoralists), but during the colonial rule, the
resolving the conflict over the years? Why were the ethnic categories were formed favouring Tutsi.
confict resolution methods used earlier unsuc- • After independence (1962), Hutus took a domi-
cessful? Have new actors joined the coflict over nant part in the government, leading to violence
the years? If yes, who are they and what are their against Tutsis. Thousands of Tutsis were killed
interrests. and fled the gountry.
• Tutsi refugees formed military groups attacking
both Rwanda and Burundi.
• 1972 Tutsi massacre of Hutus in Burundi.
• 1990 The RPF invade northern Rwanda starting
the civil war.
• Negotiations for peace in Tanzania, The Arusha
Accords.
• Etnical violence promoted by Hutu elite prevents
the peaceful implementation of the Arusha
Accords.
• In 1994 Rwandan President Junvénal Habyari-
mana was killed, Rwandan Genocide begins and
estimated 800 000 people were killed.
• RPF gained control and started implementing the
Arusha Accords and building peace by bringing
the perpetrators of the genocide in front of local
and UN courts and tried to minimize ethnic
tensions. The new government also started to
diminish the economical and social injustice.
 ATTACHMENTS 127

ATTACHMENT 6

The Profiles of some of the Peacebuilders

Martti Ahtisaari
Martti Ahtisaari was born 23rd of June 1937 in Viipuri, Finland from where he had to flee as a
child during the second world war while his home town was occupied by Soviet Union’s army.
This experience made him a peacebuilder working with development issues and international
peace making. Martti Ahtisaari had a long career in the Ministery for Foreign Affairs of Finland,
in the United Nations and as a President of Finland.
Martti Ahtisaari was a member of several international peace negotiations during his long career.
In Namibia, he participated in negotiations for the Namibian independence process. He also
worked as an international peace mediator in former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Aced, Iraq and Syria.
Martti Ahtisaari was awarded Nobel Peace Prize 2008 "for his important efforts, on several
continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts". He has also
been awarded the Félix Houphouët-Boigny-UNESCO Peace Prize and The Geuzenpenning
prize for fighting for democracy and against fighting dictatorship, racism and discrimination. In
the year 2000, he founded the Crisis Management Initiative Organisation, CMI. This organisa-
tion has grown to become one of the leading specialists in conflict prevention and resolution.

Sources:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2008/ahtisaari/facts/
https://cmi.fi/martti-ahtisaari/about/

Koffi Annan
Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana on the 8th of April 1938. He died in 2018 after a short
illness in Switzerland. Before becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997
to 2002, he had long career working in different positions in the UN. He worked with different
organisations dedicating to the health, refugees and peacekeeping issues. He took part in many
special peacekeeping operations in Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Nigeria, Indonesia and the Middle East.
When selected as Secretary-General of the United Nations Koffi Annan made his priority
to fight against terrorism and extremism. Koffi Annan’s idea of a “Global Compact” included
actions against poverty, and inequality through education, fighting against HIV/AIDS and
safeguarding the environment and protecting people from violence. His ideas were the ground
principles written in the Millenium Goals announced in the year 2000. Koffi Annan and United
Nations were jointly awarded The Nobel Peace prize in 2001.
After his Secretary-General term, Koffi Annan established the Koffi Annan foundation. The
main principles of this foundation are promoting lasting peace solutions and apprehension of
threats to security, development and human rights. Koffi Annan foundation has for example
mediated for peaceful elections in Kenya in 2008, supported the green revolution in Africa and
promoted human rights development in the world. Koffi Annan foundation has also reinforced
youth participation and peace education.

Sources:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2001/annan/biographical/
https://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/kofi-annan/biography/
128 Peace Education manual

Betty Bigombe
Betty Bigombe was born on the 21st of October 1952 in Acholi District (now part of Amuru
District), Uganda. She was a member of The Ugandan parliament at the same time as the civil
war started between Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government. She was nominated
as a Minister of State for the Pacification of North and Northeastern Uganda and she started
to reach out to Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA. For the first time, LRA and the government
ministers sat at the same table. Betty Bigombe acted as the lead negotiator of the government,
but after the negotiations failed, she continued as an independent mediator trying to get the
peace process going.
Betty Bigombe has worked with World Bank and with U.S. Institute of Peace as well as a
member of parliament and as a Minister of the Ugandan Government. She has also worked
with the Women’s refugee Commission and during the elections as a leading observer in Zim-
babwe and Rwanda.
Betty Bigome was awarded the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honeur prize in 2014 for her
work for peace and humanitarian affairs.

