| Posted: Mar. 15 2005,03:15 |
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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? |
Sadly
I have to say No - I work with young people and I am sad to say
that I have seen little progress towards real peace - or in fact
dealing with issues of peace, especially world peace among young people
generally - in fact tolerance levels for any other groups is low in
maost cities I have worked in - not only here in liverpool but in
many cities - of course there are groups of young people that are
concerned with peace issues but I am talking about the groups i work
and engage with - those young people from inner city socially
deprived areas - I work every day with young people , inschools,
youth centrs and outside formal groups - in Yellow House we have
a policy of tolerance and peace - our work is aimed at that -
have a look at our website - www.yellowhouse.info - but name calling,
bullying,intolerance are for me issues that are not really being
addressed - sure there are reports and Studies but what are we doing to
work withyoung people - we need to give them more experiences,
practical, give them the opportunity to meet each other, to talk, not
be afraid to raise and discuss such issues, to challenge and debate.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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Finance
- young iner city people normally stay in the area where they
live and see only those around them - they cannot afford to travel - in
some cases youth exchanges are not for them - they are excluded
because they do not know about them - also education - peace and
tolerance issues should be on the Curriculum in schools - Englsih
schools are obsessed with passing meaningless exams and too many young
people are excluded - not enouigh time is given for social
issues, to talk and debate - to visit and receive visitors from other
cultures - the media who promote negative issues of young people bad
news seems to be big news and good news seems to be no news - young
people begin to play the role created for them and in turn are then
frightened to break away from that role and to be "different"
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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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Yellow
House works every day in schools and other centres where young people
gather on anti name calling and anti bullying workshops - practical
work built around issues thatthe young people raise and are their
experiences. Our informal workshops include peace and tolerance work
and multi cultural projects. We plan several exchanges each year for
our young people - young people who could not normally travel
abroad - and we receive young people from europe to stay in yellow
House on exchanges and EVS. we also encourage young people to explore
other cultures through art, film, theatre, lterature and visits -
we took some of our group to Auschwitz while working in Poland, to look
at the extremes of racism. we have done several projects aimed at
multi-culturism and at peace issues including workshops and
performances such as :
- Peace Breaks Out - a declaration of peace (rather than war)
- Looking for Freedom - with over 65 young people from Liverpool.
Prague and Gdansk - around what is freedom - before Poland and Czech
Republic joined EU
- (He) Art of the City - a multi cultural
project looking at all the different cultures that make up the (He)Art
of Liverpool
- Peace One day - an all day event in Liverpool City Centre promoting
International Day of Peace - featuring music, art and a video of the
work
- Volutary work in Ghana - we spent 3 weeks working in chool in
Ghana we paid our own fares and bills and worked with young
people around Accra
- Weekly anti -name calling and anti-bullying
workshops in schools, secure centres for young people and prisons and
in special needs schools
- Games - a performance using
childrens games to illustrate to futility of the Iraq Conflict and for
young people to have a say about the war
- Family Album - a
performaces looking a family photographs and the reality behind the
photos - violence, alcoholism and abuse
- Performaces devised for adn with other agencies including Barnardos (Childrens Homes) and Refugee Action
- The Raft of the Medusa - a performace on a raft built in a gallery about asylum and refugees and isolation
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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? |
Make
arangement to talk directly to young people - make finace available for
young people to be able to trvel and meet each other - provide a
palce/medium/system tha enables young people to contact and talk to
each otehr and for ways of their opinions not opinions of people
talking for them to get directly to you and your agency
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
EU Exchanges
Schools work throughout UK and Europe
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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)? |
A continuation of our work - more Exchanges
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Postal address of organization
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Yellow House
17 Navigation Wharf
Liverpool
L3 4DP
England
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E-mail address of organization
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theyellowhouse@btinternet.com
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Website address of organization
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www.yellowhouse.info
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Understanding tolerance and solidarity
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Sustainable development
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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International
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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Europe
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