The United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY Peacebuilders) calls youth (between 18 and 30 years) to participate in the “Youth Participation through Virtual and Intercultural Dialogue”. UNOY Peacebuilders will choose 3 young participants for the project. The “Virtual and Intercultural Dialogue” is a three phase project. The project includes: 1) action research on youth participation and intercultural dialogue,2) a 5-day training and 3) a local follow-up meetings to advocate for the outcomes and recommendations of the research.

The training course will take place from 3 to 9 July 2011 in Schoorl, Netherlands.

Further Information and to apply, please contact UNOY Peacebuilders (tc@unoy.org)

In the months March and April UNOY Peacebuilders has organized free workshops on Advocacy, Actor and Conflict mapping and EU Development Policies to support the teams of the 'Interplay project' in their proposal writing (www.unoy.org/interplay).

In May we provide new workshops on interesting topics such as EU fundraising, Logical Framework and Gender. Not sure what this is all about? Click on 'read more' for the description of each workshop below and sign up by sending an email to training@unoy.org!

• Tue 10/5/2011: Workshop Introduction to Logical Framework, 3 p.m -6 p.m, Den Haag
• Wed 11/5/2011: Workshop EU Fundraising for beginners! 2 p.m-5 p.m, Den Haag
• Wed 18/5/2011: Workshop Gender and Peacebuilding. 4 p.m-7 p.m, Den Haag

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From 21-29 March 2011, the International Secretariat and Outreach Coordinator of UNOY Peacebuilders took part on 7 day training for facilitators involved in non-formal education with youth in the field of human rights. The training was organized by the Council of Europe in Budapest (Hungary). The aim of the course was to ensurea high quality standard in organising, implementing and evaluating study sessions and training activities as also securing an effective follow up of these study sessions and other training activities organised and run in cooperation with the Council of Europe with a focus on human rights.

Helped by 6 advisers, 31 participants from 25 countries European countries, all youth workers or youth leaders, worked for 7 days on how human right, non-formal education and facilitation technique. Most of the organisations the participants represented are working in cooperation with the Council of Europe to organize a study session. UNOY Peacebuilders’ study session on Youth and Volunteerism in Peacebuilding will take place in October 2011.

The training was great opportunity to learn from the experienced advisers, but also from other participants. Between the plenary sessions, the workshops, the thinking groups and the practice phase, I learned a lot! The diversity of profiles and backgrounds made the training a very rich environment to discuss and debate and think of possible cooperation.

More information about human rights and non-formal education as well as training materials is available on the website of the Council of Europe.

On 11 April 2011, I attended the workshop on advocacy hosted by Lillian Solheim, International Network and Programme Coordinator at the United Network of Young Peacebuilders. The workshop was organized as part of UNOY Peacebuilders’ current Interplay project, which challenges teams to research the impact of EU’s development policies on (post)conflict countries. A group of 15 people attended the meeting, which was held at the UNOY office in The Hague.

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On Monday the 21st of March, Lillian, Alessandra and Sybylla from UNOY Peacebuilders conducted a workshop entitled “Stereotypes and Prejudices: An obstacle to Intercultural Communication” for a Youth Exchange run by Global Human Rights Defence. There were 31 participants aged between 18 and 25 that came from 7 different countries making it a perfect group to talk about this topic.

We started out with a couple of definitions of stereotypes and prejudices before splitting into different national groups to try and work out what stereotypes the world had about people from the participants’ cultures. These were then portrayed back to the combined group in skits and roleplays. A lot of laughter went on in between deciding how realistic these stereotypes were.

Next up we broke into intercultural groups to talk about why people stereotype, why it can be harmful and how we can overcome stereotypes. Particularly interesting ideas that came out of these discussions were a need to change education systems and the way groups are portrayed in the media as well as the need to think critically before accepting what you are told and being aware of any prejudices you might have.
Finally, we did some brainstorming on what different factors make up a culture and the different ways that people can communicate before moving onto a whole group discussion on the things we need to keep in mind while communicating with people from other cultures and why it’s so important to be involved in intercultural communication.

The participants were really enthusiastic to be actively involved which contributed to making it a successful workshop. Many reported having learnt new things about each other as well as gaining new perspectives and ways of thinking. We hope this workshop enabled them to communicate with each other better during the rest of the youth exchange.

UNOY Peacebuilders is currently looking for participants residing in The Netherlands for a project called: Youth Participation Through Virtual and Intercultural Dialogue.

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UNOY Peacebuilders is currently accepting applications for intern positions starting on various dates. Six positions are open at this time. You can find all the information about them by downloading our latest call for interns at: http://unoy.org/downloads/UNOY_Call_for_Interns.pdf

The United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY Peacebuilders) is launching today its new project: Interplay towards a Policy Making Exercise. Supported by the NCDO and dedicated to youth and students living in The Netherlands, this project is a competition that aims to create awareness and understanding towards European Union policies and their impact on the countries that they are targeted at.

The Interplay towards a Policy Making Exercise is geared towards youth and student teams (between 18 and 25) from different cities in the Netherlands. When joining the competition participants will compete in researching the impact of the European Union’s development policies on (post)conflict countries (one country will be associated to each team), through a position paper. The winning team, together with their partner from the south, will conduct an advocacy visit to representatives of the development aid program of the European Union in Brussels where they will present their policy paper.

The competition will run from 01 March 2011 to 30 April 2011 and competitors can sign in online at www.unoy.org/interplay . To get students and youth acquainted with the project, workshops about conflict and actor mapping will be organized from 01 March 2011 to 30 April 2011 and would include an outreach tour on 15 February 2011 at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA, Bungehuis Spuistraat 210-212 in Amsterdam).

On 11 December 2010, over 170 students attended the 12th African Conference which took place at the Pier in Scheveningen, The UNOY Peacebuilders together with the African Migrant organisations, the African Committee, Hirda, Support Trust Fund for African Development and African Sky, organised this year’s conference. The Conference was built around the theme of African Peacebuilding, with a focus on ‘Health through a Gender Lens, in a Socio-economic and Human-rights perspective’. Besides students, the conference was attended by academics and professionals from non-governmental organisations.

The unveiling of the conference was met with a presentation given by Dinu Abdella, who spoke on the importance of gender and health. Ilse van Velzen, film maker, spoke about the dire situation in Congo and the power relations between men and women and illustrated the stories with a preview of her most recent documentaries; ‘Fighting the Silence’ and ‘Weapons of War’.
Participants also attended interactive workshops related to the issue of gender such as ‘Gender and Citizenship’, ‘Honour based violence, and ‘Gender Equality; Tradition and Modernism’. One of the most prominent highlights of these workshop was ‘Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual’s (LGTB) in Africa, facilitated by Pepe Oziema, a transgender LGTB activist from Uganda and Toni la Tegola head of the African Gay Youth Foundation in the Netherlands’. Onziema shared her personal experiences and spoke of the rise of homophobia which resulted in an Anti-Homosexuality bill being proposed. This bill, if enforced, broadens the criminalization of homosexuality, by mitigating it as an act warranting a death sentence.
The conference was successful in creating awareness of the role of gender in African societies and provided the participants with plenty of opportunities to network and share their experiences on this important topic. The conference was made possible with the help and support of donor organisations Oxfam Novib and Aids Fonds as well as the many dedicated volunteers.