During the training course “Peace on Earth Empowering women for peace within, with others and with nature” 22 female youth workers came together in a Greek village. There we started a journey to discover multiple aspects of peacebuilding. The second day was a deep dive into emotional awareness and resilience. It starts with more awareness of our body and emotions, as well as our inner thoughts, learning steps to have a compassionate dialogue with onself and learning how Nonviolent Communication (NVC) helps us to relate with more empathy first to ourselves and than also to others.

On the third day we went even deeper, exploring the topic of male privilege. We also learned techniques to stop harassment and become aware of different responses to conflict, using NVC to solve problems, as well as the Two Hands of Nonviolence by Barbara Deming. Day four was light; we held an Open Space where each participant could offer their skills, and we explored which things were really important to us, after which we had a free afternoon to rest or explore the surrounding.

On the fifth day we learned about the spiral that underpins Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects, and we did one of her exercises to meet with someone from the future, to understand how our actions will impact people we will never meet. With this new motivation we explored ways to simplify our lives, to live more sustainably, and the women picked one woman from a list of role models in the Peace and Evironmental movements to make a piece of art. One group also prepared a video about the significance of learning about female role models. Come back later to see it!

Day six started with watching the film The Third Harmony, about the practice and philosophy of nonviolence. We explored the Social Change Roles, to situate ourselves and others and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of all. And we worked in project groups to start developing an action plan for a follow-up project. From this five groups emerged: NVC for teachers and parents, Forest Mind and outdoor education to support female youth workers with communicating personal boundaries, Guerilla Feminist actions, preventing burn-out of activists and youth workers, and a women’s shelter to empower women that suffered from gender based violence. You can see the short description of each group in the video below.

We also held a recycling workshop, where we learned to recycle paper and make soaps. Of course we spend the last day on reviewing the Youthpass competences and further developping the dissemination we’d like do. A few participants shared a short testimony, that you can watch below. There are six women speaking and Nina explaining the Peace compass and closing with a poem.

Other participants made an instruction video of the Privilege Walk that you will be able to watch on this page later on as well.

We hope these videos give you a sense of the amazingly inspiring week we had together! The women left feeling grateful, inspired, empowered, and motivated to spread their new insigts, knowledge and skills. And we’re already brewing some plans to come together again in the future. I hope some of the sparks also lighten up your hearts!

Below is a photo gallery.