logo-transparant

You can develop Peace Poqwer by practicing the skills needed for a more peaceful and nonviolent world and gaining knowledge and insight, so you can provide  alternatives to violence and resolve conflicts nonviolently, either on the interpersonal level or in society. Because only through peaceful means will we reach peaceful outcomes. By changing our way of thinking and acting we build the collective peace power to create a world where life flourishes. 

foto22-s

I, Nina Koevoets, offer workshops and training courses to help build people’s Peace Power and move towards a nonviolent peaceful world, since 2015. Several trainings were implemented with the support of a Dutch NGO, “Foundation for Active Nonviolence” (SVAG), that has been active since 1966 (for a quick overview of  the Dutch NGO dowload the PDF) and with the finance from the “Erasmus+” fund of the European Commission for youth education in Europe. 

Here’s some more sources of information about my work:

Training
nonty_10-1In eight days people get an intense introduction that gives a great start to become a Peace Builder. The ‘power’ of these trainings is that they both explore violence (the problems) and nonviolence (creative solutions). Generally each training has three elements: 1. Increasing awareness of conflict and violence, 2. practicing conflict navigation and 3. developing future plans and networking for a peaceful world.
Have a look under “Erasmus+ trainings” in the menu for more information on the previous training courses that have been held since 2015.  To look at what participants from 2020 said, scroll further down.

gen workshop

Workshops
I offer single workshops, lasting at least 3 hours. In these workshops I tap from the longer training program. They can be customized to the needs of the group. For example, one group may want to focus on Conflict Resolution Strategies, while another group may want to start a campaign. For example, at the Global Eco-village Conference in July 2017 (photo) I focused on community-building, while also introducing a few “classic” tools like the Two Hands of Nonviolence. For NGOs working with refugees, I focus on dealing with conflict and stress. Download the one page description of Peace Power workshops.

Webinars
Check-out several webinar series that I did, such as those with Rivera Sun, an author and activist from the USA (2017), or a mini-series of four (2018), or one for the Rise Ubuntu Network (2020). Check out the opportunities for online courses as well.

ENV final coverStudy Guide
After more than 2 years of work, the Study Guide “Engaging Nonviolence: Activating Nonviolent Change in Our Lives and Our World”, by Pace e Bene Press was published in October 2019! It has three parts: 1. Exploring Nonviolent Power, 2. Nonviolence in Practice, 3. Planning and Strategy. Read more on the designated page.

Nonviolence hope

How is peace possible? And how could it be achieved?
Of course one can write a whole book about this complex question. But what is not so complex is that enormous amounts of money are invested in war, while less than 1% of military spending is invested in peacebuilding (according to the Economic Forum). Moreover, when we think of peace we think of “ease and calm”, while it will need our active involvement to build peace. Skills to build a peaceful world can be gained through training and practice, so that’s why Peace Power focuses on that
If you participate in a training you’ll learn that Peace Power can be applied on a personal, social and cultural level. You’ll get some tools to develop “peace of mind”, peaceful relations and build a culture of peace (see image – 8 areas of a culture of peace, as defined by the UN). You’ll also become more aware of the normalisation of violence: how it’s presented as ‘necessary’ and that it’s so embedded in our every-day-lives that everyone experiences different forms of violence (from physical violence, to violence inside social structures and violence in our culture -habits, stories, norms and values.) And a new world will open for you, one where you can join people that are working on increasing their emotional awareness and empathy, striving for more equity and engaging in solidarity.
culture of peaceTo make the cultural shift, to a culture or peace, we’ve to recognise that we inter-are, as the monk Thich Nath Hahn put it. Western culture admires independence and individuality, and contrast this with dependence and collectivism. However, instead we are inter-dependent, with each other and our environment. ML King said: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

Hopefully you’re inspired to start to believe that peace is possible. That’s the first step!

Please consider contributing to my work, by following the link or use the QR code or Paypal button.
Praying Medic Home - Praying Medic    

Have a look what participants learned in trainings in 2020.

Erasmus+ trainings

Erasmus+ is a program of the European Commission that funds mobility opportunities in education, and has a specific program for youth workers. The Dutch National Agency has granted us support for several training courses for youth workers, about which you can read more in the drop-down menu. In total about 120 people have participated, as of late 2018.

We published this brochure in 2016, in order to spread the project results and share our vision. In the brochure you can read why nonviolence and grass-roots movements are key to peace-building, why we use experiential ‘non-formal education’ methods, and what participants have said about the training.

Below you can download several interviews of participants, which were done in March 2020, to evaluate the long-term impact of the training courses.

Participant interview_Jacob_South Sudan

Participant interviews_Laura_Romania

Participant interviews_Joana_Slovakia

Participant interviews_Neryelith_Spain

collage trainings

Deze slideshow vereist JavaScript.

 

Prize & Award

IMG-20180921-WA0007

certificate Visioneers(1)

December 2022 I received a Life Time Achievement Award in Peace & Education from the Visioneers Network, based in Canada. Their mission is to celebrate and showcase outstanding human achievement on a local and global level through a Web of Good Work and Virtual Exposition to empower Visioneers to connect, collaborate and build a global community of changemakers. Go here to see my profile in the virtual exposition.

On the International day for Peace, 21st of September, 2018, I received a prize at a Peace Symposium Invest in Peace: Young and Disarming (“Investeer in Vrede: jong en ontwapenend”). It was organized by a coalition of Dutch peace organizations* called “Peace missions without weapons” that is lobbying for civilian missions, instead of military ones.

meddal

There were three young people who received a “Peace Hero” meddal. Tayfun Balcik, who works against polarisation and racism with The Hague Peace Projects, and has helped start dialogue projects between Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian people living/born in Netherlands. The second was Daan Savert, who went several months to Northern Iraq (Kurdish area) and is an activist and theologist. And, the third one was me, Nina Koevoets, for my work with Towards a Nonviolent World! I did five trainings that I mostly self-organised and also did other peace work like volunteering in Palestine and India.

We all reacted with surprise to the title “peace hero”, but the intention became more clear at the symposium: there are war heroes and resistance heroes, so we want to introduce peace heroes! Thereby the meddal became a political statement and encouragement for everyone to work for peace. I hope it will indeed inspire others to do this, wether they get a meddal for it or not!

Click on the links to see the brochure and facebook page. (It is all in Dutch!)

* Peace Brigades International, Christian Peacemaker Team NL, Eirene NL, Vrouwen en Duurzame Vrede, Pais, and Burundian Women for Peace and Development.

Contact & newsletter

To stay up to date you can sign up for the Newsletter. To read some of the past editions, you can go here:

If you have questions, suggestions, proposals or ideas please email me.

profile pic art

Looking forward to hear from you!