Sources:
https://www.usip.org/public-education-new/betty-bigombe-building-peace-uganda
https://live.worldbank.org/experts/betty-bigombe

Elman Family
Elman Ali Ahmed worked with his wife Fartuun Adan to promote peace and human rights in
Somalia. His motto was “Drop the Gun and Pick up the Pen.” and he tried to help soldiers to
rehabilitate into society after being often forced to fight for the warlords. While the conflict in
Somalia got more severe, Faruum Adan flee the country with their three daughters. Elman Ali
Ahmed continued to work for peace until he was executed in 1996.
Fartuun Adan returned to Somalia and founded Elman Peace organisation to honour her husband's
legacy and continue the work for peace and human rights, empowering women both in Somalia
and globally. She was one of the founding members of the International Commission on Violence
Against Women and Girls. Faruum Ada has been fighting against gender and sexual violence in
Somalia and strengthening civil society’s capacity to prevent violence and guard human rights.
Fartuun Adan has been awarded many international prizes. For example, in 2013 she received
the International Women of Courage Award given by Michelle Obama and John Kerry.
Illwad Elman young human rights activist returned to Somalia to continue her father’s work
together with her mother. When returning to Somalia she was only 19 years old and at 20 she
co-founded the first crisis centre for raped women. Illwad Elman is involved with Koffi Annan
Foundations and is one of the young activists who are preventing violent extremism by empow-
ering the youth.
Illwad Elman was the first civil society presentative to be called to brief the UN Security Council.
She was asked for an advice on how to empower and include women in the peace process and
how to protect the civilian population. She is also one of the writers of The Youth Action Agenda
on Countering Violent Extremism and was appointed an expert advisor on Youth, Peace & Security
by UN Security General Ban Ki-Moon. Elman Family’s oldest daughter Almaas was shot dead in
Mogadishu in the same year that Illwan was nominated as The Nobel Peace Prize candidate 2014.

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/nov/21/rights-activist-almaas-elman-shot-dead-in-mogadishu
http://elmanpeace.org/about/
 ATTACHMENTS 129

Leymah Gbowee
“All of a sudden one July morning I wake up at 17, going to the university to fulfill my dream
of becoming a medical doctor, and fighting erupted.”
Leymah Gbowee was born in Liberia in 1974. Her dream of becoming a doctor was destroyed
by Liberian’s first civil war. She and her family had to flee to Ghana. Leymah started working
with the rehabilitation of child soldiers as a trauma chancellor.
After the second civil war started bringing rape and sexual violence to Liberian women's life,
Leymah Gbowee brought together both Christian and Muslim women to protest against the
war in Liberia. They gathered together in a front of the government building praying and using
white clothes for a peaceful demonstration. After the peace negotiations started in Ghana,
hundreds of women followed and did not allow the negotiators to leave before they came to
a conclusion on how to end the war.
Leemah Gbowee together with Ellen Johanson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman received The
Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. She founded Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa and one of her
goals is to empower women to take and have more influence in conflict-resolution in Africa
and internationally.

Sources:
https://www.nobelwomensinitiative.org/leymahgbowee
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leymah-Gbowee

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi was born in Myanmar (Burma) in 1945. Her father was assassinated while he
was the prime minister of the soon independent Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi studied and lived
abroad until 1988 when she returned to Burma to take care of her mother. At the same time,
there was a massacre of peaceful protesters done by the military, which made Aung San Suu
Kyi start non-violet protesting for democracy and human rights. Soon the military government
placed Aung San Suu Kyi on home arrest, which took years placing her either at home arrest,
restrictions to her movements outside Yangon or in prison. She was not allowed to meet her
children, husband or any other visitors. She would have been freed if she would have agreed
to leave the country, but she refused to leave if the political prisoners were not released and
the civil government restored.
In 1990 National League for Democracy (a party Suu Kai had cofounded) won over 80%
of the seats of the parliament. Result was ignored by the military government. At the same
time, Suu Kai was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize, but as she was under home arrest, her son
accepted the prize in her place.
In 2011 Aung San Suu Kyi was able to travel and meet other politicians. After the elections
in 2012, she was selected as a constituency in Yangon. In 2015 Suu Kyi's party won again and
her close confidant was selected as the President of Myanmar. Soon Suu Kyi was selected as
a state counsellor holding even more power than the president.
While the military and police attacked the Rohingya people, Suu Kyi was condemned by
the international community. Suu Kyi had fought for human rights and democracy and now
while she was in power, Rohingya people were brutalised and many of them had to flee from
Myanmar. In 2021 military couped power and Suu Kyi was arrested again.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aung-San-Suu-Kyi
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1991/kyi/biographical/
130 Peace Education manual

