NON–VIOLENT SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN

Objectives of the Project

• To run a 2-day indaba focusing on leadership skills to identify 50, teachers and pupils, who will become peace ambassadors and start and run Peace Clubs in their schools.
• To run a 40 hour Training of trainers programme on peace education and diversity for teachers to use in the school peace clubs and in their curriculum delivery.
• To produce audio, visual and written material for teachers to use as teaching aids in schools.
• To train teachers to use the diversity materials in their classrooms.
• To hold bi-annual support meetings with the peace ambassadors to monitor progress and help to sustain the initiative.
• To train members of the Peace Clubs in youth leadership.
• To run Alternatives to Violence Project for teachers and learners in the Peace Clubs.

Three teachers from each of the 11 schools will be selected by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to participate in the 3-day Non-Violent Schools camp to be held in March 2009. Teachers will each select 5 learners from Grade 10 who show leadership potential, to join them on the camp. The focus of this camp will be Science and Climate Change and how they contribute to violence in our society and schools. The issues to be dealt with include:

• Violating the environment
• Subversion of the ethics of science
• Past History the Atomic bomb - Hiroshima
• Kyoto Protocol - the facts
• Greed for profits at the expense of safety
• Pollution in rivers streams
• Availability of Coca Cola rather than clean drinking water in poor communities in Africa
• Toxic waste dumping in Africa

Teachers and learners will develop curriculum material, using visual and dramatic art and written articles, around these topics for use in schools countrywide. The WCED and Quaker Peace Centre (QPC) will co-host and co-fund the camp. 
The camp will be followed by a 2-day schools Indaba in June 2009. The focus will be on Non-Violent schools and how learners can spread their influence into their communities by setting up community projects. At the Indaba we will also discuss how the teachers and learners can establish peace clubs at their schools and how they will become the Peace Ambassadors for the 2009 Peace Campaign. The WCED will contribute 40% towards the cost of the Indaba.

The Quaker Peace Centre will provide a 40-hour Training of trainers programme for teachers to assist them in establishing and running the peace clubs. The teachers will also be trained in peace education so that they can pass on their knowledge and skills to the peace club members. As racism and xenophobia continue to undermine functional school relationships, diversity management training will also be an important part of the Training of trainers programme.

We will run the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) for the teachers who attended the camp enabling them to become trained facilitators of AVP so that they can train the learners in the peace clubs in basic and advanced AVP.

QPC will further involve the peace club members in youth leadership training so that they are able to identify needs in their communities and set up and run community projects addressing issues related to science and climate change.

A committee of volunteer teachers and learners will produce a quarterly newsletter with written material from members of the peace clubs at all participating schools. QPC and the WCED will assist the publication with editing, printing and distribution.

Two reunion meetings will be held in 2009. The first meeting will be the handing out of certificates for participation in the camp. Peace Buddy badges will also be handed to peace ambassadors at all participating schools. The cost of the certificates and badges will be for the QPC account and the WCED will pay for refreshments. At the second reunion all participating schools will introduce the school that they have adopted to participate in the 2010 peace campaign. The motto for this process is: Each one adopt one!

The cycle is repeated annually and the participation in the peace campaign will increase by 11 new schools annually. By the beginning of 2010 we will have 22 schools on board.

Partners

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED), Central District, have partnered with the Quaker Peace Centre (QPC) in a public/private venture to address the violence in schools in the Western Cape. In July 2008 The WCED funded a 3-day non-violent schools camp in Glencairn, Cape Town and QPC provided facilitators. Later in July QPC hosted a 2-day schools indaba on non-violent schools in co-operation with the WCED. The partnership is currently planning the launch of the peace campaign in October 2008 and will be joined by the MEC Education for the event. The partnership plans to continue this project to bring about evidence of change in the schools.

Detail Activities

Peace camp on non-violent schools (in March 2009 not part of this budget)

• Plan the programme
• Secure a camp site
• Visit schools to recruit teachers and learners
• Organise catering
• Buy materials for art work, drama presentations and written work
• Order stationery
• Develop training material
• Secure a variety of facilitators
• Organise camera operator and equipment
• Organise entertainment for camp evenings
• Organise transport to and from the camp site

2-day Indaba focussing on leadership skills

• <>Plan the programme <> 
• <>Secure a venue
• Visit schools to promote the idea and to recruit attendance
• Organise catering
• Order stationery
• Order clipboards and t-shirts
• Order printing of QPC logo onto t-shirts and clipboards for participants
• Visit schools to recruit presenters
• Visit schools to organise learner presentations
• Hire audio visual equipment
• Hire tables, chairs and tablecloths
• Plan interviews and panel discussions
• Organise camera operator for DVD
• Post production editing of DVD
• Distribution of DVD to schools and donors 

<>Training of trainers programme (Runs from January 2009 – October 2010)

• <>Organise catering
• <>Organise stationery
• Plan the training programme <> 

• <>What is peace education
• Building healthy relationships at school
• Creating a culture of peace in the school
• Teaching the values of peace across the curriculum
• Basic counselling skills
• Creative education
• Diversity training
• Non-violent language
• Positive discipline in the classroom
• Running and sustaining a peace club
• Leadership skills for youth and women in particular
• Buy materials

Bi-annual support meetings

• Secure venue
• Invite all peace ambassadors
• Organise catering
• Invite guest speaker
• Organise printing of partners’ logos onto badges for peace ambassadors
• Organise camera operator
• Post production editing of DVD
• Distribution of DVD to participating schools.

  Training sessions for the Peace Clubs

Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP)

• Run Basic, Advanced and Train for Trainer AVP Workshops for educators from the schools that attended the camp in 2008
• Run Basic, Advanced and Train for Trainer AVP Workshops for educators from the schools that attended the camp in 2009
• Run basic and advanced workshops for pupils with recently trained  teachers as co-facilitators  

 Sustainability of the Project 

This campaign will leave behind lasting changes in the schools.

There will be learners selected to be Peace Buddies in all the schools. Their role will be to provide a non-violent presence at the school and to introduce systems and ideas to maintain a non-violent climate at the school. Teachers from each school involved will be trained in peace education and will be able to teach the values of non-violence across the curriculum. The teachers and learners together, will set up peace clubs at their school to engage learners in creative and non-violent activities and outings, to broaden their understanding of non-violence and to occupy their free time in constructive ways. Material on non-violent education will have been developed during the year by the teachers, learners, the Western Cape Education Department and the Quaker Peace Centre. Teachers will be trained to use this material in their classrooms. The progress in schools will be monitored at 2 reunion functions held during the year.

More about The Non-Violent Schools Campaign ...

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