Seeds of Peace

PORTLAND | JP Morgan Chase's Facebook Community Challenge recently awarded $125,000 to Seeds of Peace, which runs a camp for teenagers from global conflict regions in Otisfield. Seeds of Peace competed against hundreds of thousands of other nonprofit organizations seeking Facebook user votes.

It was the only Maine nonprofit to advance to the final round of the challenge and competed with 99 other organizations. The challenge's advisory board consisted of Eva Longoria, the Emmy-nominated actress, and David Robinson, NBA Hall of Famer.

Original source: Portland Press Herald
Original publication date: February 5, 2010
Original article: Click here

Two Seeds—an Israel and a Palestinian—sat down with the BBC World Service's Ritula Shah in London. To listen to the interview (which starts at the 16:50 mark), click here. 

Original source: BBC World Service
Original publication date: January 15, 2010
Original article: Click here

Last year, when MJ Rosenberg '72 attended a conference for the pro-peace, pro-Israel lobby group J Street in Washington, he expected to mingle among upper-middle-class politicians and peacemakers from the United States and diplomatic officials from the Middle East. Instead, Rosenberg spent time with someone who was neither an American nor a diplomatic official.

Original source: The Justice
Original author: Tess Raser
Original publication date: January 19, 2010
Original article: Click here

This past summer I had the opportunity to attend Seeds of Peace International Camp, a camp in Maine promoting reconciliation and coexistence among teenagers from the Middle East and South Asia, creating a sense of hope for peace in the future. I, along with 21 other teenagers, was a member of the organization’s American Delegation.

Original source: The Latin Forum
Original author: Nick Lehmann
Original publication date: January 19, 2010
Original article: Click here

When Vaibhav Tulsyan (16) visited Lahore as part of the Seeds of Peace (SOP) programme last year, he rid himself of all his prejudices against Pakistanis. But like many other Seeds before him, he discovered that Pakistani history textbooks do not match Indian ones, even when they talk about the same event.

Original source: Hindustan Times
Original author: Aarefa Johari
Original publication date: January 9, 2010
Original article: Click here

MUMBAI | A group of youngsters from India and Pakistan is working on a “balanced” history textbook comparing Indian and Pakistani interpretations of events between 1857 and 1947.

The book is part of an initiative by Seeds of Peace (SOP), a peace-building organisation that aims at empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with leadership skills. The organisation was set up in 1993 to establish contacts between Israeli and Palestinian nationals and was later launched for Indian and Pakistani youths in 2001.

Original source: Express News Service
Original publication date: January 9, 2010
Original article: Click here

For the alumni of Seeds of Peace (SOP), an Indo-Pak student exchange programme, compiling a history textbook that includes unbiased versions of both the sides, has become an important mission. 

The exchange programme, which was launched in 2001, encourages students from both the countries to achieve friendship and understanding by staying at each other's homes and exchanging dialogues.

Original source: DNA—Daily News and Analysis
Original author: Priya Ramakrishnan
Original publication date: January 9, 2010
Original article: Click here

Ben Losman
›› Communications Manager and Facilitation Trainer
›› Ashoka’s Youth Venture, UnLtd India, and Seeds of Peace
›› BS, Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, Marketing and International Business, 2006
›› Current City: Mumbai, India

Original source: Make Mama Proud (www.makemamaproud.com)
Original author: Leon Lindstrom
Original publication date: January 10, 2010
Original article: Click here

Henry Mayer, age 12, is out to change the world, one “Seed” at a time. How? By raising $10,000 to support Seeds of Peace, a New York-based nonprofit that brings teens from warring countries, as well as from the U.S., together at its summer camp in Maine and in year-round programs.

Original source: The Jewish Voice & Herald
Original author: Nancy Kirsch
Original publication date: December 25, 2009
Original article: Click here

Fourteen years ago I saw a segment of 60 Minutes about a camp in Maine at which Arab and Israeli teenagers spent a summer together trying to overcome their differences. The campgrounds looked faintly familiar. And they were: The woodsy setting was Camp Powhatan, where, in the summer of 1969, I had watched a man walk on the moon and carved my name on the headboard of bunk 15.

Original source: Huffington Post
Original author: Arn Tellem
Original publication date: December 23, 2009
Original article: Click here