CONSCIOUS MUSIC

CONSCIOUS MUSIC REPORT-- ZIFF 2009

 

The GNRC Conscious Music program for the Zanzibar International Film Festival 2009 took place in the Old Fort from June through 4 July 2009. Thirteen (13) musicians participated in this year's festival.

 

1. OBJECTIVES
• Promote peace and conflict resolution through music.
• Educate and awake the conscious of the audience about peace, HIV/AIDS, world hunger and activism.
• Provide the musicians with a forum to collaborate and promote causes that will advance humankind.
• Demonstrate how music can contribute to peace and conflict resolution throughout the world.

 

2. INPUT

The musicians performed six songs. The songs were as follows:

 

• Haki Sawa (Equal Rights): This song promotes equality among people and how to overcome the challenges that confront us all.
• Wema (To be Kind): This song is about kindness in relationship to the vulnerability that some people experience.
• Sema Nao (Speak With Them): This song alerts today's youth to HIV/AIDS and its devastating effect on our future. The song also promotes prevention through education of this deadly disease.
• Pamoja (Together): This song is an artistic admonishment about unity, solidarity, and how humanity can prevail over obstacles.
• Njaa (Hunger): As the title of the song indicates, the topic is hunger in Africa and people should work together to defeat this preventable misery.
• Mbwa Wengi (Too Many Dogs): This song rebukes those who are only talking the talk and not walking the walk. Those who spend their time and energy "barking" and undermining the sincere efforts of the silent few.

 

3. OUTPUT

The performers conveyed the festival's theme and made the audience aware of how much work must be done to resolve humanity's problems.

Dogodogo Bunju Multimedia students shared the stage and maintained the same degree of enthusiasm to mobilize people to tackle our hurdles.

 

4. CHALLENGES
• The performers did not have time for rehearsal which negatively affected their performance.
• The performers were not able to interact with each other due to time restrictions and limitations.

 

 

 

5. CONCLUSION

 

• The Conscious Music program was enjoyable but due to time restraint, the performers and the audience were unable to fully take advantage of this event and acquire all the benefits that were possible.
• Enough time should be given to the musician to exchange ideas, interact with the audience and each other, and find ways to plan future collaborative works. Additionally, time for Rehearsal and equipment adjustment should be factored in for all future musical events.
• A post program communication should be maintained with the artists and seek their advice on how to improve future events and facilitate their performances.

 

On behalf of the Conscious Music Network, I would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciations to GNRC Africa Management for making this performance part of ZIFF 2009

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GNRC's rising star of Tanzania

REPORT ON IAIE & IMPEPO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
INTERCULTRAL EDUCATION: PAIDEIA, POLITY, DEMOI
22TH to 26TH JUNE, 2009
ATHENS, GREECE

Introduction
In May 2000, GNRC in collaboration with UNICEF and UNESCO inaugurated the Council on Global Ethics Education for Children, in 2006 the Interfaith Council on Global Ethics Education for Children introduced the Learning to live together training manual in Tanzania, and they took some inputs from Tanzania’s children to develop the manual.
In June 2009 the IMPEPO, IAIE and University of western Macedonia under the aegis of UNESCO organized conference /training for teachers at university level. It is the third conference to be conducted, with the goal of bringing the teachers and teacher’s trainer to discuss the issues of intercultural education, bilingualism, and religious diversity at childhood level. UNESCO has worked with the Interfaith Council on ethic education for children under GNRC in preparing the learning to live together manual and be used as a learning material both for teachers and children.

Objective
Among the objectives of the conference are:
· Its aims to synthesize issues surrounding intercultural Education
· To promote the exchange of the information, knowledge, and material about all relevant issues concerning education in multicultural societies amongst teachers, teacher’s trainers, and professionals working in curriculum development, research, and education policy.
· To examine the implication of the society context of education and relationship between society, nation state and the international contexts, the situation of individuals, group and minorities within them.

Contents
The conference had variety of presentation from different organizations. On the side of the GNRC Africa the representative had a presentation on symposium with the UNESCO on learning to live together towards cultural appropriate and responsive quality education for all. I (Clara) was invited to facilitate the presentation on the learning to live together toolkit.

Participants
§ The key participants of the conference were three hundred (300) from different countries such as USA, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Tanzania, India, Arab States, Korea, Peru, Brazil, Switzerland etc.;
§ Various organizations and institution; and
§ GNRC Global had the symposium with the UNESCO.

Achievements
The achievements from the conference are,
§ To share with other countries about the benefits gained to young people through learning to live together manual.
§ Learning from various individuals through their presentation and discussions
§ Getting to know each other and their activities.
§ Garner experience in teaching and on presenting the Learning to live together tool kit.

Challenges
The only challenge we faced was the language, the conference was supposed to be conducted in English, French, Spanish and Greek but the conference was mostly dominated by English and Greek so it was difficult to enter in Greek sessions while one is from a English speaking country.

