GAV4RD Finished the Project Only One Step Away
GAV – Qamishli
GAV4RD has finished the community integration project Only One Step Away with the project work team on 29 April, 2018, after 3 months of work, activity, and various workshops aiming to cast off hate speech among the population components in Al-Jazira region and spreading the culture of accepting the other and peaceful coexistence.
The project relied on a number of university students from the various components (Arabs, Kurds, and Syriacs) as volunteers in the project activities as they represented the educated class which will participate actively in building a background for a real peace between the components, based on the rich cultural heritage of the area. To achieve this purpose, the volunteers attended a number of training workshops about communication skills, administrative skills, and cultural/artistic skills in order to enhance their capacity in terms of communication and studying the cultural variety, and then finding the best methods and means to bring the components closer together. The project plan relied on creating a small experiment of peaceful coexistence between the components by representing each component by a number of students from that component. These students lived together during the training period, which lasted 25 days and was later translated through field activities in the targeted villages. This experiment is meant to spread and become a societal culture.
The project targeted 15 villages in the countryside of Al-Hasakeh, and the countryside of Darbasiyeh, Qahtaniyeh/Tirbespi, including Arab, Kurdish, and Syriac villages. The total number of beneficiaries included 4200, the population of the villages and the volunteers. The work plan included a number of activities such as visits to the homes of the villagers, group discussions, theatrical and musical activities, contests for children, and present distribution. The team tried through these activities to give messages of accepting the other and the necessity of civil peace and peaceful coexistence as the best solution to take the area towards safety.
The project revealed problems in communication among the various components and the need for continuous enhancement. Most relationships between locals from different components had been limited to economic relationships, which meant that it was necessary raise awareness about the necessity of coexistence.
In addition, in the rural communities, it was noticeable that the role of women in social affairs suffered from stagnation, due to the current male-oriented culture which has been dominant for centuries. This situation makes it necessary to implement projects that empower women economically and socially and scaffold the role of women in building society side by side with men on a basis of equality. The role of women is, in fact, conductive of social integration, in the local community.
The Organization has sought to achieve real communication between the population of the villages. It implemented an activity seeking to hold an extended meeting which included the population of villages from various areas covered by the project. The purpose was to enhance the relationships between the components, and the activity was met with apparent approval from the participants. The meeting, along with the work team and the activities they carried out during the project, contributed to building relationships among them. In addition, the activity was an opportunity for the participants to know the others, along with their culture and history.
It is worth mentioning that the Organization, held a final party for volunteers who participated in the project, which lasted for three months and gave them certificates of their participation in the activities during the project, the types of trainings they underwent, and their role in making this project a success.