Just as Play for Peace had become a familiar concept, i stumbled upon Chalk for Peace! It's a beautiful story and regardless of whether anyone decides to take it up or not, have a read, here.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Play for Peace (workshop report)
The Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre and PeaceWorks organized a three-day Play for Peace workshop on the 27th, 28th and 29th of June at Seagull’s Satish Mukherjee Road address. Play for Peace is a unique international initiative that teaches young children, especially in conflict-torn areas, to play together as a first and crucial step towards peaceful community-building. The Indian leg of Play for Peace is located in Pune and has previously worked with Hindu and Muslim communities in Hyderabad, riot relief camps in Gujarat and tsunami relief camps in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
The workshop was conducted by Agyat and Swati (who prefer not to use their surnames as a stand against the prevailing caste system in India), youth facilitators of Play for Peace in India. Attended by a group of 26 people ranging from college students to NGO workers, the objective of the workshop was to learn playing community-building games, become aware of the psychological processes that lead to conflict, and finally learn to conduct these games in a way that avoids these processes and encourages children to play together irrespective of their differences in background and experience.
The first day of the workshop began with games that familiarize the participants with each other’s names, moved on to alertness games and group games requiring each other’s co-operation. These were punctuated with song-and-dance games, where the entire group came together with silly and fun lyrics and dance moves. The lyrics were simple, ridiculous, and often wordless onomatopoeic sounds (like “Aga Zumba Zumba Zumba…”) – the sort would that appeal to children of any background; otherwise they were kept within simple words in English or Hindi. The games, even the most competitive ones, were characterized by the absence of elimination – in short, nobody would get “out” or be humiliated for being less apt at playing than others. This practice was explained by Swati and Agyat as one of the “core values” of community-building games, the others being always ensuring the emotional and physical safety of the players, and always keeping an invitation to join in open to anyone who is interested. The participants were also taught how to introduce a new game to players, how to conduct it, and when to finish. By the end of the day’s workshop we had learnt 22 games and how to make others play them.
The second day concentrated on psychological experiences of conflict and how to deal with them. One exercise done on the first day had already given us a taste of it, when we were given a list of 15 essentials of day-to-day life and gradually eliminate the ones we could do without till we were left with only four – a tough ordeal; and then reminded that there were people in the world who did not have access to even those. The second day also began with new games, but these were awareness-building games. One game taught us how we succeed better if we pay more attention to our own growth than on stunting the growth of our peers. Another game divided us into four quadrants according to our individual stands on several debatable issues and encouraged us to share our opinions, but not with the objective to debate and win but to notice and learn to accept how different the opinion of a peer can be from ours. There were stories shared, penned by other Play for Peace volunteers from different places; and the songs learned were about peace, unity and the value of human life.
On the third day of the workshop, the participants were given a list of books, films and websites which will enhance our knowledge on child development, building peaceful communities, constructive thinking and such related topics. We were also taught how to create a report for each play-conducting session, so as to have a consistent log of data. Then, or the main part of the days session, we were divided into two groups and each participant in turn was made to demonstrate the skills of teaching and conducting a game, while his/her other group members posed as children. After this session, we sat and discussed various projects to carry forward our training with Play for Peace. Ideas were put forward, proposals made, and many of the participants came together in small groups to carry out certain projects, some of which are already on the way. Later in the evening, a group of visitors were welcomed at the workshop space and we practised our recently acquired play-conducting skills by inviting them to join us in our games. The day was concluded with a screening of Anand Patwardhan’s anti-nuclear destruction video Ribbons of Peace.
The workshop was conducted by Agyat and Swati (who prefer not to use their surnames as a stand against the prevailing caste system in India), youth facilitators of Play for Peace in India. Attended by a group of 26 people ranging from college students to NGO workers, the objective of the workshop was to learn playing community-building games, become aware of the psychological processes that lead to conflict, and finally learn to conduct these games in a way that avoids these processes and encourages children to play together irrespective of their differences in background and experience.
