Postcard Profile from Global Institute:
Kamal (2015 Palestinian Seed)

Jul 26, 2022 / No Comments

With just two weeks to make his moves, Kamal, a 2015 Palestinian Seed from Gaza, wasn’t about to miss an opportunity.

Always quick to ask a question, connect on LinkedIn, offer a resource, or to squeeze past crowds to meet a legislator, the 23-year-old entrepreneur and human rights advocate came to Global Institute—an advocacy and policy intensive for Seeds ages 18-25 that kicked off July 13 in Washington, D.C.—on a mission: build as many connections as possible.

From the 41 peers in the program, to Seeds of Peace staff, from legislative aides to legislators—anyone with a business card or a LinkedIn profile could one day bring him closer to his goals of building a more peaceful and equitable future for people in the Middle East, particularly Gaza.

“Knowing more people means wider network, means access to resources, means more impact can be done,” says Kamal.

Today, he lives and works in Saudi Arabia, where he opened a business that connects investors from areas of conflict in the Middle East as part of a goal to build bridges through economic integration. It’s work that’s not entirely unfamiliar—his father worked with Israelis for decades—but one that he said was very much affected by his decision to come to Seeds of Peace Camp in 2015, and especially by returning as a PS camper in 2016.

“Growing up in Gaza is like growing up in a prison. As a kid, I always watched movies and wondered what life could look like outside the Gaza Strip,” he says.

He heard about Seeds of Peace from a friend and saw an opportunity to see another part of the world.

“Suddenly, I was in the U.S. meeting people from different communities, people from the other side of the conflict for the first time in my life. And I was really shocked that they didn’t hate me all the time, that there were people who love me, who really wish a better future for me and other generations. It really, honestly, changed my life.”

He says his two years at Camp inspired his decision to major in human rights and law in college. There, he became involved in several organizations that advocate for human rights in Gaza, including founding the Federation of Law, a group for Gazan students that advocates for women’s rights.

After college, he moved to Saudi Arabia and opened his business as an avenue to make greater impact. He hopes to build an environment where people can see one another beyond the conflict—“to find a place where, at least, we could call it peaceful, in a way that could really affect other generations and their families.”

“When I speak about peacebuilding, that means economic enhancement, women empowerment, equal access to resources, basically, we’re trying to help the people in Gaza and West Bank live the life Israelis live in Israel. And having a better life means the country could be enhanced in the future and could be open to more prospects, but we need to start. We need to stop the drain that’s happening, the drain of land the drain of people, like, killings every single day, and we need to start to step forward towards peacebuilding. That’s what I want.”

He says his work and his views about peacebuilding are sometimes met with skepticism within his community, even within his family. But he’s not deterred. He’ll keep hustling. Keep having difficult conversations, making connections, and building bridges.

“I believe in peace. Without peace we cannot live. Just imagine living in a prison; would you live in a prison? Of course not. And that’s Gaza, that’s Israel. People in Israel, even if it’s a good country to live, they really don’t feel that it’s the healthy life they need. So they’re always threatened, it feels unstable, and it’s not a healthy environment to grow up in. So, my internal belief that I deserve a better life, and that my friends and community really deserve a better life—that’s why I work hard. It’s not only for me, it’s about my community.”

How far will one Seed go to educate Afghan’s youth? As far as it takes

Jul 20, 2022 / No Comments

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | “At first, as the Taliban took over, I planned to leave at any cost,” said Zubair, a 2010 Afghan Seed, thinking back to the quick collapse of the Afghan government after the U.S. withdrawal last fall. “Then I thought, ‘If I leave and people like me leave, who will be here to serve our youth?’”

For most of his life, Zubair has dreamed of ensuring that all the children of Afghanistan have access to a quality education. It was an audacious hope given the limits posed by financial status, location, and gender. As the country’s future, and particularly the rights of women, grow murkier by the day, so do the chances of this hope ever becoming a reality. But some dreams—even those with significant risks—are worth holding on to.

“If we want to have change in Afghanistan, we have to educate this generation—it is the only way to combat extremism and bring peace and stability,” he said. “There are many great minds here and if we help them, they can contribute positive change to this country and to the world.”

