Ekvalis successfully implemented the project “Peace Education for Inclusive Classrooms“, which was our first project from the peace education programs Ekvalis works on. This project was supported by the European Youth Foundation and the Council of Europe.
In November 2018 we implemented the first workshop from the training on peace education with 20 high school students from our partner institution, the high school “Braka Miladinovci“. The participants followed an intensive program on team building, team cohesion and getting to know each other, which was an introduction to their participation in this training consisting of three workshops and one study visit. At the second part of the workshop, we discussed and worked with the concepts of culture, diversity, social inclusion and combating prejudices, stereotypes, discrimination and segregation. We had the opportunity to familiarize the students with the European Youth Foundation and the Council of Europe who are funding this project. Many thanks to Aleksandra Dichevska, Advisor for International Cooperation at the Agency of Youth and sport who introduced the European Youth Foundation and invited the students to a visit at the Agency for Youth and Sports.
Ekvalis organized the second workshop from the training on peace education with 20 high school students from our partner institution, the high school “Braka Miladinovci“. The first part of the workshop involved the students in understanding and practicing the influences of non-verbal and verbal communication towards conflict resolution. Through the usage of frozen image theater, the groups presented three specific examples of physical violence: domestic violence, gender-based violence and ethnic based violence, and they discussed the reasons for why those events occur and how they can prevent them. Within the second part of the workshop, we have worked with the concepts of gender and gender representation in media. The groups needed to examine the content in newspapers that represent the gender in a positive or negative perspective. There were different examples detected in relation to the gender representation in media connected to fashion, sports, politics, division of house work and educational opportunities.
On the third day from our training on peace education at the high school “Braka Miladinovci“, we worked on building trust and common visions for resolving conflicts. The students participated in a role play exercise called “Power Walk“. They needed to enter a certain role of a person in the society and according to the statements read by the trainers to position themselves in different parts of the school gym. With those positions and statements, they afterwards discussed the levels of marginalization and privilege in the society and tried to make correlations. At the last stage of the workshop, the students detected three common problems in the school: physical violence, understanding of the roles of the school psychologists and segregation at the school. For each problem, the groups suggested three actions and created two plans of action for conflict resolution in Macedonian and Albanian language. The plans of actions were presented to the other students at the school in the dissemination phase after the training ended.
Оn the fourth day, our group of students from the high school “Braka Miladinovci“ participated on a study visit at the Youth Center “Sakam Da Znam“. They had the opportunity to learn about the different opportunities that this Center offers such as free services to psychologist, dermatologist, HIV testing or gynecologist. Meri Cvetkovska from HERA talked about the different approaches of how HERA tries to include young people in promoting comprehensive sexual education. We have also discussed some myths the society has about HIV and how violence can be manifested in relationships. Doroti Pachkova from the organization “One Can” joined this study visit and introduced our students to the single parent forms of families as legitimate forms of families in the Macedonian society. Doroti talked about the challenges single mothers deal with in various aspects, but also how they try to include single fathers in their organisation. Related to the 16 activism days of eliminating violence against women, One Can also presented common examples of how single mothers have previously faced violence and what is being considered as violence in a marriage or relationship.
The students who participated in our training on peace education successfully completed the dissemination phase of the training. They were mentored by two trainers on how to prepare conflict resolution work plans and how to disseminate their ideas to their peers around the high school “Braka Miladinovci“. Two work plans on Macedonian and Albanian language were produced and the students presented those work plans inside their schools. The plans consisted of three problems that the students have mapped during the training: physical violence, understanding of the role of psychologists within the school, and division among Albanian and Macedonian classes. Some of the solutions presented were: raising the awareness against violence through cooperation projects, frequent psychological counseling and multiethnic classes. Visit our website and check the full conflict resolution work plans: https://ekvalis.org.mk/handbook-for-implementing-peace-education-in-schools/
In December 2018, we started with the second training from the project on initiating dialogue through shadow theater. The training was completed with a new set of students from our partner institution, the high school “Braka Miladinovci“. The training was organized together with the experts from our partner institution Theater of Shadows and Clouds. We were happy to be greeted by the school principal Elizabeta Angelevska, who has given her full support for the project through the school services and facilities and with the support of our local school coordinator, Jana Stanoeska. At the first part of the workshop, the students got familiar with what shadow theater is and how it is performed. We also introduced the European Youth Foundation and how the foundation is supporting young people. Within these sessions we created a space for getting to know each other and sharing what we dream about, what we are good at and what are our fears. The students have also learned about the constituent parts of creating a shadow theater story. Following the explanations, they detected 4 different problems at the school from which they wrote short stories containing the necessary parts which will be used in the next workshop for making of puppets, settings and making of storyboard. Those stories covered the problems of verbal violence in the classroom, school violence at the school gym, gender equality in school sports and graffiti spreading hate speech based on ethnicity. In the second workshop from this training the students worked on making a storyboard, made handmade puppets and rehearsed their created short plays. This training ended with the third day that included the performances of the created plays at the premises of the Shadow Theater in Skopje.
In January 2019 within two days, we organized the teacher’s training seminar on incorporating peace education into formal education. This activity from the project “Peace Education for Inclusive Classrooms“ involved 7 high school teachers from the high school “Braka Miladinovci“ in understanding the topics and methods for working with peace education, the benefits it has on students and the school community and facilitated a process of creating personalized teaching plan for the following peace education thematic areas: Identification of stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination, gender, gender roles, gender stereotypes and discrimination and gender democracy, conflict, conflict analysis and non-violent conflict resolution, social exclusion, social integration and social inclusion. The created work plans were used for the final Handbook on Implementing Peace Education in Schools that was issued by Ekvalis in the framework of this project.
As a final event in April 2019 we organized the closing conference “Perspectives of Peace Education“, from our 6 month project “Peace Education for Inclusive Classrooms“ supported by the European Youth Foundation and the Council of Europe. We hosted an experts panel with Albulena Karaga, Ana Bitoljanu and Biljana Trajkoska Vasilevska highlighting the prominent topics of peace education such as gender equality, conflict prevention and resolution and combating of prejudice and discrimination inside schools. On our second panel we provided insights from our project with teachers and students from our implemented project. Jana Stanoeska, Visar Sopaj, Sevdije Ademi, Gorgi Pavlovski and Jovana Ladimirovska reflected on their participation in the training for peace education at the high school Braka Miladinovci.
At the end of the conference, we presented our Handbook for Implementing Peace Education in the Schools that will be available online from tomorrow on Macedonian, Albanian and English. The Handbook is available online in three languages: Macedonian, Albanian and English.
The conference was supported by the Agency of Youth and Sports. We also thank Aleksandra Dichevska for greeting the guests in the name of the Agency and the European Youth Foundation.