From Conflict to Connection: A Training for Young Peace Builders – Armenia

Participants from eleven countries came to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where they started their Training Course. The Course which was called From Conflict to Connection was hold from 12/8/2016 to 19/8/2016.

 

About 30 participants, Italian  trainers and Armenian organizers were accomodated in Capital Hotel, 40 minutes far from the city centre by walk.

The hotel has its own swimming pool, which (unfortunatelly) has not been working already for 5 years. Imagine, there were 35°C and more outside!

 

There was an opportunity to taste many typical dishes during breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Moreover, as we “traveled” every evening somewhere abroad during Intercultural evenings, we tasted some sweets from countries of all participants.

 

The agenda was full of different activities which let us discover basics of Non Violent Communication. There was some theory, which was always taught in a fun way and amanded by many examples – usually from our own experience. We also did some movement activities, activites which were about a trust to other participants, games and simulations that always taught us something about ourselves or non violent communication.

We spend much time outside, where we tried to pass tasks which were given to us. That was a great opportunity to discover Yerevan and also to talk with locals – to get connected with them. We worked in groups or individually, which was very challenging for many participants.

 

The organizers organized a trip for us, so we visited the most touristic places of Armenia. We really enjoyed swimming in Sevan Lake even though the temperature of water was quite low, we also admired architecture and natural beauties of Armenia in and around Geghard Monastery, Temple of Garni. A very nice surprise was having dinner outside with an Armenian family. The family showed us how to prepare traditional bread called lavash and let us prepare a traditional sweets – churchkhela.

 

We had a very nice time in Armenia. The Armenian culture is as interesting as the Training Course was. 

 

Many thanks to European Youth Centrum Breclav which let two Czech people represent the Czech Republic and gave them the opportunity to learn so many new and different things.

 

Many thanks to Armenian Progressive Youth for organizing the project and also to Sparkles Organization whose trainers led the Training Course and shared their knowledge about Non Violence Communication.

 

Although the project finished, I believe that we will work on improving our skills of Non Violent Communication and will keep beautiful memories from this project forever.