Dalai Lama
“As to the future, I stated my belief that, with truth, justice and courage as our weapons, we
Tibetans would eventually prevail in regaining freedom for Tibet”.
According to Tibetan Buddhism, the most advanced teachers reincarnate because they feel
compassion for the world. The most respected teacher is called Dalai Lama meaning “the Ocean
of Wisdom”. He is also the head of the Tibetan government. Dalai lama is considered to be the
human embodiment of Avalokiteshvara, the protector of Tibet and the bodhisattva of compassion.
Tenzin Gyatso, son of a farmer, was recognized as a reincarnation of the former Dalai Lama at age
of two. After being kept hostage by China, he started his training with different Buddhist monks.
While China was a threat to Tibet, Dalai Lama was called to take full responsibility as head of the
state and government at age of 16. In 1959 Dalai Lama had to flee to India by walking and riding
horses across the Himalayas after China occupied Tibet. He has been living in exile ever since.
Dalai Lama’s tireless work for resolving the future of Tibet and preserving its unique culture
has continued for many decades. He has travelled all over the world talking about how Tibet
could preserve its culture if not as an independent state but as a “zone of peace” meaning a
self-governing part of the Republic of China. Dalai Lama has fought for democracy, educa-
tion, culture and religious institutions in Tibet seeing those as tools to save Tibetian identity
and heritage. China has not accepted Tibet's right to independence and is transferring ethnic
Chinese into Tibet, breaking human rights and democratic principles.
Dalai Lama has met many world leaders and has been lecturing at many universities about
Tibet and Buddhism. He has also been advocating for better understanding and respect
between different religions. Universal responsibility, love and compassion have been his main
message to his audience.
Dalai lama was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and in 2011 Templeton Prize, “the
Nobel Prize of Religion”.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dalai-Lama-14th
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1989/lama/biographical/
https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/birth-to-exile

Jacob Lund
“Every kid in a world should at least have a football”
Jacob Lund founded an organisation called Play 31 to support the rehabilitation and rec-
onciliation in communities that have suffered from violence and civil war. The name of the
organisation comes from The Convention on the Rights of the child, article 31: “Children have
the right to relax and play….”
Jacob Lund got his idea from three little boys who wanted to play football with him in Sierra
Leone. He wanted every child to have at least the possibility to play football. Sierra Leone was
just recovering from the brutal civil war in which many children were forced to become soldiers.
Instead of just donating footballs the organisation started working with peacebuilding by organising
football tournaments between previously hostile villages and training local leaders to become
peace ambassadors. The organisation provides also training in human rights, conflict resolution
and trauma healing. Play 31 has also started working in other countries like Uganda and Liberia.
Jacob Lund's idea of “football for reconciliation” is simple but effective. Play31 has received
many awards including the Beyond Sport award for “best use of sport as conflict resolution”.

Sources:
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/play31-founding-story
https://vimeo.com/6343079
 ATTACHMENTS 131

Mayerly Sanchez
“If we are only a small group who talk about peace we can be killed. But no one can kill ten
million Colombians who want peace.”
Mayerly Sanchez was born in a poor village in Colombia where drugs and gang violence were
part of her everyday life. At age of 12, she lost her best friend to gang violence. She was a World
Vision-sponsored child herself and she among other kids formed a peace club for children.
Through games and activities, those clubs fought against crime and violence promoting values
like helping each other and taking responsibility for your actions.
In 1996 was invited to the UNICEF children’s peacebuilding conference and she became
one of the spokespeople of the Children's Peace Movement. She was organizing votes for the
Children’s Mandate for Peace and Rights. During the presidential elections in Colombia 1998,
Mayerly together with her friends advocated for peace by organizing events.
The Children’s Peace Movement was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 and won
the World’s Children prize in 2001. These honours gave Mayerly an opportunity to advocate
peacebuilding and children’s rights in United Nations and with many world leaders like Nelson
Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Mayerly Sanchez has continued peacebuilding now working with
the World Vision and empowering children.

Sources:
https://worldschildrensprize.org/mayerlydreamtofpeace
https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/sponsored-childs-life-colombia-comes-full-circle

Nyachangkouth Rambang Tai

“Recently on social media under the hashtag #SouthSudanesesurvivor, many young women
and girls shared their experiences of gender-based violence. For too long, survivors have been
silenced, with perpetrators able to target women and girls with a sense of impunity. I applaud
their courage in drawing attention to these violations.”
Nyachangkouth Rambang Tai had to flee while the war was going on in Sudan. Her family
returned to South Sudan after its independence only to witness another outbreak of violence
after two years. Nyachangkouth identifies as a feminist and an activist. As women and girls
are vulnerable and victims of sexual violence in wars, she wants to empower women as peace-
builders in their communities.
Nyachangkouth Rambang Tai co-founded an organisation called The Mother Care Orga-
nization and Gender and Social Justice Manager at Assistance Mission for Africa (AMA). This
organisation promotes gender equality in education, economy, politics, science and in social
and cultural fields. AMA wants to protect women from violence and create a place for women
in the decision-making processes.
Nyachangkouth Rambang Tai has been invited to speak to United Nations Security Council
concerning the civil society of South Sudan. She has participated in several peace-implemen-
tation processes and United Nations missions in South Sudan. She is a certified human rights
defender and peacebuilder trainer. She has been awarded the Youth leaders Fellowship Award
in 2018 and the Africa focus award in 2020.

