Ms. Maria Lucia Uribe, Executive Director, Arigatou International Geneva, was invited to speak at the Second Asia Regional Conference on Ending Violence Against Children During COVID-19 and beyond.

The Conference was held from 1-5 November 2021 and organized by UNICEF, End Violence Partnership and World Health Organization. The five-day conference, organized in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed to place ending violence against children high on the recovery agenda, while drawing on the framework of INSPIRE: seven strategies for ending violence against children developed by WHO, UNICEF and other partners to drive forward evidence-based action.

“As we near the end of 2021, we have identified many important lessons. One is the need to ensure that children are not left behind, and that violence prevention and response efforts are centred in COVID-19 response and recovery strategies,” said Dr Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific.

Ms. Uribe took part in the session on “Engaging non-traditional partners in supporting scalable and sustainable parenting programs” to speak on the role of faith communities in up-taking and upscaling parenting programs.

Ms. Uribe spoke about the work of Arigatou International through its dialogue model that brings together religious leaders and actors, government organizations, academia, the health sector, and multilateral agencies. Through this model, stakeholders engage in reflections about the scientific evidence and theological principles on the impact of violence in child upbringing. It explores how to strengthen positive norms, challenge those that condone violence, and nurture children’s social, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

She highlighted the work of Arigatou International and its Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) during the pandemic with faith communities to support parents and caregivers and presented the materials developed during this time.

Ms. Uribe also shared about the work of the International Consortium on Nurturing Values and Spirituality in Early Childhood and the development of a toolkit on Nurturing the Spiritual Development of Children in the Early Years. The toolkit is meant for faith communities and faith-based organizations to support caregivers in promoting nurturing care and positive parenting practices through play, positive experiences, and safe and empowering environments. She shared that the toolkit will be launched in 2022, allowing its scale-up through the major faith-based organizations in the world and collaboration with international organizations such as UNICEF and many other partners.

The session was moderated by the Oak Foundation, with the participation of The Human Safety Net Foundation.

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The collaborative project “Creating a Culture of Encounter – Empowering Youth through Education to Challenge Xenophobia, Discrimination and Exclusion in Europe,” took off in September 2021 with a partner’s meeting in Lisbon. The project, which seeks to reach 100 young people from Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, aims to empower and enable youth to become agents of transformation in their communities.

Kick-off meeting in Lisbon

The Culture of Encounter project intends to create shared spaces for young people to further develop their knowledge, attitudes and skills and get acquainted with meaningful tools that can encourage them to actively engage with their communities. Participants will be encouraged to question and transform the narratives of hate speech and discrimination, contributing to creating a culture of encounter, mutual understanding, respect, and solidarity in Europe.

The project will include both online and in-person participatory workshops for youth to experience active citizenship and learn to utilize intercultural and interfaith tools that can help create a culture of encounter in their communities. They will participate in story-telling and social media workshops to document and share their experiences and the outcomes of their projects.

Participants will reach out to their schools and communities and initiate youth-led projects to create new narratives of mutual understanding, belongingness and respect. They will also develop social media campaigns to mobilize more young people in Europe, raise awareness, share their experiences, and influence positive change.

Pilot Workshop in Spain

Sixty educators from the participating countries will be provided with pedagogical tools to support the youth initiatives. Online opportunities will be created in April and June for teachers from all the participating countries to come together and to build capacities on Child Participation and Empowerment, and Project Development. An online platform has been created to support the engagement of educators on a trans-national level.

By supporting educators’ professional development and mobilizing young people to influence and engage others through their initiatives, this Project will reach and transform a wider community of youth who will feel empowered to contribute to challenging the mistrust between communities, creating new narratives and enhancing solidarity across Europe.

A kick-off meeting, which took place in Lisbon, from 30 September to 2 October 2021, brought together the facilitators’ team from all the countries involved as well as the leads from the partner organizations. Following this meeting, two training sessions for facilitators were conducted in November for the teams in Portugal and Spain. A teacher and youth training is expected to take place in Italy by mid-April.

Creating a Culture of Encounter is a collaboration between Arigatou International, the Aga Khan Foundation, the European Wergeland Centre, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace Research Institute, and Scholas Occurrentes.

Pilot Workshop in Portugal

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Arigatou International Geneva conducted a series of training workshops, thematic webinars, and training workshops for youth, in the framework of Peace, Resilience and Prevention of Violent Extremism for Higher Education. This is the fourth phase of a long-term collaboration with the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA).