Way forward
Through practice from GNRC Africa (Tanzania) of the learning to live together manual, UNESCO has suggest that we can work with local UNESCO so as to implement the manual national wide. We would like to take the initiative to work with GNRC Staff to make / provide the training of learning to live together to the peace club leaders and members in Tanzania.

Conclusion & Comments
The Conference was very good and successful. It’s good for GNRC Africa to keep on using the toolkit and be implemented as a role model tool. Also training should be provided to teachers so the toolkit can be used in primary or secondary schools as a curriculum.


Prepared by:
Clara Joseph Mduma
Tazara Peace club member

E-mail: jayeki@yahoo.com

GNRC EAST AFRICAN CUP

PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION EAST AFRICA CUP “UNDER 16” REPORT 26 JUNE 2009

As Peace it's very important to every person in our world today regardless of our different race, culture, age, and religious. The East Africa Cup Organizers by understanding the crucial of peace provided the children two facilitators from the Global Network of Religions for Children Africa (GNRC Africa) to equip the participants objectives based on peace and conflict resolution two hours everyday for three days

I. OBJECTIVES

· Learning about life skills
· Non violent confrontation on conflict resolution
· Learning how to leave together
· Learning to be sensitive to understand and respect each other regardless of their differences
· Human dignity and responsibility
· Empowerment on how to positive attitude when facing daily challenges
· The togetherness struggle in order to have the better world for every human being

II. INPUT
The participants eagerly ingaged in lively discussions that encompessed the main points of the above objectives. The facilitators directed the course of each discussion by underlining the major points of each topic. This give-and-take resulted in meaningful coverage of the workshop's goals and objectives. The participants werre given ample time to express their viewpoints and were permitted to have a follow up to their questionss which resulted in an informative lively discussions and debates. The facilitators encouraged a spirited dialogue and guided the flow of the conversations by pointing out juxtoposing ideas and letting the participants use examples to strengthen their arguments.

III. OUTPUT
The participants were enthusiastic and excited at the end of each session and there were times when the discussions carried beyound the alloted time and vanue. All participants, including the supervisors, were happy with the workshop and how it addressed, in one way or another, the daily challenges that confront us all and hinder our progress towards achieving peace and conflect resolution. The discussions helped the participants see a workable way out of their own problems and/or how to positively apply the methods discussed and how to tackle their personal obstacles.

Some of the participants advocated for implementation of the points:
*Promote peace through religion.
*Diversity should be used as a strength and a uniting factor.
*Learn how to positively influence policies and policy makers.
*Energize the masses through education and awareness of the need of peace and conflect resolution.
*Capitalize on the vast number of participants in a forum like Africa Cup 2009 and address more issues that were not covered in this year's program.
*Conduct a survey/questionair and allow the participants to share their positive/negative views on the program and its impact (or lack of) on their personal lives.
*Periodical contact with the participants should be maintained via e-mai, or other medium, to encourage them impliment the lessons learned and to urge them promote future events.

IV. CHALLENGES
There were more than 1000 participating children in the East Africa Cup 2009. Unfortunately, there were only two facilitators on peace and conflict resolution. Each facilitator conducted a class with 50 or less participant which deprived a large number of willing children to attend these powerful sessions. It should be noted that there were more facilitators scheduled to attend but cancled at last minute due to personal reasons.

GNRC Peace Camp report

ZIFF PEACE CAMP REPORT, 30th JUNE – 3rd JULY, 2009.


I. INTRODUCTION

The Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) has been celebrated for the last 12 years. Since 2004, GNRC -Africa has been participating and exploring the ZIFF time to conduct Peace Camp for youths. The objective of these camps is to learn and share experiences on topics related to Peace and Ethics. Every year there is a focused ZIFF theme that GNRC adopts and, when necessary, modifies to suit its Mission and Vision. For 2009, the ZIFF theme was "Enduring Links, People, Media, and Environment". Once adopted by GNRC, the theme became: "Lasting Peace between People, Communication, Environment and Ethics". The ZIFF peace camp was held at Ecrotanal Hall in Zanzibar from 30th. June through 3rd. July, 2009. This affair involved 41 youth (20 girls and 21 boys) from peace clubs of Dar-Es-salaam, Arusha, Pemba, Unguja and Nairobi (Kenya) GNRC staff in addition to various partner organizations and the Ministry of Education and Training (Zanzibar). Zameer, GNRC Program Manager, opened with a brief introduction of GNRC and its Peace and Ethics activities. He also asked the participants and guests to have a moment of silence in memory of the Late Prof. Haroub Othman who passed 3 days before. The late professor worked closely with GNRC and, as ambassador of peace, spent endless hours in promoting and coordinating efforts to achieve peace. After the introduction, Mr. Noorali welcomed the guest of Honor, Prof. Martin Mhando (ZIFF Director), to officially launch the peace camp workshop. Prof. Mhando thanked the Ministry of Education (Zanzibar) for their commitment and cooperation in molding and working closely with children and organizations like GNRC, ZIFF, Children Panorama and others. Special thanks were extended to the Peace ambassadors (Children and Youths). Prof. Mhando let the audience know that ethics is "a Social system by which a certain community works by itself, runs and manages its daily life. The system has specific basic and good social guidelines." Prof. Mhando stated that in every society a child has his/her place and contributes to the harmony of the family if the latter is built on peace and ethics. He explained that every family, society, nation and the world at large will be proud to create a child who has a great role in future generations that have no discrimination and/or killings of albinos Est. He further explained that one of the reasons ZIFF and GNRC work closely with children is to inspire Peace and Ethics within them. Prof. Mhando's speech concluded by urging the children to make a special request to the parents to have a peaceful 2010 presidential election in Zanzibar and Tanzania in general. The professor stated that a peaceful election is possible if people can have the spirit to enduring one another.