At just 25, Zubair has already helped thousands of Afghan youth receive a quality education and continue their studies in college.

Inspired by his childhood experiences of being turned away from school when his family was unable to pay tuition, Zubair established an educational center in 2017 that offered classes and college test-prep for low or no cost to students in remote areas of the Nangarhar Province.

“We had around 70 boys in the beginning, most with extremist mindsets. We tried to teach them about new scientific inventions, share with them what was going on in the world, and tried to impart that it’s up to us all to become educated so we can make Afghanistan a better place,” he said. “They came in knowing nothing, and some of them actually went on to establish their own educational centers.”

He estimates that more than 10,000 students came through his center, but after a few years, he said threats from individuals claiming to be the Taliban and ISIS became too frequent, and too intense.

In 2020, he moved to Kabul and established Esmati Academy, where he offered free or low-cost education in math, sciences, literature, geography, and more to youth ages 14-20. Demand was so high, that even though he couldn’t afford chairs at one point, dozens of students still showed up for test prep, sitting outside on the ground.

Since the Taliban reclaimed control last fall, however, girls have not been allowed to attend in-person classes beyond the sixth grade. And while he does make online classes are available, the World Bank estimates that only about 13.5 percent of Afghans have Internet access, leaving the majority of students, especially girls in rural areas, with no options.

Undeterred, this spring Zubair applied for and received a $1,000 Seed Action Grant, a fund designated to help support Seeds of Peace alumni projects in need of emergency funds. His goal is to record lessons in each subject and grade level that will then be distributed on CDs and USB drives to students.

He also recently launched the Afghanistan Volunteer Teachers Movement, to which 400 university students applied to address a nationwide shortage of qualified teachers, and he is also distributing training videos to teachers in rural areas, many of whom are underqualified to teach their courses at international standards.

It’s an extremely laborious task, and one that could likely attract the ire of the Taliban, but with time and care, he thinks it is possible.
As he sees it, there really is no other choice.

“This is our country, and we have to fight for change,” he said. “I want every girl, every boy, to have access to education—not the kind that makes them extremists or robots. I want them to think for themselves, to have their dreams and go after them. I know it has risks but I want to do it.”

Postcard Profile from Camp:
Aya (2022 Counselor)

Jul 14, 2022 / 1 Comment

Aya joins the Seeds of Peace Camp Staff from Syria via Dartmouth College.

For nearly a decade, The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding has provided two Dartmouth students an unparalleled opportunity each summer to learn about peacebuilding and conflict resolution first-hand by becoming Seeds of Peace Camp counselors.

Aya is now responsible for a cabin of campers from across Maine who engage in dialogue sessions across lines of difference, a departure from what Aya grew up with.

“Talking about politics in Syria is dangerous,” she says. “It’s forbidden. Anyone can shoot you—assassinate you—if you say the wrong thing.”

Aya grew up in the coastal port city of Latakia on the Mediterranean, learning to swim in the sea. She gained admission to the only boarding school in Syria, established by the government to graduate changemakers, with a goal of attending college and then developing her country.

The obstacles were immense.

To qualify for admission at Dartmouth, Aya had to travel overland to Lebanon to take the TOEFL English-language exam. She passed.

“They teach you English in school, but you don’t get to anything near fluency that way. Music helped me—primarily Taylor Swift. So did movies and TV shows: The Office, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory.”

Meanwhile, her city was being attacked by both Syrian rebels, including the Al-Nusra Front, and the Israeli Air Force.

“It was frightening. There was constant bombing. We’d just stand by the windows and watch. Al-Qaeda was one street over. At one point, we thought about fleeing. My dad wanted to leave. I remember overhearing my parents talking on the balcony after they thought we were asleep: my dad wanted to flee to Germany. My mother refused.”

“I’m glad we stayed, knowing what has happened to Syrian refugees.”

As a counselor to a bunk full of girls, including some from families of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, Aya has heard stories that she was not expecting.

“I was surprised by these teens and the issues they deal with. When I see that these highschoolers have been through all these things, I’m amazed.”

She says was drawn to Seeds of Peace given its reputation for peacebuilding and conflict resolution internationally, but also for its work in the US with populations she does not typically interact with back in Hanover, New Hampshire.