The first day of the workshop began with games that familiarize the participants with each other’s names, moved on to alertness games and group games requiring each other’s co-operation. These were punctuated with song-and-dance games, where the entire group came together with silly and fun lyrics and dance moves. The lyrics were simple, ridiculous, and often wordless onomatopoeic sounds (like “Aga Zumba Zumba Zumba…”) – the sort would that appeal to children of any background; otherwise they were kept within simple words in English or Hindi. The games, even the most competitive ones, were characterized by the absence of elimination – in short, nobody would get “out” or be humiliated for being less apt at playing than others. This practice was explained by Swati and Agyat as one of the “core values” of community-building games, the others being always ensuring the emotional and physical safety of the players, and always keeping an invitation to join in open to anyone who is interested. The participants were also taught how to introduce a new game to players, how to conduct it, and when to finish. By the end of the day’s workshop we had learnt 22 games and how to make others play them.
The second day concentrated on psychological experiences of conflict and how to deal with them. One exercise done on the first day had already given us a taste of it, when we were given a list of 15 essentials of day-to-day life and gradually eliminate the ones we could do without till we were left with only four – a tough ordeal; and then reminded that there were people in the world who did not have access to even those. The second day also began with new games, but these were awareness-building games. One game taught us how we succeed better if we pay more attention to our own growth than on stunting the growth of our peers. Another game divided us into four quadrants according to our individual stands on several debatable issues and encouraged us to share our opinions, but not with the objective to debate and win but to notice and learn to accept how different the opinion of a peer can be from ours. There were stories shared, penned by other Play for Peace volunteers from different places; and the songs learned were about peace, unity and the value of human life.
On the third day of the workshop, the participants were given a list of books, films and websites which will enhance our knowledge on child development, building peaceful communities, constructive thinking and such related topics. We were also taught how to create a report for each play-conducting session, so as to have a consistent log of data. Then, or the main part of the days session, we were divided into two groups and each participant in turn was made to demonstrate the skills of teaching and conducting a game, while his/her other group members posed as children. After this session, we sat and discussed various projects to carry forward our training with Play for Peace. Ideas were put forward, proposals made, and many of the participants came together in small groups to carry out certain projects, some of which are already on the way. Later in the evening, a group of visitors were welcomed at the workshop space and we practised our recently acquired play-conducting skills by inviting them to join us in our games. The day was concluded with a screening of Anand Patwardhan’s anti-nuclear destruction video Ribbons of Peace.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The Telegraph (Metro) article on PFP
Here's the link for those who haven't read it:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080701/jsp/calcutta/story_9483647.jsp
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080701/jsp/calcutta/story_9483647.jsp
Friday, July 4, 2008
Hey guys,
mingle mingle...7 common things n a song
people to people!
the monster!
mock session in action!
I've been sent 92 pictures from the workshop!! In order to prevent overloading everyone's inbox, i'm uploading a choice few here. All the remaining pics will be put up on flickr asap...we have a peaceworks defender's group there as well, esp. for photographs. I'll send out invites for it. I guess putting up pictures on a large scale is better done on flickr so as not to clutter the blog. Here's the link to the flick group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/peaceworksdefenders/. Meanwhile, check out these!
DAY 1
an ice-breaker...possibly the pair tag?
mingle mingle...7 common things n a song people to people! the monster!DAY 2
Collecting coup!
production ball - first round
a classic moment!
Day 3
Ways of Seeing
mock session planning
...and on the other side!
mock session in action!
elephant!!! :)
the session inside
aur...hariyaali idhar udhar!! :D
cheers!!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Format of Games.
This is so much tougher than I thought it would be!!! The good Lord above knows why volunteered to take on this self-inflicted torture!!! I would have been totally lost had it not been for Prachi who decided to take pity on poor little me..... :P
So what we have come-up with is a format under which all the games can be put into categories.
So here goes......
First we have the F.U.N.N. games:
So what we have come-up with is a format under which all the games can be put into categories.
So here goes......
First we have the F.U.N.N. games:
- Action/chase
- Song {memory and follow}
- Alertness/memory
- Ice-breakers.
