ICF Kicks off School of Peace 2023 Virtually

On Monday 23rd of January, ICF started the 1st School of Peace for the project cycle since the beginning of the pandemic. The SoP kicked off virtually with the 3-days of three-hour zoom sessions accompanied by a google classroom for self-learning. 14 participants from 9 different countries joined the SoP 2023. Due to some difficulties with connections, unfortunately, not all of them could fully attend the zoom meetings.

During the 1st zoom meeting, the participants got the chance to shortly introduce themselves and also get to know the ICF staff and the ICF Alumni in Nepal. These Alumni have formed the Nepal Unites, and they will assist during the in-person SoP in Nepal. The ICF Coordinator, Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro, introduced the origin of the YMCA, and its spread to Asia, leading to the formation of APAY. She also shared the beginnings of ICF and traced back its roots to the concepts formulated in Parapat, Indonesia in 2003. Afterwards, the participants shared their prepared country conflict and analysis. Due to weak internet connections, some presentations were saved for the in-person meeting in Nepal.

On the 2nd zoom, Tuesday the 24th of January, the ICF Staff Annika Denkmann, introduced Conflict & Conflict Analysis. The participants identified what is conflict, why it happens, and why conflict analysis is an important aspect of peacebuilding. Finally, different tools to analyze a conflict were discussed. The participants were given the assignment to be accomplished by the 1st of February, to be discussed in person in Nepal. During the 3rd and last zoom, ICF invited an external resource person. Cesar Villanueva who is the director of the Pax Christi Institute in Bacolod, Philippines. He is also a lecturer in Conflict Transformation and Peace Futures. He talked about the Peacebuilding Frameworks according to John Paul Lederach and Johan Galtung. He started his presentation by differentiating terminologies used among peace workers and went into the introduction of the peacebuilding frameworks. Being a student of Galtung, he focused on Galtung’s transcend model and introduced Lederach through a video in which Emma Leslie explains Lederach’s expanded Peace Framework.

After three days of zoom ICF and Nepal Unites are excited to welcome the participants in Nepal in-person on the 30th of January to dive into the 50-Day program.

Annika Denkmann
BftW Seconded Personnel

Source: https://interfaithforum.org/news-events/5497-2/?fbclid=IwAR25LLGWJcNJe9Z7OLOMuoK00hHZbkzfVKnBNXvkXhX9ysLwVQ_1B0bzmGA