| Posted: April 18 2005,09:33 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
It
has been observed that in the past few years in the English textbooks
created by Russian authors for secondary schools they have
adopted some of the parameters of teaching the concept of oneness of
the human race which was entirely absent in the past. I tend to feel
that it is because of the influence of the Baha’i inspired projects
aimed at nurturing a culture of peace.
Concerning indicators for
the progress of art youth projects for moral education, there can be
mentioned two main factors: firstly, they’ve been supported by local
authorities (departments of education and culture) and secondly,
attended by great numbers of creative young people and students. The
interest to new forms of presenting positive ideals to youth has been
remarkable and the necessity of such projects has come to be obvious.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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The
main obstacle has been and still is the fragmentation of the
educational process both in the family and in society at large and the
lack of awareness in that the fruits of moral behaviour can grow only
on the tree of pure spirituality. Religious education so far is brought
down to teaching the young generations about the rituals and the
religious dogmas and traditions of various denominations rather than
cultivating spiritual habits.
Another obstacle is the lack of
financial support to non-commercial projects of additional moral
education in state educational and cultural institutions. Consequently
there is a lack of human resources involved into the process of
cultivating spiritual values and developing new culture.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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*
In the period between 2001 and 2005 we have distributed 3000 copies (in
Russian) of the books FAMILY VIRTUES GUIDE ( by Linda Kavelin Popov)
mostly to the libraries and child-training centres as well as the
groups of parents.
* About 500 copies of the MORAL EDUCATION
CURRICULA, created in Kazakhstan by Victor and Elena Burnashov and
Janna Satybaldieva, were shared with educationalists in the course of
seminars and round-the-table discussions.
* About 1500 copies
(in Russian) of the book NEW TOOLS FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION: A PEACE
EDUCATION CURRICULUM FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS (by Dale L. Hudson)
were placed in the public and school libraries and distributed among
the educationalists all over Russia and Russian-speaking countries.
*
The ENGLISH FOR PEACE textbooks (by Elena Gruzkova) were given to 200
educational establishments in the Russian Federation as well as to
educational establishments in the C.I.S. countries and in the countries
of South-East Asia and the US. More than 1000 copies were distributed
to private schools and individuals.
* Youth social actions of
art project "Werld" have been held since 2001: "We and world", "Jazzy:
who am I?", "Dasein: purpose of human life", series (monthly) of
art-club sessions "7 valleys" . They have attracted hundreds of youth
into the process of creating a new model of thinking and living.
* There have been created series of educational multimedia programs on different topics supporting moral education.
*
Packages for secondary schools were developed, containing description
of methodology of the project (concept, aims, recommendations for
holding social actions and series of lessons as a follow up of the
social poll).
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
NGOs
play a great role in moving the populations of planet Earth towards a
culture of peace and non-violence but they still need a lot of support
from all the institutions and international in particular. The
instrumentality of the UN through the interactions with the states and
the governments seems to be a necessity at this point in influencing
the state educational systems in order to promote peace and
non-violence as the NGO’s programmes are not easily adopted by
established educational institutions.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
So
far we have established fruitful contacts with all the Baha’i-inspired
NGO’s in Russia and the C.I.S. countries, the US and Canada that
promote a culture of peace as well as with some Non-Baha’i NGO’s active
in the Russian Federation working towards the same goal – altogether
with six such NGO’s in the Russian Federation.
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
*
We plan to publish the Peace Curriculum by Dale L. Hudson and train our
volunteers in putting it to effective use in the schools of the Russian
Federation.
* To compile and publish a Songs for Peace album.
*
To continue conducting youth art-club sessions "7 valleys" devoted to
presentation and development of spiritual qualities by means of modern
art, as well as conveying social research and creating multimedia
programs on the corresponding topics.
* To share the
experience and results of social investigation we plan to issue manuals
on the project "7 valleys" and CDs with multimedia materials.
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Postal address of organization
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E-mail address of organization
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gruzkova@mail.ru
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Website address of organization
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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