Sources:
https://www.womenpeacesecurity.org/peacebuilder/nyachangkuoth-rambang-tai/
https://ourgenpeace.com/advocates/nyachangkuoth-rambang-tai/
https://www.amasouthsudan.org/
132 Peace Education manual

Mother Teresa
“Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that
action is service.”
Mother Teresa was born in Makedonia in 1910 and died in 1997. At age of 18, she joined The
Sisters of Loreto in Ireland. She took her religious vows in India and was named St Therese of
Lisieux. In India, she worked as a teacher but soon formed a new order called “Missionaries of
Charity”. Mother Teresa’s main passion was to help those who couldn’t get any help elsewhere.
She and a few other nuns worked in hard conditions and begin funds to help the poor people
of Calcutta. Soon her work was noticed and she got many supporters from India and abroad.
Mother Teresa’s order spread and in 2013 there were over 700 missions in 30 different
countries. These missions are taking care of terminally ill people and orphans, refugees and
victims of natural disasters. Although Mother Teresa was a catholic, her mission takes care of
everyone regardless people's religions. Pope Paul VI decreed Mother Teresa’s order to Interna-
tional Religious Family in 1965. The Nobel Peace Prize “for work undertaken in the struggle to
overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace” was given to Mother
Teresa in the year 1979. She and her order have received many other awards for building peace
by fighting against poverty.

Sources:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/biographical/
https://www.biographyonline.net/nobelprize/mother_teresa.html

Bishop Desmond Tutu

“...a democratic and just society without racial divisions...”
Desmond Tutu was born in Transvaal in 1931 and studied to be a priest after spending three
years as a teacher. He was the first black Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg and
the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.
South Africa had practised the Apartheid policy separating white minority and non-white
majority from the beginning of the 20th century. During the 1950s laws and racial segregation
were tightened while also areas of living were separated between whites, Bantu and coloured
and Asians. Apartheid continued until 1991 and in the year 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected
as the first black president of South Africa.
During the Apartheid policy, Desmond Tutu demanded equal civil rights to everyone as well
as right to education. He wanted to abolish all forms of segregation.
After the era of Apartheid, Desmon Tutu wanted South Africa to become a democratic “Rain-
bow Nation” and he was nominated to the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
by President Nelson Mandela. The purpose of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was
to build a peaceful society after years of violence against black people. Not by giving hard
punishments but through forgiveness and reconciliation.
Desmond Tuta was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his fight against Apartheid.
He has also received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009) and Templeton Prize (2013)
among others. He has been working together with other international leaders (The Elders) on
conflict resolution from 2007 to 2010. Desmond Tutu died 26th of December 2021.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Desmond-Tutu
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1984/tutu/biographical/
 ATTACHMENTS 133

Liu Xiaobo
“I have no enemies and no hatred. Hatred can rot away at a person’s intelligence and con-
science. Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles,
destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation’s progress toward freedom
and democracy.”
Liu Xiaobo was born in 1955 in Changchun, China. He built a career as a university lecturer
and literary critic. His work as human rights activist lasted over twenty years. Liu Xiaobo was
one of the leading student members who participated Tiananmen Square demonstrations
and hunger strike in 1989. Students demanded changes in the economy and freedom of the
press. Liu Xiaobo was arrested and sent to prison for two years.
After his release from prison, Liu Xiaobo continued criticising the Communist party and was
sent to a labour camp for three years. In 2008 he co-wrote the Charta 08. The authors and
300 intellectuals and academics who signed it claimed democracy both in politics and the
legal system. Liu Xiaobo was again sentenced to prison for eleven years.
Liu Xiaobo was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 “for his long and non-violent struggle
for fundamental human rights in China”. He was the first Chinese to receive a Nobel Peace
Prize. Liu Xiaobo died in 2017 in state custody.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Liu-Xiaobo
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2010/xiaobo/facts/

Local Peacebuilders

The Most Rev. John Baptist Odama

The Most Rev. John Baptist Odama has served as the Catholic Archbishop of Gulu since 1997,
and the chairman of the Uganda Episcopal Conference since 2011. Despite being at the helm
of a religious denomination that almost accounts for half of Uganda’s population, Bishop
Odama has always found time to dedicate himself, lend his name as well as influence the
cause of peace for decades.
He served as the chairman of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative from 2002-2010,
during a very defining moment of the LRA insurgency in Northern Uganda; he mobilized and
led other faith leaders in helping bridge the government of Uganda and the LRA. He was part
of the team that met with the Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, advocating for
regional governments to commit to measures like an amnesty framework and effective return
and reintegration policies so that more abductees are encouraged to escape from the LRA. For
his role in restoring peace in Northern Uganda, Archbishop Odama was awarded the Peace-
maker Prize 2012 from World Vision International and an honorary doctorate of Philosophy
from Gulu University in 2017.
In his continued dedication to regional peace & security, Bishop Odama has also weighed
in on the conflict in South Sudan. He has repeatedly cautioned regional governments against
meddling in the affairs of South Sudan and urged religious leaders there to put up a unified
voice to campaign persistently for peace. In his words he said; ‘They need to consistently go
to the media to let their voices be heard, they must also go to the churches, mosques and all
other places of worship.’ He has also urged political leaders of the country to uphold & respect
the provisions of the peace treaties they sign.
134 Peace Education manual

Archbishop Odama was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the Inaugural Peace
Awards organized by UMYDF in 2021 for courageously speaking truth to power, his outstanding
commitment to peace and for being a champion of inter-faith cooperation in the pursuit of
peace. He has taught us that irrespective of our religious differences, we can all work together
to advance world peace.

