The Summer Peacebuilding Program of the Conflict Transformation Across Cultures program (CONTACT) is highlighted below in an article published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper. This Summer Peacebuilding Program is one part of a three-section Joint Master program at the SIT Graduate Institute. Following the Summer Peacebuilding Program, some participants choose to continue with the CONTACT Graduate Certificate, and a shortened version of the MA. For more information, see our blog entry on this program.
Crucible for positive change
By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff
Monday, June 16
BRATTLEBORO — A relatively peaceful life, clean air, water and food, a place to live and a job are things most of us living in the United States take for granted. For the people attending the Conflict Transformation Across Cultures program at the School for International Training, visiting Vermont is a chance to put aside their hectic lives and see some of that for themselves.
This year, 62 people from 24 countries are participating in the three-week course, said Paula Green, the Contact program director. The program, now in its 12th year, brings together people from different cultures, religions, ethnicities and countries to learn how to turn conflict into something positive.
Crucible for positive change, continued
“How to build a global community that supports everyone’s rights and needs,” said Green.
Putting aside preconceptions about others is the first step, she said. “We all carry religious, ethnic and cultural intolerances.”
For many of the attendees, meeting people once perceived as enemies is a revelation, said Green, and one step in working to overcome their own prejudices and stereotypical images of “the other.”
Throwing people together “in this crucible,” said Green, “you can’t not be changed by it.”
The people who attend the program are professionals in their own countries seeking to learn new techniques that they can then bring home and pass on to their neighbors.
The attendees range in age from 25 to 65, said Marianna Syrotiak, the program manager, and are government and social workers, doctors, lawyers and priests.
Together they learn about nonviolent solutions to regional and global problems.
“They’re not only learning from the faculty,” said Syrotiak, “they’re also learning from each other.”
Meeting people from other cultures unites them in the knowledge that they aren’t the only ones who have suffered from political and economic oppression, she said.
The students also build a network of like-minded people seeking to make positive change in the world.
Spending time on SIT’s campus is a way for the attendees to step back from the clamor of their lives in their own countries, a time to slow down and learn how to make a difference when they return.
“This is a place where you can express yourself, voice your opinions, cross-fertilize ideas and network in a very peaceful way,” said Lounis Tamrabet, who works in the Algerian Ministry of Education.
One of the highlights of their visit to Vermont was experiencing the Strolling of the Heifers parade in downtown Brattleboro.
“It seemed too good to be true,” said Virender Malik, a colonel in the Indian Army. When he heard about the festival, he expected it to be a riot of people and noise, such as he is used to in India.
Instead it was small and friendly.
The same was true about Newfane, which the students visited Thursday night, where people had a sense of pride and togetherness and were humble.
“Things we dream about in India,” he said.
Brattleboro and Newfane were pleasant surprises for Pamela Ogega, a teacher from Kenya, who had before only visited New York City.
“I envisioned a big noisy place with lots of traffic,” she said.
Instead, she was floored by the peace and quiet of Vermont, its clean rivers and friendly people.
Most of all, she said, “I can’t believe there’s so much green.”
She was also impressed with the way nature is respected and cared for in Vermont.
“I wish we could do that.”
Three years ago, a group of attendees visited Newfane to get a real taste of what life in small-town Vermont is like, said Green, a visit that has been repeated ever since.
“It’s such a lovely community and very gracious,” she said. “The participants felt very comfortable there.”
Newfane residents opened their doors and hearts to the attendees, she said, and visiting Newfane and Brattleboro is a rural experience removed from the glitz and temptations of big cities.
“It’s good for them to have this sort of American experience,” said Green.
It’s hard to imagine the issues these people deal with on a day-to-day basis, said Chris Petrak, of Newfane.
“The opportunity to share with people from 24 different countries and many different cultures, to extend hospitality, hear some of their stories and share some of ours is a very fulfilling and rewarding evening.”
It’s good for people from another country to see how ordinary people live and listen to how their opinions might differ from what they see in the news or on television, he added.
Visiting Vermont has been like a dream, said Tamrabet.
“We want to ask time to stop.”
In January 2009, this group of students will meet once again, this time in Rwanda to learn how that country and its people have put aside their differences to forge a new path.
“It’s time to say enough is enough,” said Tamrabet. “People understand that peace is the solution.”
Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273.
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