Initiatives of Change - Creators of Peace

A couple of years ago a catholic school invited Creators of Peace activist Helena Salazar, to introduce the Peace Circle material into a class of 35 grade 10 school boys. Helena reports:

The headmaster decided we would do an experiment with a group of 35 boys in the 10th grade. It was a very tough group with lots of problems and very difficult to deal with.

We started with only 45 minutes to do some work and the 35 boys were stretched out on their benches looking bored and disinterested. Father Francisco had to walk along the aisles touching each one so they sat up straight with their legs under their desks. After telling them I was there because I was sure things could change if people changed, sharing with them some of my own examples, we started the workshop with the word “Peace”.

The first astonishing thing was to listen to these boys speak about war and peace as if they where living on another planet. Not even one of them was aware that we Colombian people have had this huge war going on for 50 years, with no signal of an end soon. It was like listening to some cinema critics analyzing the Star War Series, so out of our own reality. Their lives have not been touched at all by the war, since it rarely touches the big cities.

After the second workshop, they were really interested. Each of the sessions lasted for three to four hours because they didn’t care how long it took us, but they all wanted to share. They also wrote in their notebooks what they wanted to say, so they wouldn’t forget it until their turn came to talk. They all had so many things to share. There was a boy who had fled Cuba because of the persecution of his family, and was so angry when his friend, said communism was the answer for our problems. Two other boys said all the problems came from the Jews, and that all of them should be killed. They were asked if they knew any Jews or if they had received any harm from them, they said “No”... There was a big discussion about how to be open to our differences instead of wanting to erase those who are not like us. Many things came to light. One question raised was: “Which is the place with least peace around me?” To our amazement they concluded that the most harmful place was their own homes! They preferred to be in the streets than at home, they cared little for their families. With the workshop they understood how important it is to be honest with one-self.

At the end of the third workshop it was summer vacations, so we parted with the strong desire to continue the following term. When school started again we were told we had not been assigned a time to continue with the workshop, and I lost track of the boys.

At the end of the year one of the boys went to see Father Francisco to tell him what had happened after the last workshop and all the changes there had been in each of them and in the class spirit. He said: “Since we were in the 2nd grade there were three groups with their own leaders, who hated each other. We became enemies, we had our own territory and outside school, our groups vandalized the city. Our parents and our teachers didn’t know anything about this. Then what happened was that the first who started changing were our leaders, and all because of the experience of the Peace Circle. They wanted their own group to change without knowing the other groups were working to change. This brought a big desire to make peace between all of us. When classes were over and we had our feast to say farewell to the Senior Class, we were also celebrating that for the first time in the history of our group, we were all united."