1. Action/chase.
- Tom and Jerry
- Save me
- Imitation tag
- Pair tag
- Kabadi
2. Song
Memory:
- Arum sum sum
- Aga zumba zumba
- Alive alert awake enthusiastic
Follow:
- Hum gol tum gol
- Haryaali
- Watermelon....
- Hathi ka baccha
- Dekho apni dosti
- Penguin
- Sepo
- Ride Ride Ride My Pony.
3. Alertness/memory
- Zip zap..../elephant/rabit/monkey.....
- Big fish - small fish
- Idly/dosa/vada/coffee
- 7-up
- 8 step dance
- Arista cha
- Stop-walk
- Save your finger catch your partner's!
4. Ice-Breakers
- Name toss
- Mingle mingle
- People to people
- Walk-stop (with greetings)
- Have you ever...... been to jail?/watched 5 movies back to back.....
Another one is "Tara Bai" which is a voice modulation exercise which is one of its kind, hence no separate category for it. It is as of now a category in its self.
F.U.N. Games
- Human knot
- Collecting Coup
- Production Ball
- Quadrants
- (a.) Acceptable/ Non-acceptable + Violent/non-violent
- (b.) My way / Highway + Expressive/non-expressive.
The break-up of the sessions will follow really soon. Till then opinions and comments are most welcome.
The PFP Experience
Fun! Fun! Fun!
PFP was much more fun than I thought it would be. The concepts and ideas were things that we either or already knew, agreed with or understood but hadn't necessarily found ways of implementing in our daily interactions or spreading on a mass scale.
We all know that while playing we forget social and mental boundaries. We all know that while playing we are 100% present and focused. We all know that it doesn't matter who you're playing with as long as its fun to play.
What we didn't know was that small things like our word choice could change the feeling of a game and its effect. What we didn't know is that if we leave all previous experiences outside the door, our interaction with each other completely changes. If we decide to "move together" the game completely changes.
PFP have given us tools and power to affect not one or two people but hundreds and hundreds of people, and have fun while doing it. It’s like having a master key - a trusted entry to all the doors.
PFP was much more fun than I thought it would be. The concepts and ideas were things that we either or already knew, agreed with or understood but hadn't necessarily found ways of implementing in our daily interactions or spreading on a mass scale.
We all know that while playing we forget social and mental boundaries. We all know that while playing we are 100% present and focused. We all know that it doesn't matter who you're playing with as long as its fun to play.
What we didn't know was that small things like our word choice could change the feeling of a game and its effect. What we didn't know is that if we leave all previous experiences outside the door, our interaction with each other completely changes. If we decide to "move together" the game completely changes.
PFP have given us tools and power to affect not one or two people but hundreds and hundreds of people, and have fun while doing it. It’s like having a master key - a trusted entry to all the doors.
New Market, Din Number Do
Heyho!
OK...so this is a really late feedback mail, and we apologise.
To pick up from where we left off, Anirban, Satish and me met on the 1st of July at around 9 15 pm outside the main entrance of New Market (Anirban had brought two friends along). S and A had already identified about 5 children who were playing football. They however, were engrossed in the game so we moved on to see if the children we had met the previous day had turned up. When we finally met them, they were ecstatic and rushed off to call their friends. Very soon we were a group of around 15.
We started off by forming a circle and everyone said his (i wish there was a her too but we couldn't convince any girls to play this time :o( ) name and age. We felt it would be useful to have the average age of the bacchas we were playing with (which incidentally that day was 11). We played Name Toss and Dibbi Dibbi Dabba...with just a minor twist...the boy who forgot a name got to choose a dance step which everyone had to then follow while singing D D D.As noise and laughter rose into the night (sigh!) lots of other bacchas joined in. Very soon we had a group of 30, excluding ourselves.
To cut a long story short, we then proceeded to play The Finger Game, Apple Mango Banana, Zip Zap and River Bank. After the first game, we all sang Hariyali, which was a BIG hit, even though it was impossible to get anyone to stay in the circle!Then we all sat down n a circle and repeated our names...with everyone 'echoing' each name Tazran ishtyle!