Training of Trainers Workshop on Peace, Resilience and Prevention of Violent Extremism for Higher Education

Three onsite Training of Trainers workshops were carried out in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Senegal between October and December 2021, reaching 84 participants including higher education professors and representatives of Ministries of Education.

The first workshop took place in Bishoftu, Ethiopia from 24 October to 2 November 2021, gathering participants from 24 universities across the country. It was organized by Arigatou International Geneva in partnership with UNESCO-IICBA and the Ministry of Higher Education of Ethiopia.

In her welcoming remarks, Dr. Eba Mijena, Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education of Ethiopia, highlighted the commitment of the Ministry of Education for peace education and invited participants to develop a strategy to include peace education as a stand-alone course module for all University students in Ethiopia.

The workshop was based on the Transformative Pedagogy for Peacebuilding Teacher Guide developed in previous stages of this project, and an adapted guide for Ethiopia. This instance helped participants reflect on their contexts and understand conflict and peace issues. Participants discussed how ethics education can contribute towards peacebuilding through a transformative pedagogy. They were trained on planning & designing Training of Trainers’ workshops to cascade the training in the country.

The workshop in Djibouti took place from 14 – 18 November 2022 and was organized under a project called “Prevention of violent extremism and its resurgence amid the COVID-19 pandemic through education in Africa, aligned with the spirit of TICAD7 and NAPSA.”

Supported by the government of Japan, the workshop provided 26 university professors, college educators, and pedagogical inspectors with tools to integrate the notions of peacebuilding, resilience, and prevention of conflict through a transformative pedagogy.

The training workshop held in Dakar, Senegal on 6-10 December 2022 gathered 35 participants from 10 Universities and experts from the Ministry of Higher Education, including representatives from UNESCO Central Africa, UNESCO Niger and UNESCO Burundi.

Organized in collaboration with the UNESCO Regional Office for West Africa and the Dakar National Commission, the workshop focused on understanding conflict, violence, identity, conflict resolution mechanisms and peace consolidation.

Throughout the sessions, participants discussed the role of education for peacebuilding and transformation and got acquainted with Arigatou International’s transformative pedagogy for peacebuilding. They learned how to create safe learning environments, and explored monitoring and evaluation processes, as well as tools to support students-led actions.

Following the training phase, country teams were supported by the Geneva office in leading their own training on transformative pedagogy for peace and resilience building at the country level.

Thematic Webinars to Support and Empower Learners

Two thematic webinars were organized together with UNESCO-IICBA to strengthen our interventions and deepen the discussions on Peace, Resilience and Prevention of Violent Extremism in Africa.

The first webinar was held on 20 October 2021, under the title “How to support the agency of the learners to be transformative actors.” Dr. Yumiko Yokozeki, Director, UNESCO-IICBA delivered the opening remarks. The keynote speech came from Ms. Orit Ibrahim, Coordinator in Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department and Co-Convener of the Y4P program, African Union.

The panel of speakers included representatives from the Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda; Africa Union’s Youth 4 Peace Programme; GNRC Tanzania / Bongoyo Peace Club and Arigatou International Geneva.

The discussions highlighted the importance of youth and child participation, the role of educators in empowering young people and how structures such as Peace Clubs can create opportunities for young people to be transformative actors.

The second webinar was held on 24 November 2021 on the topic of “How to address sensitive issues including hate speech in our classrooms”. It brought together educators to discuss and reflect on how sensitive topics including hate speech can be addressed in the classrooms and non-formal education activities.

The keynote remarks were given through a video message by Mr. Adama Dieng, Former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide and Advisory Board member of The Higher Committee on Human Fraternity.

Online Workshops for Youth Leaders on Transformative Pedagogy for Peacebuilding

”The world belongs to the youth. Today’s education system must emerge building on what has already been achieved to enable young people to live together and meet challenges with resilience and peaceful intentions.” Yumiko Yokozeki, Director of UNESCO IICBA.

Arigatou International Geneva, together with UNESCO-IICBA and the African Union through the Youth4Peace program, carried out two Training of Trainers workshops for young leaders on enhancing youth capacities in peacebuilding and prevention of violence.

The first workshop took place on 20-23 September 2021 and was attended by more than 30 participants from Gambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The second workshop was held on 04-07 October 2021, targeting participants from West Africa and North Africa.

