Volunteers as peace agents

Volunteers as peace agents training course, Vienna from 24-30 May 2019

The URI MENA Regional Coordinator and the founder of Desert Bloom CCs participated in “Volunteers as Agents for Peace” training course in Vienna, Austria from 24-30 May 2019. The training was attended by 50 participants from Europe, MENA and Asia.

The training was aimed at fostering the role of peacebuilding organizations, youth workers and voluntary organizations in promoting and building peace as well as combating hate speech. The training also tackled different approaches in preparing, mentoring and evaluating voluntary projects in order to support volunteers to act as peace agents.

The participants shared many innovative ideas about the role of volunteers in promoting peace. Many peacebuilding tools were introduced, in addition to strategies to act as peace messengers and reduce stereotypes. We had many fruitful debates about peace work among young people from all over the world, particularly from Europe and Mediterranean countries.

The program included conducting 3 small projects for the local community in Vienna. This afforded participants the chance to interact with the local community and practice their role as agents for peace. One of the projects focused on street action, where 14 participants did some street performances in public spaces. The group succeeded in attracting an audience and delivering peaceful messages about Peace, Diversity, Minority Rights and Disability Inclusion.

This training course was co-financed with the friendly support of the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.