|
Amman, Jordan. As part of the National Interfaith Service Day 21-23 April, 2006, the Jordan Interfaith Action (JIA) CC organized a volunteer service day on Thursday, April 20th at the Shneller School, supported by the Case Foundation. University students and JIA members from Amman, Zarqa and Irbid spent a full day with 50 youngsters from the 6th and 7th grades (ages 12 to 13) and implemented a program on peace education through sports, exercises, and games.
"Sport for Peace" is a project aimed at giving a chance for the less privileged students of Theodor Schneller School, who are coming from Hitteen Refugee Camp* and different poor areas around Amman, to have peace education in an informal way, using the most popular sport among these children--football. The volunteers applied a new manual on peace education developed during a special training session. The project was implemented by young Jordanians of different religions modeling interfaith cooperation, which inspired the children about tolerance, peace, and human rights. Presentations were made to the students on Interfaith Dialogue, URI, and Jordan Interfaith Action. The students were fascinated by this work. One simple but effective exercise consisted of passing the ball from one to another while calling names, followed by a simple question “Does the religion of the person who is passing the ball or the person who received it make a difference?”
  An evaluation meeting was held for the volunteers the next day. The German Embassy awarded the volunteers with the World Cup FIFA T-Shirts and a book with a calendar from Germany as a symbol of support for holding such an initiative. The School staff and management enthusiastically applauded the idea; as a result JIA CC members will support three big events organized by the School by providing volunteers and new tools for learning. Two of these events will be regional with participation of over 120 youngsters.
The Jordan Interfaith Action objective for this year is to encourage more Interfaith Dialogue awareness among youngsters. In the past two years JIA applied Art as a tool for Interfaith Dialogue; this year the JIA will apply the new tool “Sport for Peace.”
In addition to the above mentioned projects which will be implemented with Schneller School, JIA is sending a group of young Jordanians age 14 – 17 to participate in the “Cup of Good Hope” (www.cupofgoodhope.org) in Hamburg this July, which will include youngsters from over 31 countries. JIA takes this opportunity to give a special thanks to the Goethe Institute Amman and the German Embassy for their generous support of our youngsters.
Anas Al-Abbadi
Jordan Interfaith Action * Hitteen Camp is 11km outside of Amman, and houses about 45,000 Palestinian refugees. |
