{"id":8202,"date":"2017-09-20T12:09:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T16:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=8202"},"modified":"2017-09-22T12:59:58","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T16:59:58","slug":"iraqi-youth-work-to-build-culture-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2017\/09\/iraqi-youth-work-to-build-culture-of-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Youth Work To Build Culture of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Youth wearing traditional dress dance in Iraq in February 2017 as part of a community event celebrating cultural and faith differences. The event was just one of many culminating projects that resulted from youth peacebuilding and leadership trainings, funded by United Nations Development Programme and faciliated by the Iraqi al-Amani Association and Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. Four CJP alumni have contributed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

IN AN IRAQI MALL ON VALENTINE\u2019S DAY, <\/b><\/span>shoppers were treated to a unique sight. Twenty-eight young people wearing traditional dress from the many cultures in the country congregated to sing, dance, and hand out flowers and balloons with messages of love and inclusivity.<\/p>\n

The event, one of 42 created and implemented by Iraqi youth across Iraq, was to promote peaceful coexistence and cultural acceptance among Iraqi communities struggling through a divisive political climate.<\/p>\n

The project brings together Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and the Iraqi al-Amal Association in a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-funded project. The multi-phase plan focuses on the key stakeholders of youth and academics to build a culture of peace in the country.<\/p>\n

Five EMU faculty and alumni are involved: Dr. Alma Abdul-hadi Jadallah<\/b>, president and managing director of Kommon Denominator, and CJP adjunct faculty; Aala Ali <\/b>MA \u201914, UNDP development officer; Cynthia Nassif <\/b>MA \u201914 of Lebanon and Najla El Mangoush <\/b>MA \u201915 of Libya, both doctoral students at George Mason University; and Ahmed Tarik <\/b>MA \u201916 of Iraq.<\/p>\n

Nassif, Mangoush and Tarik helped Jadallah design workshops on conflict resolution in Arabic for both youth and academics. Jadallah provided the first training for youth in October 2016, followed by two others for youth and three for academics from Iraqi universities. While the academic trainings will lead to a peacebuilding curriculum that will be shared by universities across Iraq, the youth trainings culminated in a series of community peacebuilding project proposals.<\/p>\n

Mangoush appreciated the opportunity to work together with CJP alumni, \u201cpracticing our beliefs and skills as peacebuilders from different Arabic countries to assist peace in Iraq.\u201d An important aspect of the project, she adds, is \u201cacknowledging the need to promote peace from a local perspective and through religious tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 563 youth from Najaf, Nineveh and Baghdad applied to participate. Seventy-two were selected, with criteria including age, potential, experience, connections, responsibility, diversity and vision.<\/p>\n

After the trainings, participants created project proposals that employed sports, arts, social media, listening and dialogue to address a variety of topics: women\u2019s rights, children\u2019s education, displaced persons and host community engagement, and interfaith dialogue and conflict resolution workshops, according to Nassif.<\/p>\n

\"\"
From left: Paola Piccione, UNDP; Alma Jadallah, CJP adjunct faculty; Aala Ali MA \u201814, UNDP; and Mizuho Yokoi, UNDP, consult during a training.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Muntather Hassan<\/b>, youth program coordinator for the Iraqi al-Amal Association, attended each training, worked with youth on their proposals, and watched selected projects come to fruition.<\/p>\n

Besides the Valentine\u2019s Day project, other funded projects include a Facebook page started by five artists to showcase peace-themed artworks (50 artists have contributed) and visitation programs in Erbil, where Muslim activists visited internally displaced Christian children, and in Baghdad, where both Christian and Muslim activists visited Muslim children.<\/p>\n

Though Iraq is full of problems, Hassan says young people see a chance to make a difference and to address issues \u201cthe older generation can\u2019t see.\u201d They are encouraged, he said, by the desire to live a normal life without fear, \u201cordinary needs that give them motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA journey like this comes once a life,\u201d wrote one participant. Another shared that he felt \u201cloved, respected, supported and listened to.\u201d Yet another learned \u201cnot all Muslims are ISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMohammed came back from Erbil as a different person, a better one,\u201d said one participant\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IN AN IRAQI MALL ON VALENTINE\u2019S DAY, shoppers were treated to a unique sight. Twenty-eight young people wearing traditional dress from the many cultures in… Read more about Iraqi Youth Work To Build Culture of Peace<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[],"issues":[1471],"class_list":["post-8202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","issues-2017-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8202"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8213,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202\/revisions\/8213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8202"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=8202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}