An initiative consisted of two day workshop titled “Alternatives to Violence for Strengthening Social Cohesion”. The workshop held at the UoD Cultural Center on 10th – 11th February 2021. The workshop was designed, organized and delivered by two of the project’s participants: Zhiyan Abdulrahman and Midyan Hameed. .
The two days of workshops were devoted to the nonviolent resolution of conflict transformation of relationships. Consequently, these were a deeply personal and experiential means to help the participants learn how they can engage in nonviolence reaction. The participants created a learning environment where they could understand their own context, their own biases and begin to change their relationship to conflict.
The training was designed to be implemented through a participatory approach with a focus not only on changing broken relationships, but also on changing participants’ beliefs and attitudes of violence by building communication, affirmation, cooperation, trust and introducing nonviolent problem-solving skills.
The first day of the workshop was dedicated to introducing a discussion on violence and nonviolence definitions, which included physical, psychological, spiritual, personal and community violence. At the same time, nonviolence was looked at broadly as a source of power and strength, as well as considering its reputation for passivity and weakness.
The second day of workshops addressed nonviolent problem solving and Transforming Power via experiential exercises. All exercises were experiential with light and lively activities to keep participation and engagement at high levels – and to counter the heaviness of talking about conflict and violence.
Fifteen UoD students, participated in the workshop (8 HC, 7 IDPs), 6 males and 9 females, all from different religious backgrounds and colleges of UoD/
The training was conducted with supported from the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).