Alternatives to Violence Project International
(AVPI)
Eighth International Gathering
Strengthening
Global Peace Education
Johannesburg, South
Africa, 27 August to 1 September 2006
AVP IG Epistle
To the worldwide AVP Family,
At the start of spring, 143 people from 23
countries have gathered at Hartbeespoort Dam between Johannesburg and Pretoria,
South Africa: a rainbow gathering in the Rainbow Nation. We have come together at The Good Shepherd
Retreat Centre, a place of welcoming hospitality, peace and spirituality. In
this beautiful place we have found new friends and old friends, hugs and
laughter, singing and dancing, and a dazzling array of talks, workshops and
shared wisdom. We have been moved by personal testimonies and fired by the many
visionaries in our midst.
The Gathering was designed, organised and
facilitated by an inspiring team of South African staff and volunteers based at
Phaphama Initiatives. An essential part of the experience has been the South
African context in which we have shared the food, the culture, the languages,
the history and current concerns of our host nation. For five days we have all
been Africans. We have lived the concept of ubuntu: umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,
the interconnectedness that makes us human.
Three themes, or ‘strands’, have woven the
fabric of the Gathering. The work of the first strand has been to establish the
AVP International Development and Resource Committee to ‘gather and provide
resources to the AVP community to increase its full potential for peace and
nonviolence worldwide’.
In the second strand we have shared
experiences and skills gained through the unique AVP learning process. Our ‘Grandfather’, Steve Angell, has been
with us to encourage and inspire us as we look at ways to improve, refine,
expand and develop AVP in ways appropriate to our differing cultures and
societies. Despite our obvious
differences, we have been amazed by the common underlying spirit and processes
of AVP.
The third strand has explored strategies for
local organizations to achieve stability and sustainable growth. Those of us
from outside Africa have been impressed by the energy and growth of AVP in
African countries – countries with appalling experiences, past and present, of
war, genocide, apartheid, poverty, disease and crime. These countries have used AVP
imaginatively in locally relevant ways. In Rwanda 1,400 newly elected
local Gacaca judges have received AVP training. In Sudan, where AVP started in December 2005, 13 workshops have
already helped to bridge the gulfs between Christians and Muslims, men and
women and among the many tribal groups.
The Franciscan Damietta Initiative in Africa, a grassroots movement
promoting non-violence, reconciliation and care for the environment, uses AVP
for its initial training programme. In South Africa, amongst AVP’s many
partners and projects, is the HIPP (Helping Increase Peace and Positivity)
Club, where young people take their own version of AVP into schools and offer
skillful facilitation and powerful role-models. The list is endless.
The Gathering has, above all, affirmed our
vision of AVP and its transforming power.
In small and large groups we have learned from each other that we can be
infinitely creative and flexible with this precious gift. We also recognise the
many organizational challenges that face us.
The messages from U.S. prisoners have
reminded us of all our brothers and sisters incarcerated around the world. Many
other AVPers were not able to be with us in person, but we feel your spirit has
been with us.
With blessings and a warm South African Hug!
Alternatives
to Violence Project International
Eighth International Gathering Report
1.1 Executive Summary
Systemic violence embedded in our institutions and our societal values have created a fertile breeding ground for violent behaviour that is inhibiting economic and social development. In order to achieve a global culture that values peace and rejects violence, peace education must be far more widely promoted and access to it increased. AVP is an extremely effective peace education intervention supported by thousands of leaders and facilitators around the world that work at grassroots level to sustainably and cost-effectively decrease the levels of violence in our society. It has a proven track record of implementation around the world. Africans believe that there is a vital need to put resources into empowering and giving voice to, and sustainably developing, local peace initiatives.
AVP International (AVPI) and Phaphama Initiatives are deeply
committed to building the capacity of local African community based peace
initiatives as a significant driving force toward ending violence, poverty and
injustice on the continent. We believe that the 2006 Gathering (IG) has supported
this process and, through the successful work done at the IG, greatly
enhanced the capacity of AVPl to increase the effectiveness of facilitators. It
also provided the opportunity to create strategies to make interventions better
and more sustainable, as well as to significantly enhance AVPI’s capacity to
support people working for peace, development and human rights in societies
that are affected and/or threatened by violent conflict.
1.2 Introduction
This report
outlines the activities of the 2006 AVP International Gathering, that have
greatly enhanced AVPIs capacity to carry out its global mission to
significantly reduce the levels of violence in society through training and sharing
skills of nonviolence and good human relationships. This September marked 100
years from the date on which Gandhi first used non-violent civil disobedience
on a mass scale in the Transvaal (a former province of South Africa). In
celebration, Phaphama Initiatives hosted the 2006 AVP International Gathering
(AVPIG).
The 2006 Gathering
brought together 143 representatives (103 full-time and 40 part-time) of the
AVPI community representing 23[1]
different countries with the following goals:
·
To
develop the structural capacity of AVPI as a global resource centre for the training
and development of peace builders.