She plans to major in Computer Science and Middle Eastern Studies, and then work with refugees in areas of conflict.

“That could be me; I could be there,” she says. “That’s why I feel so connected to refugees.”

Postcard Profile from Camp:
Joceyln (2008 Maine Seed)

Jul 14, 2022 / No Comments

Jocelyn has returned to Pleasant Lake this summer as a nurse on the Camp medical team, a critical job during a pandemic.

She was first a camper in 2008, graduating as a Maine Seed, and then a peer support camper in 2010.

“The reason I accepted this position is that it felt like my way to give back to an organization that has done a lot for me,” she says.

Jocelyn, who grew up in a 350-person town, is the daughter of a white special-ed teacher from Maine and a black Navy officer from Arkansas stationed in Maine who got married to each other shortly after Loving vs. Virginia.

“Antiracist work is of personal importance as a bi-racial person with white ancestry,” she says. “I feel it’s important for me to use that privilege to work towards dismantling the white supremacy that gives me privilege in the first place.”

“Everyone in my town knew me and knew that I was bi-racial, even though I am perceived as white. People would tell me that because I didn’t look black, I didn’t get to have an opinion about racism. I’d still speak up, of course, because everyone should—as human beings.”

Jocelyn’s father met Tim Wilson, the Director of the Maine Seeds Program, when he was the commencement speaker at her school. Tim recruited her to become a Seed and became a mentor to her after her father died.

“Seeds of Peace gave me the opportunity to explore my identity and views and provided me the tools like active listening to move forward and incorporate what I learned into my life and career,” she says.

“It definitely set me on the path as far as what kind of socio-economic or political issues I wanted to make an impact around and instilled me with leadership qualities—there were things in college that I would not have been involved in if it had not been for Seeds of Peace.”

She graduated from Colby College and earned her nursing degree from the University of Maine at Fort Kent just as the pandemic was starting.

“And now I’m back at Camp as a nurse. But I also know what the campers are going through here, because I was a camper. So I bring that perspective as well.”

Postcard Profile from Camp:
Ryan (2022 Maine Seed)

Jul 14, 2022 / 2 Comments

Ryan spent this spring applying to two positions: a camper slot at the Seeds of Peace Camp and a member of the Maine State Board of Education.

He landed both.

“I’m really interested in bringing about education policy change,” says the 15-year-old rising junior. “I think we need to create a more diverse curriculum and hire teachers and administrators that reflect the diversity within our communities.”

Ryan is from Hampden, a town outside of Bangor, and attends Hampden Academy, a public high school.

He was one of six semifinalists selected for one of two youth seats on the state Board of Education. Ryan was then nominated by Gov. Janet Mills and confirmed by the Maine State Senate, where he now represents the entire 2nd Congressional District on the board.

The advisory panel, which makes education policy recommendations to the legislative and executive branches of the state government, is made up of 12 members, including two students. Ryan will now serve a two-year term lasting until he graduates from high school, attending monthly meetings in August and virtual meetings of the student voices committee and student cabinet.

“I’m looking to use the power I have to make schools more equitable and work for every student,” he says.

Ryan had heard about the Seeds of Peace Camp from a friend who is a Seed. She told him that her Camp experience had been one of the most influential experiences in her life. So when his school principal wrote him about applying to Camp, he jumped at the opportunity.

“I wanted to learn skills I need to impact change, and learn more about other people’s experiences,” he says. “And Camp has been a really great experience. I’ve gotten a chance to learn about how people live around the state, hear a lot of different voices from across Maine.”

“From what I saw during the equity and education discussions here at Camp, it’s clear that even at schools with a majority people-of-color population, teachers and administers don’t reflect that diversity.”

Ryan credits dialogue sessions and the Community Action initiative at Camp for helping him gain skills that he can carry forward.

“Some of the tools we’ve learned have been useful in planning out how to create change. Active listening, for example, has been a really good skill that was reinforced here at Camp. Same with exercise in how to think out problems as a group and build solutions.”

