Today is an historic day in Myanmar with the freest presidential election being held in decades. We are excited to report that Play for Peace is there during this important time! This is a report of Day 2 as Play for Peace Certified Trainers Swati Bhatt and Agyat Mitra and their friend Jim Connor, founder of the non-profit Whispering Seed, continue their work in Myanmar. To appreciate the importance of these Play for Peace Training sessions it is helpful to understand the circumstances that weigh on the lives of the participants. Like in many countries, Myanmar has a colorful and complex religious landscape.
Many in Myanmar follow the Therav? da school of Buddhism that draws its inspiration from some of the earliest surviving records of Buddha's teachings. Within the country, there are around 10 sects, each with its practices. While there is a common national organization that has representatives from each sect, there are extremist elements that use nationalism and religion to target ethnic minorities. The violence towards these minorities has had lasting impacts on people like Karen and Shan who are Rohghaniya Muslims. However, not everyone supports the religious divide in Myanmar. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently welcomed a joint statement by Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Muslim leaders of the country calling for tolerance and respect of religious freedom for the sake of children of Myanmar who represent about one-third of the country’s population.
Local civil societies that are working towards peace often rely on local monasteries and monks to help promote the importance of diversity and tolerance. This is one of the reasons that Play for Peace® partnered with SEMS (Socially Engaged Monastic School) for this session. Most of the participants from Myanmar are working with teachers in Monastic schools and will take Play for Peace with them to their schools. In today’s session, among the various activities, participants created a poster that showed how “Play for Peace” was written in the native languages of the attendees. It is the hope that as these teachers teach about math, science, and Buddhism, they also can demonstrate through play and joint activities about compassion, understanding and love for others. [caption id="attachment_3801" align="align-center" width="300"]
Saying Play for Peace in the participant's language[/caption]
