No Hay Camino a La Paz, La Paz es El Camino

I will be spending the next 10 weeks interning with Move This World Colombia (MTW), a small NGO that utilizes dance and creative movement to promote violence prevention, self-awareness and empowerment, particularly amongst youth. Since the office in Colombia is rather small, I am excited about the opportunity to take on multiple roles within the organization and learn how MTW operates as an organization and how it achieves its goals. Additionally, I am greatly interested in learning how Conflict Resolution theory is put into practice and MTW serves as a terrific example because they are directly utilizing theories of change coupled with monitoring and evaluation programs to assess their impact.

Panelists at the conference "Cual es el Papel de la Educacion
para la Promocion de Paz en Colombia"

     My first full day in Colombia (June 6) was jam packed with meetings and conferences. I would like to highlight the conference we attended “Cual es el papel de la educacion para la promocion de paz en Colombia?” (What is the role of education that promotes peace in Colombia?) This panel discussion was hosted by Somos CaPAZes, a Colombian NGO that promotes peace through stories, songs and other creative activities. Three panelists: a university political science professor, a former guerilla fighter and the president of Yo Creo en Colombia, another NGO promoting peace, answered questions related to education, violence and peace in Colombia. This entire conference reminded me of two Georgetown classes: Conflict Resolution Skills and Conflict Resolution Theory. 

            The first question centered on what is peace. The responses included: attitude, your environment including the wellbeing of everyone, social justice, development and the stimulation of creativity and that peace is a change of mind in culture. This question highlights the multiplicity of ideas in relation to what is peace. Peace can relate solely to an individual and creating internal peace, a country trying to create positive peace or the international system working towards negative peace.

            Secondly, the panelists answered the question, “How is it possible to educate for Peace?” A candid, and I think incredibly insightful response, was through the sharing of powerful stories to elicit a change of conscious. A panelist argued that you cannot even teach peace or trust it is only something you can learn through experience. She elaborated that instead of teaching theories of change and peace, education should focus on generating situations (simulations, activities, story telling etc.) where trust, empathy and peace can be experienced.  An incredible important response was that as peacebuilders and peace-educators we need to stop focusing on the end goal of “peace” because it is such an abstract concept and often intangible, but rather HOW we will arrive at this goal, because there are many benefits in the process of arriving. Furthermore, education must not only be in a formal academic setting but extend to the workplace and especially to the family.

            During their discussion about how is education relevant for the peace process in Colombia, an incredibly important comment was made, that we must begin to embrace a “paz imperfecta” or an imperfect peace. Peace is like a human being, it is flawed and imperfect, but if we understand this idea it is easier to work towards peace. Additionally, a panelist mentioned that we need to give up our double morality. Many professors, activists, peace workers etc. promote a certain morality in their work such as equality for all or social justice and then in their personal lives and relationships they do not embrace this. One female panelist mentioned that she promoted all of these ideas in her classroom and then at night returned home to a husband who demanded unequal gender roles, which completely negated her ‘work morality.’

            For some recommendations the panelists encouraged that peace starts with the individual and everyday we have the possibility of starting new, that systems and structures are in fact made by people and that peace efforts need to be visible and recognized. Only awarding one Nobel Peace Prize blinds us to the fact there are numerous impressive peace efforts around the world. Perhaps universities with Peace Studies or Conflict Resolution programs could offer “peace” awards to deserving students or community activists.

            I expect this summer to be extremely rewarding albeit I am sure there will be challenges, such as the fact that I am trying to write this blog in English and all of my notes from the conference are in Spanish. I expect that through my work with MTW I will gain a greater insight into how to develop meaningful partnerships with other organizations, how to recruit and train volunteers, how to implement a creative movement based curriculum and how to implement Conflict Resolution theory into practice.