Tarpore it was bhaashan time....everyone came close...and sat together. We presented the Israel-Palestine conflict in the form of a short, simle story and ended it by telling them how children there had come up with a song for peace, a song that we would teach them if they would come up with two songs by next week. The challenge was met with cheer and so we told them to come up with two new games too (We have two goups and SEVEN enthusiastic captains....i see possible conflict....even though the challenge was that they co-operate!). After that we played a spontaneous association game...where one of us would give a word and the children would raise their hand if the wanted to speak. We touched on topics like football (a LOUD hurrah), cigarettes ("it's bad for health. your liver burns out") non vegetarianism ('we should be vegetarians" - but none of them were! ), jhagra ("oh! we LOVE it") and so on.....
Anirban ended the session beautifully....by asking everone to hold hands and say "Hum Sab Ek Hain". It sounded so GOOD.
Then, since we had promised everyone we would play football, it was match ahoy! The security guards played spoilsport tho...apparently no one realized it was already 10 15!!! We have given our word that we shall play after Sunday's session.
Now the 'analysis'....
#There was violence, quite a bit of it...apart from the usual hitting, biting, scratching (and everything in between) there was apparently some kind of a "gang war" going on.... a lot of youngsters chose voluntary exclusion because of that. A boy of about 15 came to me and after we chatted a bit he lifted his shirt to show me a 15 inch knife...i was awed and a lil astonished! He ran back home to leave it there and came back to play. :))
#These guys get bored EASILY. I would suggest a few games that require running around or some such activity. These could be intersperced with songs or games that require sitting down, which the children would then be ready to give their attention to while they rest.
#As mentioned earlier, the few girls hanging round were painfully shy. I think the boys can be asked to gently ask the girls to join in. Or, as cliched as this may sound, maybe in the next session one of the Didis (you, that is) can do what we were unable to.
#FOOTBALL.........MAJOR threat ;o) Someone (preferably Sumeet) please see if you can come up with a super fun, non or semi competitive form of the game...trust me you will go down in New Market history...(unless of course i take credit ;o) )
#We had LOTS of onlookers who we couldn't really keep inviting to join us simply coz we had our hands full. Maybe next time.
#The children are fascinated by facilitators...they want to hold your hand (they fight over it!) to hold you, to talk to you. The stonger ones get to, but the younger and not-so-tough ones want your attention as badly.
#No one complained about the noise level or about the fact that we were using the Simpark space. SFSG.
#We need to come up with a fun way of establishing dialogue, because these bairns (im sick of using children and bacchas...I wish 'kids' was ethical!) have a LOT to say.
Apparently so did I....
That's all for now folks,
A
P.S.- Be there in front of New Market on Sunday the 6th at 7:15 pm! That's deen nombor teen.
P.P.S.- The schedule for Sunday shall be mailed tomorrow.
P.P.P.S. (only for Anirban and Satish) - I've obviously left a lot of important stuff out. This was just off the top of my head. Do fill in the blanks.
OK...so this is a really late feedback mail, and we apologise.
To pick up from where we left off, Anirban, Satish and me met on the 1st of July at around 9 15 pm outside the main entrance of New Market (Anirban had brought two friends along). S and A had already identified about 5 children who were playing football. They however, were engrossed in the game so we moved on to see if the children we had met the previous day had turned up. When we finally met them, they were ecstatic and rushed off to call their friends. Very soon we were a group of around 15.
We started off by forming a circle and everyone said his (i wish there was a her too but we couldn't convince any girls to play this time :o( ) name and age. We felt it would be useful to have the average age of the bacchas we were playing with (which incidentally that day was 11). We played Name Toss and Dibbi Dibbi Dabba...with just a minor twist...the boy who forgot a name got to choose a dance step which everyone had to then follow while singing D D D.As noise and laughter rose into the night (sigh!) lots of other bacchas joined in. Very soon we had a group of 30, excluding ourselves.