VIDEO: Kids4Peace Jerusalem Singing Summer Camp

Jul 12, 2022 / No Comments

Music served as a cultural bridge at this weeklong camp, implemented by Kids4Peace and the Jerusalem Youth Chorus—which was founded by 2002 American Seed Micah Hendler—and supported by B8ofHope and the Jerusalem Foundation. Designed for youth ages 11-18, the program featured meaningful dialogue activities, singing, chorus, and songwriting workshops.

Seeds of Peace opens for the summer, plans to start program for K-12 students this fall | Lewiston Sun Journal

Jul 2, 2022 / No Comments

School administrators requested in-school programming from Seeds of Peace, citing increased behavioral and emotional challenges of students following the onset of the pandemic.

OTISFIELD — Interested in learning how to change her community for the better, Deyonce Ward attended Seeds of Peace camp last summer.

“Before I came here, I was so closed in,” the Portland High School student said. “I didn’t want to talk.”

But before she knew it, the session had ended, and Ward found herself wishing she had taken better advantage of the opportunity to connect with other teens passionate about social justice from across the state.

So, she came back this summer ready to challenge herself to step further outside her comfort zone.

On Sunday, Seeds of Peace welcomed 62 campers for its first session of the summer, including roughly a dozen returnees from last year’s first Maine-only cohort.

The internationally recognized organization aims to bring teens from diverse backgrounds together to engage in deep, sometimes difficult, discussions surrounding differences in identity, culture and religion. Seeds, as the campers are known, are also challenged to grow their leadership and advocacy skills.

These challenges are complemented by traditional summer camp activities, such as boating, crafts and performances.

“We can create essentially the Maine we want to see for a few weeks here together,” said Camp Director Sarah Stone.

And beginning this fall, Seeds of Peace will bring part of these activities to K-12 schools in Maine.

The summer camp has two sessions this year for about two weeks each. The first session hosts campers from Maine, whereas the second will bring together campers from across the U.S.

Being at Seeds of Peace is very different from the outside world, Ward said. Here, she and other campers have the freedom to be more open about their perspectives and lived experience.

Kai Small, a Freeport High School student, said he’s been to summer camp before. None of them were quite like Seeds of Peace.

“It’s not like anything else I’ve ever experienced, just how people are with each other,” he said. “People listen to you. They really listen.”

One of the core components of Seeds of Peace camp is the daily dialogue session, where students discuss topics such as privilege, identity and power.

Sometimes everyone agrees, other times there are split perspectives, said camper Tyler Pelletier of Augusta. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“Disagreement almost helps you grow more as a whole group,” he shared.

Pelletier said he left camp last summer with a newfound sense of confidence in his leadership skills. He ran for vice president of his class at Cony High School last year and won the position.

He originally came to camp because he “wanted to meet new people and see where they’re coming from,” he said. “(Last year,) I felt like I only scraped the surface of dialogue and hearing other people’s experience and views.”

“I really feel like people get turned off by the idea of talking about difficult (topics),” Pelletier said, adding there’s far more to the camp than that. His favorite activity at the camp has been boating on Pleasant Lake.

Ward said she would similarly encourage others to apply to the camp. “It’s very life changing,” she said.

Tim Wilson, director of the Seeds of Peace Maine program, said the organization is expanding its efforts to create school-year programming for students in kindergarten through 12th grade this fall.

Wilson said school administrators requested the move from Seeds of Peace, citing increased behavioral and emotional challenges of students following the onset of the pandemic.

“We know we have the right tools,” Wilson said.

“It’s not just expressing themselves, but feeling good about themselves,” he added.

Seeds of Peace alumni will lead “90%” of the activities, he said. The new program will start in Portland schools this fall, with Lewiston schools following soon after.

“We’re now realizing we have to work not just on high schoolers, but down the line,” he said.

Wilson has worked at the Otisfield camp for more than 60 years, starting as a 19-year-old counselor at Camp Powhatan, the previous organization on site. He says he sticks around for the incredible young people he meets and watching them grow as leaders in the world.

Originally created to empower Middle Eastern youth to find common ground in 1993, the camp has expanded its programming to teens in Asia, the U.S. and Maine.

Due to the difficulties of international travel brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the camp has not held a session for international youth since 2019. The camp was closed in 2020, reopening to Maine and U.S. students in the summer of 2021.

