Finishing the Training Phase and Starting the Final Activities Stage in Only One Step Away

GAV – Qamishlo

GAV4RD has completed the second phase of the project Only One Step Away on 25 March, 2018, which included workshops in three main areas in the project plan: the communication skills workshop, the administrative skills workshop, and the artistic/cultural skills workshop. The second stage was focused primarily on building a team of volunteers and enhancing their skills in three areas to build their capacity and achieve the objectives of the project, convey its message to reject hate speech, and advocate building genuine peace between the components of Al-Jazira population.

The project concentrated on university students from the various components of the population (Arabs, Kurds, and Syriacs) as university students have an essential role in scaffolding integration and civil peace between the components of the population of Al-Jazira. The main objective was building a team that carries a message of peace to influence their social environment, promoting civil peace and coexistence, and supporting the continuity of the project’s message.

During the workshops, GAV4RD relied on the ideas of students participating in the project and their proposals along with the operational plan for the activities during field trips in target communities. The purpose was to strengthen their role and develop their sense of responsibility. GAV4RD adopted the slogans suggested by the volunteers and printed them as stickers on the campaign cars. The slogans conveyed, in general, messages about peace and the need to resort to the mentality of peace and coexistence which is necessary for the advancement of society.

This GAV4RD started the last phase of the project, which consists of rounds of activities in a number of proposed villages in the countryside of Al-Hasakeh, Darbasiyah, and Tirbespi. The last phase will be launched on 26 March, 2018.

The activities include visiting the homes of community members, holding dialog sessions, and other musical activities as well as recreational activities and gift distribution for children

Field activities include also symbolic messages as team members wear folkloric clothes of the three components of the population during the visits. The programs team in GAV4RD had the these clothes designed and made to symbolize coordination and collaboration between the programs team, the trainers in workshops, and volunteers, in order to achieve the project’s message to consolidate the relations between all the components of the population and to cast away the disputes that damage the cohesion of the social fabric in the region.

It is worth mentioning that the project Only One Step Away started on 1 February, 2018.