Instead of 'I' or 'They', there was a strong feeling of 'We’.
On June 27th and 28th, twenty participants met in Mumbai to experience a training session (Module 2) by the Khula Aasman Club. This was led by two of our lovely trainers, Javeed and Archana with the support of Neelu. Of the trainees, some were completely new to Play For Peace, while others had attended the first training session, titled Module 1. We were inspired by Archana’s great journaling of the event, and wanted to share her notes…
DAY 1 We started our first session with a few old activities and a lot of new activities. We played for an hour and after the Practice Peace Session we shared Play for Peace Core Values with the group. We then asked them about their individual experiences and received some great feedback…
"Playing these games was like being in the present moment—an opportunity to forget the stress of the everyday. "There was no need for logic… we had a lot of fun."
After Lunch, we divided the group into 4 sections and asked each one to create a new game or to modify a few elements from a list of old games. Later we discussed how to sequence different games once they are designed. Each participant then facilitated one game that they had designed within the group. The participants were excited by the idea of creating new games and making changes to existing ones, making them more interesting and physically and emotionally safer. After the mock session, we asked everyone to sit in the circle while one of our facilitators shared ‘Play for Peace India Story’: this was a Play for Peace experience that included a presentation on the Project "Zero Violence." We then continued with an activity known as “Peace-Violence”. For this, we made 4 groups. We first asked them what peace means to them: making a list of words, statements, and feelings that came up for the participants. We did the same with the term violence. Trainees then sat in a group and looked at newspapers to identify pictures and words that could be categorized under peace or violence. Each group shared pasted pictures and words under these categories. Once everyone was ready, we asked them to display their chart paper on the floor: without comment or judgment, we viewed what each other had created.
DAY 2 The session started at 10:45 AM: we did a Practice Peace Session with new activities and some of the activities created by the group on the previous day. Watermelon, Khelenge Kudenge, Save, and Bajra, to name a few! Afterward, everyone sat in a circle and we had a one-hour round of introductions: a time to share each other’s journey and life experiences. It was amazing to hear the varied experiences each participant had in their life. We then talked about expectations. What does it mean to promote the core values of Play for Peace? We reminded participants that they are role models for children: their language and actions will be followed by those around them.
Drawing an egg on a sheet of paper, the practices and values that break the egg/group are listed outside of the egg and the ones that strengthen the egg/group are listed inside. The outside list was filled very quickly, but the inside part was not. We invited the participants to be aware of this and to expand upon the inside of the egg. We discussed how to convert negative feedback to positive feedback, and how to be mindful of the tone and choice of words used in group activities. We shared many more things over the next few hours, and participants were eventually asked to sit while a facilitator shared an example of an Action Plan: a plan where trainers organize the next 3 months and how they will apply their learning of Module 2 in the field. There was a lot of discussion on how to move forward with Play for Peace strategies.
Indeed, the objective of Module 2 is to give trainees the skills and confidence to convert existing competitive games into cooperative games. As a result, the participants were asked to make traditional competitive games into cooperative ones. After some discussion, we played and raised some questions about cooperative play. We emphasized that Play for Peace values are not limited to games, but can be applied to anything they do in life. It is a tool to help build peace around them. Many positive experiences arose from these activities. To quote just a few of our participants, here are some of their thoughts:
Sonali: "These two days have directed me to think positively and enjoy the moment." Trupti: "I am very grateful that I came across Play for Peace. Until now, I was always introduced to games that had teams: someone getting praised by winning, and someone getting hurt by losing. The spirit of the activities included here blew my mind. Thank you."
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