Peace Education Courses 2009

The course "The Paths of Peace" will be held in the Basilicata Region in the towns of Scanzano Jonico, Sant'Arcangelo, Miglionico, Guardia Perticara and Noepoli, from the 16th to 28th of November 2009, covering two full days each, open to a maximum of 20 participants per course and is free of charge.
At the end of the course WCCC Italy will issue a certificate of participation.

Programme details currently in Italian

Officially constituted last June, the “Fondazione Città della Pace Basilicata Onlus” is foreseen to be fully operative by December 2009, pending the completion of Italian bureaucratic procedures.

By this time, renovation works will begin on those lodgings in Sant’Arcangelo that the Foundation will make available to war zone minors and their families currently holding “refugee status” in Italy.

Proper contacts with the Italian Ministry of Interior Affairs have already been established and by the end of the year an agreement with the pertinent departments will be signed. The arrival of the first families in Sant’Arcangelo is planned for spring 2010.

Moreover, in the Municipality of Scanzano Jonico, works on the 7 hectares of land given to the “Fondazione Città della Pace Basilicata” by the municipality for the construction of the campus of the City of Peace are due to commence by the end of 2009.

With the first tranche of financing made available by the Basilicata Region through an EU Grant of 4.4 million euro [2.8 designated to Scanzano and 1.2 for Sant’Arcangelo], 10 classroom/laboratories and a guest house for hosting teachers and speakers who will be joining the training courses will be built, as well as all relevant infrastructures such as feeder roads, lighting, gas and water.

In this way Betty Williams’ original project to transform the destiny of the people of the region and the land, that in 2003 the Italian government had doomed as a European Nuclear waste deposit, will have been accomplished.

On campus, thanks to future financing, a biological green house powered by photovoltaic energy, a botanical garden, fully equipped research laboratories and a music auditorium will be realised.

The work of scouting for the identification and involvement of other public and private partners continues. At present the Foundazione Città della Pace Basilicata has 3 private partners: Fondazione Eli Lilly Italia, Fondazione Vodafone Italia and Gruppo Saviola, acting as technical sponsor, providing most of the furnishings for the project premises and family housing. All furniture shall be made with recycled wood.

Last June, World Centers of Compassion for Children Italia Onlus won a tender with Vodafone Italy Foundation for the establishment of a "Peace Education Program", as part of the larger project of the City of Peace for the Children in Basilicata.

The key points of the program co-funded by Fondazione Vodafone Italia are:

1. Reception of the children and their families in Sant’Arcangelo – At the beginning of 2010 the Foundation will identify the local non-profit associations that will participate in assisting minors and their families. Inter-cultural mediators, health workers and psychological counsellors will be needed to aide the children and their families in their integration process into the local reality.
   

2. Peace Education and Inter-Culture Formation for young adults and teachers – Education to the fundamental principles of Peace and Inter-culture through the delivery of training courses for adults, teachers and youngsters of the Basilicata, following a scheme already experimented in Basilicata by Wccc-Italia.
   
   The first courses will be carried out, from the 16th - 28th of November 2009, in 6 Municipalities of the Basilicata. The trainings have 3 levels and will be delivered in 20 municipalities of the Region in 2 years; the participants will in turn become potential trainers and find job opportunities in schools, cultural and non-profit associations, national and international NGOs, as well as in the City of Peace Basilicata. At the end of the training courses the Foundation will release a certificate of participation.
   
   The second phase of the Peace Education Project foresees the realisation of a video documentary covering highlights of the courses as part of a multimedia kit for Peace Education, translated into Italian, Arabic, English and French to be distributed in the Italian schools and in the countries of origin of the families hosted. Thus creating a bridge between the Basilicata and the Mediterranean Basin, aimed at enlarging cultural understanding and exchange among its people.
   

3. Training courses for aspiring journalists and creation of an Observatory on the Crisis Zones –
   The Observatory will rotate around a Web News Agency that will have a central editorial office in Scanzano Jonico at WCCCI Headquarters at Palazzo Baronale and a network of young informers both in Italy and in those parts of the world that the official media do not cover.
   
   The Agency will be the daily observatory regarding the respect and compliance of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Children, negated by conflicts, underdevelopment and environmental devastation.
   
   In this context, the creation of a school designed to form 80 aspiring young journalists between the youths of the Basilicata and those of developing countries.
   
   The training courses will be realised twice a year, also with e-learning systems, and will be held by top Information Technology specialists, journalists, reporters and photographers, Italian and foreign, in order to ensure the widest possible representation of the themes relating to journalism.
   
   Course content will be identified and up-dated at each new session to tie into current events an subsequenly transmitted via electronic and TV channels such as the International Telematic University UniNettuno, on RAI SAT 1 & 2 and the Telematic Universities of Egypt and Morocco. The training of aspiring journalists will provide them with job opportunities both in Italy and their county of origin.
   
   The Web Agency is envisaged to be operative in Scanzano by March 2010.
   
   Introductory instruction is foreseen by the second half of January, with a two week preparatory workshop intensive, open to 20 local youths. After the end-of-course examinations, the teachers will choose the most suitable among the participants to be placed on the Web Agency editorial staff.
   

4. Creation of a Music Atelier – Training of young people in music with the direct participation of schools (e.g.: middle school curriculum with music).
   
   Born from the idea of music as a universal language, the Music Atelier project is aimed at forming 50 young people in 2 years.
   
   The finest musical artists, national and international, will be involved in teaching at the Atelier in co-operation with regional schools and teachers. The goal is to create within the first year an International Youth Orchestra of young musicians coming from different countries and to organize music events that will bring wider visibility to the Region of Basilicata.
   
   Atelier will be made available as a local resource and facility, especially to schools.

PROJECT PARTNERS