Rt. Rev. Dr David. Zac Niringiye

As we look back in Uganda’s history to identify trailblazers and courageous peacebuilders whose
life works can help inspire the next generation of peacebuilders, we find a great example in Dr
Zac for young people to emulate. Whether it is through his active participation in the ‘Break
the Silence’ campaign which raised awareness of the problem of child soldiers and general
abductions of the LRA, or acts of back door diplomacy as chairperson of the National Task
Force for Peace and Conflict Transformation by the IRCU, he contributed to averting violence
during defining moments in Uganda’s political history.
A Peace Award was bestowed on him by the National Platform for Peace Building and
Conflict Prevention, Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda in September 2010. He was also
awarded the Olive Branch Award at the Inaugural Peace Awards in 2021 for his exceptional
skill, commitment and results in the mediation of complex local conflicts and disputes.

Simon Marot Touloung

Born in 1992 in Wange, Mayom County in present-day South Sudan, Simon was forced to flee
following the conflict that had erupted in the country.
Aged 8 years, he walked for 21 days and nights from Unity State in Upper Nile through
Warrap and lake States in Bhar El Ghazal. He arrived in Keri Transit camp, Northern Uganda
on 9th September 2000. He could have given up, but he didn’t, he pressed on with purpose
and hope. As co-founder of the African Youth Action Network (AYAN), Simon is involved in
working with young people in refugee settlements, helping them to acquire the skills to help
themselves, forge a path in life and contribute to a peaceful world. Simon dreams of an Africa
and a world free of wars and conflicts where everyone has a place to call home and food to eat.
Because of his work with refugees, he was appointed as a member of the Global Youth Advi-
sory Council by UNHCR in 2017 and to the first Youth Advisory Council of the African Union in
2018. He won the Distinguished Award for Service to Refugees and IDPs– Individual Category
at the inaugural peace awards, organized by UMYDF in 2021 for his courage, commitment,
consistency, and impact. He was nominated among the 100 Most Influential Young Africans
in Leadership and Civil Society by Africa Youth Awards in 2019.

Jolly Andruvile Okot

Jolly was born in a remote village in Awere village, Odek Sub-County, Omoro district in Northern
Uganda. As a child, she grew up in the same village as Joseph Kony. In 1986, as a teenager,
while walking the 10-mile journey home from school, she was abducted by a group of rebels.
This was her introduction to the rebel group that was then called the Holy Spirit movement.
The rebel group would later come to be known as the LRA- the Lord’s Resistance Army. They
held her captive for the next two years during which she was forced to fight, steal from her
community at gunpoint and was repeatedly raped by the commanders. Yet despite these
horrific circumstances, she never gave up and was determined to make it back to her family
one day, and she did.
Jolly later dedicated her life to working with communities affected by LRA violence. She
worked with organizations such as Oxfam, MSF, Inter Aid, UNHCR and founded HEALS - an
 ATTACHMENTS 135

organization focused on providing “play therapy” for children who were night commuters
(children who would walk miles to avoid being abducted by the LRA.) Because of her work
with HEALS, in 2005, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Around that time, she was
introduced to the filmmakers of Invisible Children and took on the role of the Director of Invis-
ible Children Uganda. As a director, she helped develop many successful programs — one of
which included the Legacy Scholarship program, where the organization put 4,800 children
through school. Currently, she is the CEO of WEND, a socially minded fashion company that
employs and empowers women formerly affected by the war in Northern Uganda. She was
celebrated for her work at the Inaugural Peace Awards in 2021 when she won the Women,
Peace & Security Award – Individual Category.

Rt. Rev. Bishop Macleod Baker Ochola II

The threat of religious extremism is real and well documented. Yet despite a few extremists
instrumentalizing religion to justify violent behaviour, religion is a significant factor in human
identity that continues to be explored to advance peace. This is because of the trust that several
people have in religious figures & institutions and that religion often inspires perseverance in
the face of major, otherwise debilitating obstacles.
Bishop Ochola is a living example of how religion, religious figures, and religious institutions
can contribute to the cause of peace, especially in the face of protracted conflicts. Retired
Bishop Macleod Baker Ochola II is part of the team that initiated the Acholi Religious Leaders
Peace Initiative (ARLPI) that spearheaded peace talks between the government and the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who waged nearly a two-decade insurgency in northern Uganda.
He risked his own life protecting youth from abduction by violent extremists along with other
religious leaders in Gulu, Uganda.
Bishop Ochola has preached peace, forgiveness and reconciliation to others who have been
born or endured the devastating effects of the LRA insurgency. Bishop Ochola is an advocate
for “Mato Oput’’, a communal justice and reconciliation process for perpetrators of horrific
violence that is centred around peaceful conflict resolution.
He is an advocate for peace and stability in the world.
In recognition of his efforts, Bishop Ochola has won many prestigious local and international
peace awards. In 2002, he received the Fraternity Award from the Mundo Negro magazine in
Madrid, Spain. He also scooped the Paul Carus Award at the Parliament of the World’s Religions
in Barcelona, Spain in 2004. His courage and commitment to peace, justice and reconciliation
were celebrated with an award at the Inaugural Peace Awards organized by UMYDF in 2021.