The camp provides scholarships to campers who would not otherwise be able to attend; other students are sponsored by their school district, Stone said.

Seeds of Peace will celebrate its 30th anniversary next summer.

Read Vanessa Paolella’s article and view Russ Dillingham’s photos at the Lewiston Sun Journal ››

Filmmakers from India and Pakistan explore common ground through cross-border initiative | Arab News Pakistan

Jun 26, 2022 / No Comments

KARACHI: It has been over a year since filmmakers from India and Pakistan came together to work on a project that sought to highlight similarities between the two countries that usually remain at odds with each other.

The cross-border initiative that brought together 42 emerging filmmakers, 21 from each country, was envisaged by Seeds of Peace, a New York-based non-profit organization, in collaboration with the US Department of State.

Read the rest of Buraq Shabbir’s article in the Arab News Pakistan ››

VIDEO: 2022 GATHER Summit (Morocco)

Jun 1, 2022 / No Comments

In the desert of Morocco, the GATHER Summit convened nearly 50 Seeds, Fellows and other adult changemakers from around the world, strengthening a powerful community committed to social change. Reflecting on what keeps them walking this long and often arduous path, summit participants dedicated time to health and well-being amid workshops on networking and organizing.

2022 GATHER Summit: A community grows in the Moroccan desert

May 31, 2022 / No Comments

Find your people. Be more powerful together. Celebrate your successes. Grow your impact. And don’t forget to breathe.

The 2022 GATHER Summit convened nearly 50 people from around the world in Morocco from May 26-31.

This was the first gathering of its kind Since the pandemic and the impact of the last two years was very much on the minds of participants and organizers.

“For many people, the pandemic hasn’t just affected them socially and emotionally—it’s also been some of the hardest years in their professional work lives,” said Pooja Pradeep, International Director of GATHER.

The founder of a nonprofit and a 2018 GATHER Fellow herself, Pooja knows firsthand the slippery slope from sparking change, to burning the candle at both ends, to burning out. She said the GATHER team wanted to relaunch the program as a space where those actively working to make change could come together to not just fortify their connections and skills, but also their own well-being—something that she found was often missing in her own journey developing as a leader.

“When talking about ideal attributes of a leader, we often speak of the nature to hustle, of productivity. But in my own experience, there’s little to no focus on the wellbeing of a leader,” she said. “In working 17-hour days, doing nonstop travel, having no regard for sleep cycles, I realized I was setting an impossible standard for the youth I worked with who looked up to me. At the Summit, we addressed that wellbeing isn’t just an activity you do once a day. It’s a lifestyle.”

With the desert serving as a serene backdrop, the Summit’s structure made plenty of room for physical activity, downtime, and, yes, breathing. Amid workshops and discussions of building networks, community organizing, and risk, participants were also learning and practicing healthy habits that can help those entrenched in extremely difficult, sometimes life-threatening work find more balance—and joy—in their work.

“I’m an artist, a social entrepreneur and a community leader. In all of these roles I need to learn how to look after myself,” said Arnon, a 2018 Fellow from Israel. “The GATHER Summit gave me new tools and observations on this, plus a strong and vital network of like-minded people.”

Despite coming from a wide variety of locations, cultures, and backgrounds, Ashraf Ghandour, Director of GATHER Middle East Programs, said there were many commonalities and themes among the participants. Participants engaged in fighting racial discrimination in the U.S. found thought partners in those working to end gender inequalities in the Middle East. Opportunities for mentorship, possible partnerships, and the ability to leverage international networks across a tight-knit community opened up across regions.

Participants also gained skills to further their impact and develop their own Hubs—groups of GATHER members that get together locally to support local, regional, and global change.

For some, the Summit was a reset, others, a rekindling, of how communities can work toward change going forward.

“GATHER, for me, is a beginning of a disruption in how we organize and bring attention to the causes that are urgent and important—to awaken the people to the needs of the community,” said Kankkshi, founder of NETRI Foundation, an incubator and aggregator for women in politics in India.

“The experience has emboldened my belief that with the adequate support system, community, spaces of healing and listening, the vision of building a politically assertive cadre of women is achievable.”