To cut a long story short, we then proceeded to play The Finger Game, Apple Mango Banana, Zip Zap and River Bank. After the first game, we all sang Hariyali, which was a BIG hit, even though it was impossible to get anyone to stay in the circle!Then we all sat down n a circle and repeated our names...with everyone 'echoing' each name Tazran ishtyle!
Tarpore it was bhaashan time....everyone came close...and sat together. We presented the Israel-Palestine conflict in the form of a short, simle story and ended it by telling them how children there had come up with a song for peace, a song that we would teach them if they would come up with two songs by next week. The challenge was met with cheer and so we told them to come up with two new games too (We have two goups and SEVEN enthusiastic captains....i see possible conflict....even though the challenge was that they co-operate!). After that we played a spontaneous association game...where one of us would give a word and the children would raise their hand if the wanted to speak. We touched on topics like football (a LOUD hurrah), cigarettes ("it's bad for health. your liver burns out") non vegetarianism ('we should be vegetarians" - but none of them were! ), jhagra ("oh! we LOVE it") and so on.....
Anirban ended the session beautifully....by asking everone to hold hands and say "Hum Sab Ek Hain". It sounded so GOOD.
Then, since we had promised everyone we would play football, it was match ahoy! The security guards played spoilsport tho...apparently no one realized it was already 10 15!!! We have given our word that we shall play after Sunday's session.
Now the 'analysis'....
#There was violence, quite a bit of it...apart from the usual hitting, biting, scratching (and everything in between) there was apparently some kind of a "gang war" going on.... a lot of youngsters chose voluntary exclusion because of that. A boy of about 15 came to me and after we chatted a bit he lifted his shirt to show me a 15 inch knife...i was awed and a lil astonished! He ran back home to leave it there and came back to play. :))
#These guys get bored EASILY. I would suggest a few games that require running around or some such activity. These could be intersperced with songs or games that require sitting down, which the children would then be ready to give their attention to while they rest.
#As mentioned earlier, the few girls hanging round were painfully shy. I think the boys can be asked to gently ask the girls to join in. Or, as cliched as this may sound, maybe in the next session one of the Didis (you, that is) can do what we were unable to.
#FOOTBALL.........MAJOR threat ;o) Someone (preferably Sumeet) please see if you can come up with a super fun, non or semi competitive form of the game...trust me you will go down in New Market history...(unless of course i take credit ;o) )
#We had LOTS of onlookers who we couldn't really keep inviting to join us simply coz we had our hands full. Maybe next time.
#The children are fascinated by facilitators...they want to hold your hand (they fight over it!) to hold you, to talk to you. The stonger ones get to, but the younger and not-so-tough ones want your attention as badly.
#No one complained about the noise level or about the fact that we were using the Simpark space. SFSG.
#We need to come up with a fun way of establishing dialogue, because these bairns (im sick of using children and bacchas...I wish 'kids' was ethical!) have a LOT to say.
Apparently so did I....
That's all for now folks,
A
P.S.- Be there in front of New Market on Sunday the 6th at 7:15 pm! That's deen nombor teen.
P.P.S.- The schedule for Sunday shall be mailed tomorrow.
P.P.P.S. (only for Anirban and Satish) - I've obviously left a lot of important stuff out. This was just off the top of my head. Do fill in the blanks.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
New Market, Day 1
Hola people!
Took PFP into the field today and it was a friggin' wonderful experience!Since I'm hell-bent on rambling and writing this as a non-report, please bear with me! Or, just skip to the important bits! :op
Anirban, Satish and me met at New Market around 8:30 (sorry Anirban for keeping ya waiting!) and began by discussing our playplan. We decided to introduce ourselves and tell the bacchas (not kids :op) that we would be coming back on a particular day.