Victor Ochen
Ochen started a Peace Club at the age of 13 while living in an Internally Displaced Persons
camp, bravely leading the anti-child soldier recruitment campaign amidst the war in North-
ern Uganda. He also founded an NGO, the African Youth Initiative (AYINET) dedicated to the
relentless pursuit of creative programs geared towards advancing the psychological, physical,
social and economic wellness of war victims. His post-conflict programs cater to the holistic
reconciliation of victims because like he said,
“There can be no Peace within a person suffering in pain. This is the Peace we desire, that
includes physical and emotional healing from the atrocities suffered.”
Victor has experienced war and has seen crimes against humanity perpetrated first hand but
this just shaped his resolve for building peace. He similarly empowers youth in his community
for peace and reconciliation.
He has partnered with the United Nations and Sustainable Development Goals as a Global
136 Peace Education manual

Ambassador for SDG 16; Peace and Justice. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in
2015. Victor is so far the youngest African and first Ugandan to receive the peace prize nom-
ination. He was also honoured with a Peace & Security Innovators Award at the Inaugural
Peace Awards organized by UMYDF in 2021 for his distinguished contribution to building a
safer country and continent.

Ndugwa Hassan
On 11 July 2010, Hassan Ndugwa was watching the FIFA World Cup final at the Kyadondo
Rugby Club when a bomb went off. Hassan survived this attack; it claimed 74 lives and injured
75 people. The Al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Following this event, Hassan Ndugwa, together with his friend Ahmed Hadji, co-founded
the Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum (UMYDF) in 2011. His life’s mission is to con-
tribute positively to his community by involving himself and his peers in processes leading to
a tolerant and peaceful society.
Hassan Ndugwa has over a decade’s experience in community development and peace
promotion, specifically in preventing violent extremism. He has developed many innovative
approaches to preventing violent extremism in Uganda and East Africa. He has been at the helm
of running the Community Change Agents’ Program for East and Horn of Africa, the Teachers
for peace program, Women in the prevention of violent extremism program among others.
He has also championed the provision of positive alternatives to youth at risk of recruitment
into violent extremism in Uganda and created platforms for young people to actively and
meaningfully engage on a personal and political level to achieve peace. Through his work, he
has also amplified the voices of victims of terrorism with an aim of de-legitimizing extremist
ideologies.
Hassan has contributed to the global counter-terrorism agenda by participating in various
global CVE meetings and conferences organized by global and continental bodies like the
UN, AU, IGAD, and Global Counter-Terrorism Forum among others. Hassan is among the 10
global advocates selected by the Kofi Annan Foundation and One Young World to counter
violent extremism in the world through their “Extremely Together” initiative. He is also one of
the pioneer members of the Generation Change Global Fellows program implemented by the
United States Institute for Peace (USIP).
 ATTACHMENTS 137

ATTACHMENT 7

Convention on the Rights of the Child: The children's version

1. Definition of a child
A child is any person under the age of 18.

2. No discrimination
All children have all these rights, no matter who they are, where they live, what language they
speak, what their religion is, what they think, what they look like, if they are a boy or girl, if they
have a disability, if they are rich or poor, and no matter who their parents or families are or
what their parents or families believe or do. No child should be treated unfairly for any reason.

3. Best interests of the child

When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children.
All adults should do what is best for children. Governments should make sure children are
protected and looked after by their parents, or by other people when this is needed. Govern-
ments should make sure that people and places responsible for looking after children are
doing a good job.

4. Making rights real

Governments must do all they can to make sure that every child in their countries can enjoy
all the rights in this Convention.

5. Family guidance as children develop

Governments should let families and communities guide their children so that, as they grow
up, they learn to use their rights in the best way. The more children grow, the less guidance
they will need.

6. Life survival and development

Every child has the right to be alive. Governments must make sure that children survive and
develop in the best possible way.

7. Name and nationality

Children must be registered when they are born and given a name which is officially recognized
by the government. Children must have a nationality (belong to a country). Whenever possible,
children should know their parents and be looked after by them.

8. Identity
Children have the right to their own identity – an official record of who they are which includes
their name, nationality and family relations. No one should take this away from them, but if
this happens, governments must help children to quickly get their identity back.
138 Peace Education manual

9. Keeping families together

Children should not be separated from their parents unless they are not being properly looked
after – for example, if a parent hurts or does not take care of a child. Children whose parents
don’t live together should stay in contact with both parents unless this might harm the child.

10. Contact with parents across countries

If a child lives in a different country than their parents, governments must let the child and
parents travel so that they can stay in contact and be together.

11. Protection from kidnapping

Governments must stop children being taken out of the country when this is against the
law – for example, being kidnapped by someone or held abroad by a parent when the other
parent does not agree.

12. Respect for children's views

Children have the right to give their opinions freely on issues that affect them. Adults should
listen and take children seriously.