·
To
share skills, knowledge and best practices between diverse AVP facilitators
enabling all individuals to be more effective in their work.
·
To
Increase the sustainability of AVP in addressing problems of violence.
·
To
broaden its reach within the wider peace building community.
That these were
more than accomplished is reflected in the following outcomes of the gathering:
· The evaluation of AVPI’s 2004/2005 activities [2].
·
The formation of the AVP
International Development and Resource Committee to support the future
strategic and practical development of AVPI.
·
Participation in a wide variety of skills sharing
and professional development learning exchanges and training workshops.
·
An examination of strategies for local AVP organizations to broaden
their reach and achieve stability and sustainable growth.
·
The AVPIG open day provided an
opportunity to share AVPI’s experiences and insights with local, national and
international media, corporate, governmental and other non-governmental
organisations engaged in nonviolence training and peace building.[3]
2.1 The AVPIG
Programme
The programme
offered AVPI an opportunity to evaluate the positive contribution made by AVP
over the past 30 years, to reflect on its successes and consolidate the
progress made, and to provide a space to look forward. The overall theme
of the 9th IG was ‘Next
steps: consolidating AVP international; enabling sustainable transformation’. There were also three sub-themes: the development
of an effective AVP international body, skills transfer and project development. The Conference programme explored
these three sub-themes or strands.
The work of the first strand was to
establish the AVP International Development and Resource Committee to gather and
provide resources to the AVP community to significantly increase its capacity for
peace and nonviolence training and advocacy worldwide (the details of this
strand are discussed in section 2.2).
The second strand shared experiences and
skills gained through the unique AVP learning processes to refine, expand and
develop AVP in ways appropriate to our differing cultures and societies. 17 workshop sessions were held, which offered a wide variety of
learning exchanges and skills training led by experienced facilitators and
peace builders from around the world[4].
The third strand explored strategies for
local organizations to achieve stability and sustainable growth through a
series of learning exchanges. 14 workshop sessions were held in this strand covering
areas such as AVP work in prisons, AVP within tertiary education and AVP as a
tool for peace building[5].
The AVPIG offered a unique and significant opportunity for the development of AVP
peace education by reflecting on and sharing the collective knowledge of its
diverse community of peace builders whose experience covered a wide variety of
cultural communities, settings and client groups internationally.
2.2 International Development and Resource
Committee
Since AVP’s beginnings as a pilot project in a New York prison
in 1975, the success of its core vision has generated rapid growth across the
globe. As the programme spread, it
became clear that violence and the need for peace education existed just as
much outside prison walls as within, and that everyone in all walks of life and
circumstances is exposed to, and participates in, violence of one kind or
another.
As we enter in to
the second half of the United Nations “International Decade for a Culture of
Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2000-2010)” the fault
lines of violence it sought to disintegrate remain intact. Far from an emerging ‘culture of peace’,
systemic violence embedded in our institutions and our societal values have
created a fertile breeding ground for violent behaviour. Through peace
education programmes AVP is raising grass-roots awareness of violence and
empowering individuals, communities and organisations with the nonviolence
skills required to address it. AVP’s
model of nonviolence training empowers target individuals and groups and
enables the transformation of human relationships through a focus on
pre-emptive conflict resolution processes that transfer the skills of
affirmation, communication, cooperation, community-building and Transforming
Power (Creative Conflict Resolution).
Our experience around the world informs us that this is the most
effective way to counter the endemic violence we see around us.
After 30 years,
AVP is now successfully established in 42 countries worldwide. Despite growing recognition of the value of
peace education within the field of peace building (as recommended by The Hague
Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century[6]
- highlighting the necessity of instituting systematic education for peace) and
as evident from AVP’s successes, AVPI recognises that peace education and
nonviolence training are seriously under-developed and under-coordinated. There is, in practice, little capacity to
enable grassroots peace builders to develop desperately needed, sustainable and
long-lasting programs of experiential nonviolence training as the foundation
for overcoming violence.
The International
Gathering provided a space for the AVPI community to share and exchange skills
and experiences in nonviolence and peace education training, and acted as a
platform to develop and launch the International Resource and Development
Committee structure (AVP IDRC). The IDRC will provide support to national, regional
and international AVP initiatives by offering funding, capacity building,
developmental and training support through its broad network of experienced
facilitators, peace builders and peace organisations.
2.2 Expanding Our Reach
In order to be a significant contributor to the
building of sustainable peace in society, AVPI has a goal of spreading AVP to,
and in, regions where it is most needed.
AVPI seeks to do this in a way that is sustainable. Our experience informs us that conducting
limited interventions has less than optimal outcomes, notwithstanding the value
provided in terms of self-development for those involved. The world social and political landscape
confirms that there is significant scope for AVP to be developed in existing
and new regions. However for this to take
place the organisation needed to develop strategic objectives around the
development and the optimal use of available resources. This objective was met at the IG. With the establishment of the IDRC there is now
a core group that is working toward the expansion of existing work and the establishment
of AVP in new regions, and to raise resources necessary to support and expand its
work.