Unfortunately it was drizzling so there was NO one around! So we went onto the New Market terrace ( which is a sexed out place!) and lolled around there. Then, as there was still no one playing, around a quarter past 9 we walked to Anirban's school. Obviously the gates were locked but Mr. A felt really nostalgic and desperately wanted to enter his school. In fact, he wanted to get in so bad, that he suggested breaking in. After some protesting from my side, we entered the building adjacent to the school ( a firestation FULL of policemen) and climbed over the wall. When the security caught us, we claimed that we were just VERY loyal ex-students. heh. This had to be a first; breaking into a school instead of the opposite!
Now the important part... We met a few children and fortunately some of them had danced for my music video so establishing a rapport was easy! We just casually talked for a bit and mentioned that we had a few games ready that we wanted to play with them soon. They were delighted and said, "Kal aao!" (today the turnout was nil coz of the rain). One of them wanted us to get a football so we could play soccer. Thanks to the workshop we knew how to reply to that! :O)
While this was happening we were also constantly dodging bricks being thrown from above by what we can only call the madar-c*** gang, a group of 20+ year olds who punctuated every word with the M phrase (incidentally we have no idea exactly WHY they were doing that....throwing bricks that is). Anirban was optimistic enough to suggest that we include them while playing. I dunno about Satish but I definitely went *ahem*!
Before leaving the place, we exchanged names.....we met 6-7 children but i can only remember a few names....Rohit, Rajesh, Bablu.... They promised to get a large group of children tomorrow. The deal was that if it rained, the 'prograam' would be shifted to the next day. I'm not sure if being so hasty was good, epecially since a lot of us are meeting on Wednesday and would have prolly liked to be included (plus we WILL need AT LEAST 5 volunteers). However, the kids were so enthusiastic that we really couldn't say no. Maybe the three of us can go early tomorrow and tell them that we'll come on Thursday. That way we can not only be slightly more prepared but also inform others.
Signing off now...
YaYness!
A
Took PFP into the field today and it was a friggin' wonderful experience!Since I'm hell-bent on rambling and writing this as a non-report, please bear with me! Or, just skip to the important bits! :op
Anirban, Satish and me met at New Market around 8:30 (sorry Anirban for keeping ya waiting!) and began by discussing our playplan. We decided to introduce ourselves and tell the bacchas (not kids :op) that we would be coming back on a particular day.
Unfortunately it was drizzling so there was NO one around! So we went onto the New Market terrace ( which is a sexed out place!) and lolled around there. Then, as there was still no one playing, around a quarter past 9 we walked to Anirban's school. Obviously the gates were locked but Mr. A felt really nostalgic and desperately wanted to enter his school. In fact, he wanted to get in so bad, that he suggested breaking in. After some protesting from my side, we entered the building adjacent to the school ( a firestation FULL of policemen) and climbed over the wall. When the security caught us, we claimed that we were just VERY loyal ex-students. heh. This had to be a first; breaking into a school instead of the opposite!
Now the important part... We met a few children and fortunately some of them had danced for my music video so establishing a rapport was easy! We just casually talked for a bit and mentioned that we had a few games ready that we wanted to play with them soon. They were delighted and said, "Kal aao!" (today the turnout was nil coz of the rain). One of them wanted us to get a football so we could play soccer. Thanks to the workshop we knew how to reply to that! :O)
While this was happening we were also constantly dodging bricks being thrown from above by what we can only call the madar-c*** gang, a group of 20+ year olds who punctuated every word with the M phrase (incidentally we have no idea exactly WHY they were doing that....throwing bricks that is). Anirban was optimistic enough to suggest that we include them while playing. I dunno about Satish but I definitely went *ahem*!
Before leaving the place, we exchanged names.....we met 6-7 children but i can only remember a few names....Rohit, Rajesh, Bablu.... They promised to get a large group of children tomorrow. The deal was that if it rained, the 'prograam' would be shifted to the next day. I'm not sure if being so hasty was good, epecially since a lot of us are meeting on Wednesday and would have prolly liked to be included (plus we WILL need AT LEAST 5 volunteers). However, the kids were so enthusiastic that we really couldn't say no. Maybe the three of us can go early tomorrow and tell them that we'll come on Thursday. That way we can not only be slightly more prepared but also inform others.
Signing off now...
YaYness!
A
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