13. Sharing thoughts freely

Children have the right to share freely with others what they learn, think and feel, by talking,
drawing, writing or in any other way unless it harms other people.

14. Freedom of thought and religion

Children can choose their own thoughts, opinions and religion, but this should not stop other
people from enjoying their rights. Parents can guide children so that as they grow up, they
learn to properly use this right.

15. Setting up or joining groups

Children can join or set up groups or organisations, and they can meet with others, as long as
this does not harm other people.

16. Protection of privacy

Every child has the right to privacy. The law must protect children’s privacy, family, home,
communications and reputation (or good name) from any attack.

17. Access to information

Children have the right to get information from the Internet, radio, television, newspapers,
books and other sources. Adults should make sure the information they are getting is not
harmful. Governments should encourage the media to share information from lots of different
sources, in languages that all children can understand.

18. Responsibility of parents

Parents are the main people responsible for bringing up a child. When the child does not have
any parents, another adult will have this responsibility and they are called a “guardian”. Parents
and guardians should always consider what is best for that child. Governments should help
them. Where a child has both parents, both of them should be responsible for bringing up
the child.
 ATTACHMENTS 139

19. Protection from violence

Governments must protect children from violence, abuse and being neglected by anyone
who looks after them.

20. Children without families

Every child who cannot be looked after by their own family has the right to be looked after prop-
erly by people who respect the child’s religion, culture, language and other aspects of their life.

21. Children who are adopted

When children are adopted, the most important thing is to do what is best for them. If a child
cannot be properly looked after in their own country – for example by living with another family
– then they might be adopted in another country.

22. Refugee children

Children who move from their home country to another country as refugees (because it was
not safe for them to stay there) should get help and protection and have the same rights as
children born in that country.

23. Children with disabilities

Every child with a disability should enjoy the best possible life in society. Governments should
remove all obstacles for children with disabilities to become independent and to participate
actively in the community.

24. Health, water, food, environment

Children have the right to the best health care possible, clean water to drink, healthy food and
a clean and safe environment to live in. All adults and children should have information about
how to stay safe and healthy.

25. Review of a child's placement

Every child who has been placed somewhere away from home - for their care, protection or
health – should have their situation checked regularly to see if everything is going well and if
this is still the best place for the child to be.

26. Social and economic help

Governments should provide money or other support to help children from poor families.

27. Food, clothing, a safe home

Children have the right to food, clothing and a safe place to live so they can develop in the
best possible way. The government should help families and children who cannot afford this.

28. Access to education

Every child has the right to an education. Primary education should be free. Secondary and
higher education should be available to every child. Children should be encouraged to go to
school to the highest level possible. Discipline in schools should respect children’s rights and
never use violence.

29. Aims of education

Children’s education should help them fully develop their personalities, talents and abilities.
140 Peace Education manual

It should teach them to understand their own rights, and to respect other people’s rights,
cultures and differences. It should help them to live peacefully and protect the environment.

30. Minority culture, language and religion

Children have the right to use their own language, culture and religion - even if these are not
shared by most people in the country where they live.

31. Rest, play, culture, arts

Every child has the right to rest, relax, play and to take part in cultural and creative activities.

32. Protection from harmful work

Children have the right to be protected from doing work that is dangerous or bad for their ed-
ucation, health or development. If children work, they have the right to be safe and paid fairly.

33. Protection from harmful drugs

Governments must protect children from taking, making, carrying or selling harmful drugs.

34. Protection from sexual abuse

The government should protect children from sexual exploitation (being taken advantage
of) and sexual abuse, including by people forcing children to have sex for money, or making
sexual pictures or films of them.

35. Prevention of sale and trafficking

Governments must make sure that children are not kidnapped or sold, or taken to other coun-
tries or places to be exploited (taken advantage of).

36. Protection from exploitation

Children have the right to be protected from all other kinds of exploitation (being taken ad-
vantage of), even if these are not specifically mentioned in this Convention.

37. Children in detention

Children who are accused of breaking the law should not be killed, tortured, treated cruelly,
put in prison forever, or put in prison with adults. Prison should always be the last choice and
only for the shortest possible time. Children in prison should have legal help and be able to
stay in contact with their family.

38. Protection in war

Children have the right to be protected during war. No child under 15 can join the army or take
part in war.

39. Recovery and reintegration

Children have the right to get help if they have been hurt, neglected, treated badly or affected
by war, so they can get back their health and dignity.

40. Children who break the law

Children accused of breaking the law have the right to legal help and fair treatment. There
should be lots of solutions to help these children become good members of their communities.
Prison should only be the last choice.
 ATTACHMENTS 141

41. Best law for children applies

If the laws of a country protect children’s rights better than this Convention, then those laws should be used.

42. Everyone must know children's rights

Governments should actively tell children and adults about this Convention so that everyone knows about
children’s rights.

43 to 54. How the Convention works

These articles explain how governments, the United Nations – including the Committee on the Rights of the
Child and UNICEF - and other organisations work to make sure all children enjoy all their rights.