This was the first training based on the ”Youth Guide on Education for Peacebuilding and the Prevention of Violence”, which was developed in 2020 by Arigatou International and UNESCO-IICBA, under the “Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2020 through Youth Education” project. The main focus was to strengthen the capacity of youth leaders in Africa to contribute to peacebuilding; empower young people for the prevention of violence; and promote a culture of peace, mutual understanding, and respect among peoples.

During the sessions, several topics were explored through virtual engagement, dialogue, and interactive group work. The participants analyzed their country-specific contexts and learned about developing context-responsive educational programs to promote dialogue, mutual understanding, and respect in their communities. The participants identified plans at their country levels on how to mobilize youth and cascade the training. In the second phase of the project, they designed proposals that contribute to challenging stereotypes and prejudices, promoting dialogue, and raising awareness about issues of peace.

Reflecting on her experience as a participant, Michelle from Zimbabwe noted that “…The aspect of bringing in a transformative pedagogy broadened my perspectives about peace education and peacebuilding. Talking about transformative pedagogy in practice made sure that this training was not only theoretical but implementable.”

Arigatou International has been partnering with UNESCO-IICBA on similar projects since 2017, providing technical expertise in adapting the Ethics Education Framework of Arigatou International to address peace and resilience building and the prevention of violence through a transformative pedagogy.

The training workshops were led by Dr. Eyerusalem Azmeraw, UNESCO- IICBA; Mr. Suchith Abeyewikreme, Arigatou International Geneva; Ms. Menna Mosbah, Youth4Peace Network.

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“We have to keep in mind that children on the move are first and foremost children and their rights move with them!” Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children

A webinar series on Resilience and Children on the Move, took place from September to November 2021, gathering more than 350 participants in three sessions. Throughout the sessions, participants shared experiences and best practices to support, protect and nurture the physical, socio-emotional, and spiritual well-being of children on the move.

The recommendations and interventions from children on the move, faith leaders and faith actors, experts, and academic and civil society practitioners highlighted the importance of faith-sensitive mental health and psychosocial support approaches as a crucial factor to foster the resilience and well-being of children on the move, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussions looked particularly at the role of faith communities.

“The opportunities and support offered by faith communities in my host countries India and Pakistan are one of the factors that helped me grow and achieve my goals in terms of education and allowed me to also contribute actively to the society.” Hayat, Refugee from Afghanistan

“Children on the Move” is an umbrella term used to define children who are migrating or are moving due to various reasons that could include conflict, poverty, violence, natural disasters, climate change, discrimination, or lack of access to education or other services. Children affected by forced migration and displacement are one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Typical mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions do not incorporate children’s spiritual nurture as a pathway to resilience. Faith-sensitive MHPSS approaches play a crucial role in promoting the well-being of children on the move. Faith-sensitive MHPSS approaches can restore connections and relationships among children and adults and enhance a child’s sense of belonging and resilience capacity.

“Mental health and psychosocial support interventions provide children with spaces of relative safety and moments of joy and relief, where children can learn and socialize, where children on the move can just be children”. Ms. Rania Al Ayoubi, Founder Image for Education, Jordan

Building on the exchange of experiences, insights, and emerging practices, a booklet titled Faith Sensitive Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) to Foster Resilience in Children on the Move was developed. The booklet examines specific psychosocial support interventions that support, protect, and nurture migrant children’s physical, socio-emotional, and spiritual well-being.

This resource was designed to raise awareness about the effectiveness of faith-inspired psychosocial support frameworks to support the resilience and well-being of children on the move. It presents the specific mental health and psychosocial challenges affecting children on the move and how an integrated response—including MHPSS, spiritual nurture—might address some of those issues.

The booklet introduces emerging practices from local faith actors and young people that have proved effective to support the mental and emotional well-being of children on the move; and presents concrete recommendations to raise awareness about this topic among governments in host countries and donor governments, as well as humanitarian actors.

The three-part virtual series was developed by Arigatou International, the KAICIID International Dialogue Centre, and World Vision International in the framework of the Sustaining Peace and Health workstreams of the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD).

The organizations are active members of PaRD, a network that brings together governments and international organizations with diverse civil-society organizations that work with faith communities to engage the social capital vested in faith communities for sustainable development and humanitarian assistance.

We thank the distinguished panel of discussants, whose sharing of their research, practices, insights, and concrete recommendations on the topic made the whole process a rich and fruitful learning experience. We also thank the participants for their interest and commitment to children’s rights and well-being.

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