an international youth seminar for peace

In 2014, Barnas Fredsverden together with Moss Kommune and Østfold Fylkeskommune will organise its 3rd peace international seminar for youth aged from 13 to 18 years. 

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This is a great event that takes place each year in Moss, 60 km south of Oslo with the aim to gather youth around around the concepts of "peace" and "conflict resolution", mainly giving the floor to non-formal learning techniques and putting emphasis on experience and playfulness. 

in 2014, we are very honored to have received the confirmation that Johan Galtung, researcher, sociologist, mathematician, who has been at the origin of the most prominent and now established theories on peace and conflict resolution and PRIO (Peace Research Institute in Oslo) will open the seminar on wednesday 13th august. We look forward to his speech entitled : Multicultural Capacity and Social Capital - the heritage from 1814. We also have invited Marco Elsafadi, who gave in our seminar in 2013 an extraordinary opening speech about confidence and how important it is to be giving people "a second chance". Last but not least, we will have the immense happiness to meet Jeremy Gilley, the founder of Peace one day who will talk to the youth on thursday 14th august. 

 

in 2013, during 3 days (from 14 to 17 august),  80 participants (54 youth - 2 trainees - 6 volunteers – 18 staff/facilitators/speakers) coming from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, representing 16 different nationalities altogether have had the opportunity to meet and to engage into playful activities and uplifting workshops throughout a rich and intense programme with: -one pre-conference training, 2 official speeches (Marco Elsafadi & Robert Mood), 10 non-formal learning and experiential workshops, 3 artistic interventions, 1 playshop, and the organisation of a „connecting room“ (BFV new project connecting 117 youth talking/exchanging online from Guatemala, South Africa, Tanzania, Bangalore, and Norway). Together, the participants of the seminar have explored the creation of peace environments, encouraging them to contribute towards „peace“ in an active way, talking about inclusion, participation, citizenship, responsibilities and a wide range of other societal issues. The youth have learned more about other cultures, have initiated and projected some new ways of thinking, and have witnessed the favorable effects of a "hygiene" of peace in our mind and in our body. In the extraordinary setting of Jeløy, the participants have discovered non-formal learning methods and have met with one another. READ MORE