Lets ACT hosted by Associazione Prism

3-11 November

In November 2014, Peace Revolution went to Sicily, Caltanissetta to take part in a training course organized by the Italian agency under the new Erasmus plus program. Peace Architect Manuela Puscas and Peace Agents Cristina Matei and Matt Witt took part in the activities designed to explore the idea of social entrepreneurship and the culture of peace. Over 40 participants from Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, UK, Egypt, Romania, Lithuania and Italy took part in the project. The aim of the project was to link social entrepreneurship and peace education, to provide participants with key concepts and practical tools that can be integrated in their work with other young people. The approach was flexible and based on group work, sharing experiences and work approaches from different cultures and social backgrounds. Participants were engaged to successfully turn personal and common ideas into social entrepreneurship projects that responds to their community’s needs.

What we did:

Manuela introduced the idea of inner peace and meditation as part of holistic understanding of peace and held a session as part of the training.Before the session she explained what meditation is, why we do it, some of the benefits and introduced the idea of the center of the body and how to easily connect with it.

The feedback from the participants was positive, they enjoyed the session and provided a moment of relaxation that was much appreciated.

“ Very interesting session for relaxing the people” (Joana)

“Thank you for the session. I completely enjoyed it and believe meditation is a viable method to strengthen one’s mind and soul.” (Ahmed)

“I never did meditation until your session. It was difficult to find the balance and the peace, but it was relaxing and really interesting. You are such a peaceful person and would like to experiment this again.” (Marta)

“It was a great activity and in that moment I believe I really needed it.”(Silviu)

We involved in projects, activities and simulation games to explore the local context as well as become acquainted with and take ownership of issue in our communities and address these together. It was a pleasure to interact with so many emboldened young people. The most important thing we took from this course is that we are all dealing with similar issues within our communities. We also share the drive to solve these situations, in many varied ways.

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn" Benjamin Franklin