In response to the rapid growth in demand for AVP
across the world in recent years (particularly in Africa) and the evaluations
of previous International Gatherings (New Zealand, 2004 and Nigeria, 2002) it
was evident that there was a need to explore and develop the structural
capacity of the international network to enable it to carry out its role of
“encouraging the development of the program in different countries by supporting
each other, sharing information and offering support in maintaining the
integrity of AVP”. Africans believe
that there is a vital need to put resources into empowering and giving voice
to, and sustainably developing, local peace initiatives; and AVP is deeply
committed to building the capacity of local community based peace initiatives
as the driving force in ending poverty and injustice on the continent. The 2006
Gathering has proved to be the opportunity to support and build this process.
One of the central goals, successfully achieved during the IG, was to
reverse the traditional north-south flow of support by providing an adequately
funded platform for an afro-centric conference. The current field of peace education has, for many years, been
dominated by euro-centric methodologies. The IG provided a unique platform for the
sharing of non-western (particularly African, and more particularly Southern
African) AVP initiatives, and a rare opportunity for south-north knowledge
flows. The focus on Africa was particularly relevant given the proliferation of
intra-state conflicts across the African sub-continent and the vast demand for
AVP on the continent. Africans believe that there is a vital need to put
resources into empowering and giving voice to, and sustainably developing,
local peace initiatives.
In order for this to happen, it was crucial that the gathering be
representative of AVP’s wider African membership. As a result of generous
support received from our donors, the conference organisers were in a position
to offer financial assistance for travel and accommodation to under-resourced
African regional representatives to enable them to attend the conference. In
the past, this lack of resources has meant that substantial sections of the AVP
International network, particularly those from Africa, have been
under-represented at international gatherings, and have been unable to
participate in the decision making and skill sharing processes of AVPI.
The 2006 Gathering
brought together 103 full-time and 40 part-time representatives of the AVPI
community representing 23[7]
different countries. Of these 65 (full-time) and 40 (part-time) were from
Africa (26 from outside South Africa), 12 from North America, 10 from
Australasia, 9 from Europe, 4 from Asia and 3 from South America.
With deep gratitude, we received grants and donations totalling R220,000
(equivalent of approximately US$ 36,000 or BPS 17,000 at the time) from AVP USA, AVP Australia, The Joseph
Rowntree Charitable Trust, American Friends Service Committee, The Guardian
Trust, AW60, the African Great Lakes Initiative and a number of individual
donations from AVP facilitators most of whom wished to remain anonymous. The
funds raised enabled Phaphama Initiatives to offer full and partial grants to 107
delegates to enable them to attend the IG.
Supported were a total of 61 full time delegates - 30 from South Africa,
26 from within Africa and 5 from South America and Asia. We also offered grants
to 40 South African part-time delegates.
Additional funds (not reflected in the above figures) were also raised
by individual delegates in support of their own attendance at the IG. Needless
to say, the impact of the IG would not have been anywhere near as successful
without the attendance of those who were supported by our generous donors. THANK YOU.
The funds raised
also enabled us to bring together the South African regional preparatory group
for an AVP IG planning meeting held in May 2006 over three days. Thus enabling us to share tasks and
effectively organise the IG.
The
cultural diversity of our membership, non-hierarchical organisational structure
and volunteer culture powerfully influences our effectiveness and
self-development. At the centre of our ways of working is a focus on
beyond-consensus decision making. Whilst AVPI has historically been
significantly supported by Canadian and American AVP, we, in Africa, sought to
offer an African input to our ways of working and challenge the trend in many
international bodies to be dominated by western organisational structures. With
participation from people from around the world, we succeeded in building a collaborative
organisational structure through the IDRC that is already making progress in
meeting the organisations’ goals.
Evaluation
The evaluation
of the IG was overwhelmingly positive with particular focus on the
effectiveness of the way it was organised.
Detailed evaluation comments may be found on the AVP International
website at www.avpinternational.org.
Conclusion
The AVP International Gathering, South Africa 2006 was a wonderful
experience that enabled participants to more than meet their personal and
organisational goals. The coming
together has empowered AVPI and its members in a way that bodes well for the
future. We wish to thank those who made the sacrifices necessary for them to
offer their gifts to the gathering, and also, those individuals and
organisations that offered the financial support that provided the foundation
for the success of this IG. Thanks
everyone!
Additional
Information
The
following documents may be found on the AVP International website - www.avpinternational.org
·
International Development and Resource Committee
Vision
·
AVPIG 2006 Press Coverage
·
AVPIG 2006 Minutes
·
AVPIG 2006 Evaluation Comments