In its peace education program Ekvalis addresses topics related to peace building, empowering people from diverse ethnic and social backgrounds to build common visions for their future, creation of enabling environment where reconciliation is based on dialogue and open exchange. In our peace education program we work with different beneficiaries and groups such as youth (through the peer education programs), teachers and professors (through creation of specialized teaching plans for peace education) and with experts in the peace education area (through our strategic experts’ meetings). Through these programs we have created several educational resources.
The peace education program at Ekvalis is being implemented with youth from diverse environments. This program started as a pilot at the multiethnic school “Braka Miladinovci“ in Dracevo with students at the Macedonian and Albanian classes. The program was then extended and other youth from other schools (both from urban and rural areas) joined through the peer educators trainings. As part of this program the youth have opened meaningful dialogues on what peace represents for them, how multiethnic tensions are demonstrated in their respective environments and which methods they can use to overcome such tensions and enable a environment based on mutual support and living together. Within this program the youth worked with interactive educational methods such as Forum Theater (Theater of the Oppressed), Shadow Theater, simulations, case studies and plenary discussion- where the learners use their creativity and practice mutual cooperation to enhance peace building.
Ekvalis trained several teachers on how to create lesson plans for their extracurricular activities which can relate to peace education topics. These teachers also participated in co-creating the Handbook for Implementing Peace Education at Schools. Additionally, this was an activity attended by the special education worker who works with disabled students at the school. In the Public Documents section at our website, you can find the full version of the Handbook on Macedonian, Albanian and English language.
Ekvalis organized several meetings of experts from the Western Balkans (North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) with the aim to develop regional strategies and exchange of best practices when it comes to peace education initiatives at the Wester Balkans region.
