Cultivating Peace Through Play in Europe
In a world often divided by conflict, initiatives that bring people together through compassion, creativity, and play are rare and powerful. One such initiative is the Mountain of Leaders project, where Play for Peace certified trainer Margaux Richet is helping reshape the futures of Ukrainian and Polish youth through experiential learning, intercultural dialogue, and inclusive leadership training.
This blog highlights how play-based peacebuilding, emotional healing, and youth empowerment come together in one transformative project that’s changing lives in Poland and across Europe.
A Global Journey to Intercultural Facilitation
Margaux Richet's journey to becoming an intercultural trainer, facilitator, and moderator began with her global upbringing in Lagos, Nigeria, and Seoul, South Korea, fostering an early passion for cultural and linguistic exploration. After pursuing academics in international trade, politics, social management, and art history in France, some internships in the communications sector, notably for the organizations Amnesty International in San Francisco and Solidarité Internationale in Paris and working for Afev, a non profit organization offering young people an opportunity to get involved to fight educational inequalities, she relocated to Berlin in 2004, where she built an international career as an intercultural facilitator in civic and human rights education. As a trainer for the EU Salto-Youth Network, Margaux integrates non-formal education methods with creativity from theatre, circus, music, dance and art and explores embodied facilitation. She has performed storytelling in different venues since 2010. She became a certified Play for Peace trainer through a friend's recommendation, finding that it provides an additional official framework and a broader, decentralized perspective enriched by the realities and experiences of other Play for Peace facilitators for her work in human rights and civic education, emphasizing the power of play in promoting peace and bringing people together.
The Mountain of Leaders: Building Bridges for Ukrainian and Polish Youth
Margaux's involvement with the Mountain of Leaders project has significantly helped expand Play for Peace's presence in Europe. This transformative initiative was created by Joanna Cutts, the founder of Cogitania and a researcher in cognitive sciences and teaching. Joanna's deep commitment to supporting Ukrainian refugees, stemming from her family's history of resilience, is the driving force behind many such initiatives.
The Mountain of Leaders project aims to support Ukrainian adolescents and young adults facing war either as refugees in Poland or still living in Ukraine by bringing them together with young adults in Poland for week-long programs. Its core focus is on developing agile leadership skills in a multicultural environment through outdoor education and intercultural non formal education activities. Two sides of learning are connected: exploring in the nature the physical limits of our comfort zones with different outdoor activities with the amazing team around Jan Bełdycki and a multi-facetted creative pedagogical approach with embodied exercises and reflection at various levels with Margaux Richet.
The questions the dive into with the participants are :
What means feeling alive?
Which needs do leaders have? And groups? It's a subtle and profound approach.
What forms of leadership exist?
And what roles are attached to them?
Where do they come from? Do they correspond to me?
What are the needs of me and those around me? How do they define my role as a leader?
The project is a key component of KIK's (a Warsaw-based foundation aiding Ukrainians since 2014) flagship efforts, specifically contributing to "Integration and social cohesion" through bi-national camps and "Leadership" by training future Polish-Ukrainian leaders. The program evolved into a year-long experience, where participants deepen what they discovered about themselves at Mountain of Leaders and catalyze social entrepreneurship to build peace.
Play, Art, and Facilitation: Pathways to Healing and Connection
Margaux joined the Mountain of Leaders project in its second year that specializes in outdoor activities for children. Her role is crucial in facilitating intercultural understanding, helping participants discover their needs and learn facilitation techniques for mixed-language groups. The project, which started due to difficulties in integrating Ukrainian children into Polish camps, now includes comprehensive outdoor education and intercultural skills training, often taking place in a unique mountain retreat, the Villa Akiko built by Akiko Miwa, a Japanese entrepreneur.
Margaux's approach is deeply empathetic, recognizing the importance of emotional safety when handling traumatic stories. She emphasizes that helping people reconnect with the flow of life and remember they are more than their trauma or negative emotions is crucial in their healing process. She also highlights the importance of movement and not being stuck in one emotional state.
A significant aspect of the project involves creative expression. In 2024 it included working with Sofia Riabchuk, a Ukrainian Educator, lecturer, writer, translator in the fields of museum education, art and psychology who uses slow visual art visualization to help refugees reconnect with their emotions through museum paintings in Poland. This integration of art, alongside physical activities and facilitated discussions, provides diverse avenues for healing and self-discovery. The project extends beyond the initial week-long camps, with participants meeting again to deepen their understanding of topics and potentially connect with other European initiatives.
Through these carefully designed experiences, Margaux, along with Joanna Cutts and organizations like KIK, are actively working to strengthen social cohesion and integration of Ukrainian refugees with the Polish host community by fostering leadership, friendship, and cooperation between young people from both countries. They are truly educating for peace, promoting cooperation and solidarity over competition. The Mountain of Leaders project, with Margaux Richet's unique contributions, stands as a testament to the power of human connection, play, and compassionate leadership in rebuilding lives and inspiring hope amidst challenging times.
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