India: Bringing together diverse communities for the good of the children

In a tribal village 1 hour north of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 30 dedicated community workers and volunteers gathered for a 2 day workshop on August 24 & 25, 2011. The goal? Transforming Neighborhoods by teaching community facilitators to use Play for Peace in working with the impoverished children in their communities. Local facilitators were trained how to empower children and teach important life skills lessons, as well as combat conflict over extreme differences in these communities, by demonstrating the power of experiential learning and strong debriefing/reflection processes. Here is what the participants said about the workshop: "I have never seen this type of training before, and this will be so important in my community in working with our children". "I have learned so much from this process, and want to learn more". "This is such an important process in bringing together communities with such diversity as ours. It will help us in our work tremendously."