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.”

Pakistani and Indian filmmakers made 8 documentaries funded by the US, ready for release in June | Daily Pakistan

May 13, 2022 / No Comments

NEW YORK – Pakistani and Indian filmmakers have collaborated with American NGO `Seeds of Peace` to produce eight documentaries that will release in June, next month. Funding for this project is provided by the Cultural Affairs of the US Consulate in Karachi.

The idea of ​​bridging cultural and historical misunderstandings between the people of Pakistan and India through documentaries and the entire project was the brainchild of John Ratigan, Cultural Affairs Officer, in US Consulate Karachi. Who was posted at the Karachi Consulate in October 2020.

For Indian and Pakistani filmmakers, the US NGO ‘Seeds of Peace’ has collaborated with 21 young Indians and 21 young Pakistani filmmakers to produce eight short films, produced with US funding. The films aim to clear cultural and historical misunderstandings between the people of India and Pakistan, especially the younger generation.

Read the rest of Tahir Mahmood Chaudhry’s article at Pakistan Daily ››

VIDEO: 2022 Spring Benefit Dinner celebrates global community of changemakers

May 11, 2022 / No Comments

NEW YORK | It was an evening 1,106 days in the making, and a moment worth a pause.

“Let me just take it all in,” Bobbie Gottschalk said, looking at the two-dozen Seeds who had joined her onstage to receive the John P. Wallach Peacemaker Award at the 2022 Spring Benefit Dinner.

With an air of hope, homecoming, and purpose, the Seeds of Peace Spring Benefit Dinner returned on May 10, bringing together more than 200 alumni, supporters, and dignitaries for the first time since before the pandemic began.

View photos from the 2022 Spring Benefit Dinner ››

In addition to honoring Bobbie for 29 years (and counting!) of service to Seeds of Peace, the organization awarded its first Trailblazer Award to Jacqueline Novogratz of Acumen, who was, unfortunately, unable to attend the event in person after testing positive for COVID-19 just before the evening’s start.

It was a reminder that as the pandemic stretches on, there is no corner of the globe left untouched by conflict, injustice, or divisions over the past two-and-a-half years. And yet, despite the devastating impact, the more than 8,000 alumni of Seeds of Peace are standing as beacon of hope for a more just and inclusive future.

“It is that light that keeps me going. That light is why I am standing here,” said Amer Kamal, a 1997 Palestinian Seed who co-hosted the event with fellow board member Anna Tunkel, a 1995 Israeli Seed.

The duo stepped in for fellow Board Member Ali Velshi, who had to forgo hosting the event after he was called to report on the war in Ukraine for MSNBC. In doing so, Anna and Amer underscored that the idea of peace looks different today than when they were campers, and yet, Anna said: “the mission and work of Seeds of Peace is more relevant and urgent today than ever before.

“Skills of empathy, dialogue, cross-cultural understanding, embracing and celebrating differences are instilled in teens in Seeds of Peace programs … These skills are as relevant in classrooms as they are in boardrooms, political offices, arts and culture and media today. These skills help us build a more resilient, equitable, and just future.”

Throughout the evening, supporters were given glimpses of how Seeds of Peace is supporting young leaders to rise to the challenges of an increasingly divided and complex world. This included a preview of the Kitnay Duur, Kitnay Paas South Asia Film Project—a program funded by the U.S. State Department that brought together 42 young filmmakers in India and Pakistan to make eight films highlighting the two countries’ commonalities.

“This project is a testimony that artists need to be brought more into the loop when it comes to peacemaking,” said Haya Fatima Iqbal, an Academy Award-winning mentor on the project. “Often times we’re the people that will make you think about something crazy, and then will make you believe in something crazy, and then will make you do crazy things—crazy good things.”

The notion of change taking everyone—be it youth, or those who work in the arts, business, or any field—was a common theme throughout the night. Jacqueline Novogratz, who delivered her keynote speech virtually after learning just before the dinner that she had tested positive for COVID-19, called on the audience to continue doing their part to work for a world that is more just for all.

“Peace is the presence of human flourishing,” she said. “It starts with each of us asking not how rich, or how powerful or how famous I can be, but what am I doing today to instill another person with confidence. How can each of us every day think about giving back more to the world than we take?”

Representing the next chapter of Seeds of Peace, Danielle Whyte, a 2018 Seed from Maine and returning 2022 Camp staffer, said that she and her peers are aware of the steep divisions and challenges ahead, but through their Seeds of Peace experiences, are ready and able to begin leading that change.

“Seeds of Peace was where we turned our whispers for change into shouts,” she said. “It empowered us to see that we are radiant, that our voices were revolutionary, and that revolution is now.”