Source: https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text-childrens-version
142 Peace Education manual

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1 Right to Equality

Article 2 Freedom from Discrimination
Article 3 Right to Life, Liberty, Personal Security
Article 4 Freedom from Slavery
Article 5 Freedom from Torture and Degrading Treatment
Article 6 Right to Recognition as a Person before the Law
Article 7 Right to Equality before the Law
Article 8 Right to Remedy by Competent Tribunal
Article 9 Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile
Article 10 Right to Fair Public Hearing
Article 11 Right to be Considered Innocent until Proven Guilty
Article 12 Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Corre-
spondence
Article 13 Right to Free Movement in and out of the Country
Article 14 Right to Asylum in other Countries from Persecution
Article 15 Right to a Nationality and the Freedom to Change It
Article 16 Right to Marriage and Family
Article 17 Right to Own Property
Article 18 Freedom of Belief and Religion
Article 19 Freedom of Opinion and Information
Article 20 Right of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Article 21 Right to Participate in Government and in Free
Article 22 Right to Social Security
Article 23 Right to Desirable Work and to Join Trade Unions
Article 24 Right to Rest and Leisure
Article 25 Right to Adequate Living Standard
Article 26 Right to Education
Article 27 Right to Participate in the Cultural Life of Community
Article 28 Right to a Social Order that Articulates this Document
Article 29 Community Duties Essential to Free and Full Development
Article 30 Freedom from State or Personal Interference in the above Rights

Source: http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/edumat/hreduseries/hereandnow/Part-5/8_udhr-abbr.htm
 ATTACHMENTS 143

ATTACHMENT 8

Community mapping worksheet

Where is your community located? (Country,

District, Sub-County, and Village)

Who are the members that make up your

community? (Ethnicities, Religions)

Do feel acceoted and supported within the

community? If Yes Why? If No Why?

What aspects of your personal identy particularly

make you feel connected or disconnected from
this community?

List 5 things that make your proud of your

community. These could be related to the
people, physical features, community activities,
community development infrastructures, leaders,
public service delivery, facilities and amenities,
etc.

List 5 benefits you enjoy by being a menber of

this community.

List 5 things you do not like about your

community?

If you were put in charge of the community as a

youth, list 3 things you would do to strengthen
realtionships and friendships among different
community menbers?

As a citizen, share 3 initiatives you could

undertake as an individual to promote issues of
marginalized and excluded communities.

What would you like to learn more about your

community?
144 Peace Education manual

ATTACHMENT 9

List of organizations working for peacebuilding in Uganda

Amani Institute Uganda, https://www.peaceinsight.org/en/organisations/amani-institute-uganda/
Caritas Arua, https://www.caritasaruadiocese.org/
Centre for Conflict resolution, CECORE, http://www.cecore.net
DanChurchAid, DCA, https://www.danchurchaid.org/what-we-do/where-we-work/uganda
Global Peace Foundation, https://www.globalpeace.org/uganda
International Rescue committee, IRC, https://www.rescue.org/country/uganda
Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, https://www.ircu.or.ug/
Plan international Uganda, https://plan-international.org/uganda/
Peace Champions in Uganda, GPPAC, https://www.gppac.net/peace-champions-uganda
Save the Children, https://uganda.savethechildren.net/
Uganda Redcross Society, https://www.redcrossug.org/
UNHCR- Uganda https://www.unhcr.org/uganda.html
UNICEF Uganda https://www.unicef.org/uganda/
U.S. Agency for International Development, https://www.usaid.gov/uganda
Women’s peace and Humanitarian Fund, https://wphfund.org/countries/uganda/
World Vision International, https://www.wvi.org/uganda
 145

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All the activities and exercises are modified for this material.

Ahtisaaripäivä: Opetusmateriaalit

Caritas: Peacebuilding: A Caritas Training Manual

Council of Europe: Manual on Human Rights Education with Young People

CRS – Catholic Relief Services: Youth Peace Ambassador Training Guide

Georgia Poison Center, GPC: Educator Toolkit: https://www.georgiapoisoncenter.org/educa-

tion/educator-toolkit/

Finn Church Aid/ Hokka, Karoliina: Peace Club

Plan International Finland: Lapsen oikeuksien kymppi

Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, IGC: Essentials of Dialogue

Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum: Peace Manual https://umydf.org/

United Network of Young Peacebuilders: Youth4Peace Training Toolkit

United States Institute of Peace: Peacebuilding Toolkit for Educators – High School Edition

VeneKlasen, L., & Miller, V. (2007). A new weave of power, people & politics: The action guide
for advocacy and citizen participation. Warwickshire: Practical Action Publishing. Chapter 3
on Power and Empowerment is available from https://justassociates.org/en/resources/
new-weave-power-people-politics-action-guide-advocacy-and-citizen-participation

Youth Department of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon: Peacebuilding & conflict trans-
formation – Methods & games to facilitate training sessions

For further reading

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s – especially 16)
UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on youth peace and security
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women peace and security
UN Plan of Action on countering hate speech