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A Day in the Life

Gazala Paul, Gujarat, India

The communal carnage in 2002 in the cities and towns of Gujarat, India had multi-faceted impact on the lives and properties of the people, their economy, security, livelihood resources, shelter, and embracing population of the state belonging to all age groups from those in formative stage to the elderly and infirm. The education of children received a blatant blow as their schooling got highly affected for a considerable period of time. The entire episode transpired the need to work with the children as the atmosphere was changing with the efforts and intervention from various quarters.

 

At that juncture, Gazala, perceived the need for continuation of the children’s education, especially with a focus on the values of peace and secularism. It was with this cause in the hindsight that the organization decided to take the initiative not only for the continuation of their education but impart education on peace and secular values among the children, as also the communities, in order to bring positive change in their mindset. Besides carrying on with the initiative to run teaching classes at the temporary shelters of the affected families, it decided and worked out an arrangement with the local primary schools in the fringe areas of south-western part of the city to impart ‘peace education’ among the children/students. The motive behind this endeavour had been to inculcate values of peace and tolerance with the hope to see the children developing as secular human beings for the good of the society.

Initially we started with imparting peace education among the children studying in class 5th to 7th, mainly falling in the age-group of 11 to 13 years. It is the tender age prone to bring the change as explained above so that they become instrumental in  peace-loving and secular minded leading to a ‘changed’ or ‘new society’. Now we work with older children as well from 8th to 10th grades. In order to make efforts towards human rights and establishment for a ‘peace culture’, it becomes necessary to work on the following four basic concerns:

a. Dispute resolutions,

b. Peacebuilding,

c. Respecting Diversity and

d. Building Citizenship.

Having worked on the above four concerns through peace education and the rightful human values in the society, the programme has been striding towards development through the children’s education; however, it was a very difficult and complex task. But, after well thought out strategy we in 2004 initiated peace education with the students of 5th, 6th and 7th classes at their schools following the amiable arrangement with their (schools’) management.

A day in my life begins with preparing the modules on the subject of peace-education, and working towards shedding away the deep-rooted hurdles in ‘festivity of diversity’.

I adopted the strategy to work with the children, especially those who are school going, to inculcate the feeling among them towards developing them as citizens who believe in the values of peaceful and harmonious co-existence. We believe that this initiative would certainly bring positive change and shift in the paradigm in terms of stereotypes, prejudices and misunderstanding about each other.

Peace Clubs: The Peace Clubs for children are the vital space to express and develop creativity, write articles, organise debates and get involved in the intellectual stimulus and participating in wider debate on peace and coexistence. Peace-clubs have been set-up as part of peace education so that the activity gets continuous momentum and the process is on. In a day when the meeting and interaction with ’Peace clubs’ are held is a fascinating experience. It is amazing that children want to know, learn, they are seeking to explore the world and knowledge. The gives me a hope that ’peace is possible” even in the most divided and segregated communities.

Teodora Borghoff, Romania

A day in life
Teodora Borghoff, Romania


Today I got up at 5:45 and the noises of my village are overwhelming. Not just the dogs and the roosters, the whole animal kind is in frenzy. The geese and ducks get out of the yards already around 6 am while the cows are being milked. The farmers that are not yet ready with the hey-work got up a couple of hours before to cut the grass while it is still wet. It is going to be hot today, probably over 32’C but the morning breeze is just perfect.

Today is a day of travel for me. I leave my village around 6:30 making waves of dust on the small cobble stone road. My destination: Firliug, one of the communities I assist in a program run by the Romanian Ministry of Communication and Technology. The Romanian Government is trying to reduce the technology gap found in remote rural areas by setting ”Local Electronic Networks”. Basically the Ministry supported 255 rural and small cities municipalities to set up a network between the town hall, the schools, the library and a newly created ”Information Public Access Point”. Most importantly, all the subventioned equipment has decent access to Internet. My role is to support the managers and the administrators of the local networks in 8 such municipalities deliver creative services to their communities that would support the local development. I have to admit I have a parallel agenda: I offer all my technology expertise to the local people with the hope they will find the advantages of their life style and hold to it.

Around 8:00 am I arrive in Firliug. The village is quite similar to mine: hilly landscape, forests and next to the village are the fields with crops. I meet the Local Network Administrator to prepare our plan for the day. In Firliug is a festive day today: the town hall is organising a local festival to promote the local products. Our role is to document the event and post the material on relevant Internet sites. We also distribute flyers to the local producers with our offer: basic courses on use of new communication technologies, communication via Skype or Messenger with relatives abroad, posting and reading private adverts in online regional publications and portals, advertising local products in regional and national business directories, finding information on various bureaucratic aspects of life (pensions, insurances, medical services).

I enjoy the festival very much – the richness of local products is overwhelming. In fact it is a market with vegetables, diary products, locally brewed alcohol, small and large animals. All come within 10 km from the festival location.
I wished all local goodies were organically certified – in spite of the great potential and the little use of pesticides and fertilisers (often they are unaffordable for local people), very few traditional farmers actually consciously use biological methods. I have a chat with some representatives of the local associations of honey producers, I give them concrete examples of huge differences in selling price between “normal” no-label honey and the bottled bio certified one. The bee-keeper nods his head, says I am not the first one to tell him that and says he would think about. I hope he will contact my colleagues in the Internet Access point to ask for detailed information about costs and certification bodies in the region.

I stay a bit longer near the horses. I like them enormously. Many are not for sale, the owners love them too much and want to show them off. I am happy the horses are still appreciated for their work (they plough, pull carts and logs from the forest and other type of work I do not even find words in the English dictionary). The guy from the next major city that sells small tractors hopes for a good selling day too. I pass by his stand in a rush.

At the end of the festival, back to the computer room, my colleague and I revise the photos and the videos we both been shooting. We draft a press release we send by e-mail with the best pictures. We also laugh and decide the local folklore group will go on You Tube and look for a local amateur to edit our footage. I write myself a note to get an organic certification body come for a presentation in the village and I send some messages.

Back to my village it is time to water my organic garden. Tomorrow is a day at home, I will make tomato juice and plum jam.

I go to sleep praying for all people raising horses and growing food on small farms. That we all will still exist in the 22nd century.