II. OBJECTIVES

1. To give an avenue for exposure to youths and children (Peace Ambassadors) who have previously never attended ZIFF peace camps and to allow them to meet, learn and interact with people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds in all aspects (e.g. religion, traditions and culture, economically and talents in fine and performing arts.)
2. To reflect and learn from the GNRC-year theme during ZIFF "Lasting Peace between People, Communication, Environment and Ethics"
3. To share experiences on the topic and look for ways forward for lasting peace.
4. To expose its peace club members to the different educational sessions that were held during ZIFF and to realize the lessons learned in their community/society and strive for change.
5. Raise awareness on its Peace building work through peace camp sessions, film animation and Conscious Music.
6. To practice and cement the idea of "living together is possible regardless of the different background" and ensure its existence among the children and youths.

III. INPUT

1. GNRC collaborated with ZIFF offices, had meetings on the ZIFF events organization
2. GNRC organized a 3 days workshop and topics Presenters according to the year theme
3. GRNC prepared and distributed educational material (books and fliers) to raise awareness
4. Forty-one 41(20 Girls and 21 boys) Peace Ambassadors from Dar-Es-salaam, Arusha, Pemba, Unguja, Somalia and Kenya, GNRC staff, partner Organizations as well as the Ministry of education and Training- Zanzibar have all attended the camp.
5. Music Conscious group from GNRC and partner organization (Dogodogo Center) performed during ZIFF.
6. Observers from partner organization NCA were invited to oversee the workshop.
7. GNRC invited the Media to cover the workshop and to raise public awareness of peace related issues.
8. GNRC and NCA funded the Peace Camp workshop.


IV. OUTPUT
The 41 Children, youths and all those who attended were given a chance to learn from the presentations and theme related discussions. Some of the points learned were:

1. Good ethics is the foundation and vision to the lives of all people and the environment.
2. Bringing up children is the task of the whole society. Therefore, a child who lacks ethical values should not be punished but he should be guided to good values.
3. Human being and environment depend on each other. Therefore, keeping the environment safe is fundamental to all mankind.
4. Media have a great role in either bringing solutions or conflicts to a societies. Therefore, media should, at all time, consider ethics in all stages of its work.
5. Peace ambassadors met and interacted with internationally prominent figures like Mr. Danny Glover, UNICEF Good Will Ambassador, and got to hear encouraging messages on peace building and work.
6. The workshop youths came up with recommendation that the government and the society at large should work on (see annex "Statement and Recommendations”).
7. The government and the society got to learn, directly or through media, of GNRC's contributions for peace building activities.
8. During the Peace March and the Closing ceremony, the guest of honor was the Hon. Khamis Jabir, the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Education and Training in Zanzibar, who was joined with the special guest Mr. Danny Glover.
9. The Learning to Live Together toolkit and Folk Stories were distributed to the Ministry of Education to the guests of honor, distinguished guests, media, and peace ambassadors and to 6 schools in Zanzibar on thePeace March Day.
10. The peace ambassadors made a presentation through role play, debate and poetry. Suhaila Salum Abdallah from Shamiani peace club, for instance, delivered an ethics poem while others expressed what they had learned via different midiums( See annex).
11. Exposure for future networking.
12. To encourage peace ambassadors to have a meaningful participation on peace activities, GNRC gave awards for the best 3 Peace clubs (viz. Dar, Pemba and Unguja), The Best Ambassador during ZIFF and the 3 best participants during ZIFF.
13. Got to learn from GNRC Nairobi programs as Mr. Said briefly shared with the participants the peace initiative activities in Nairobi and Somalia.





V. CHALLENGES

1. The former ZIFF donor (TROCAIRE), at last minute, pulled out its support for ZIFF 2009. This lead to the omission of certain programs (part of peace caravan) to accommodate ZIFF.
2. Confusion on the ZIFF invoice on accommodation arrangement and costs (i.e. the quotations sent to GNRC Secretariat from Zanzibar during the preparation stage, were not clearly stated and thus causing inconvenienced to peace ambassador participants as well as the management team.).
3. The Peace March program was scheduled to start in the afternoon which caused unnecessary extra spending to cover the 5th night instead of the 4 planned nights.
4. The presentations of the East African countries were inadequate for they lacked focus and missed to address the theme.
5. Due to lack of funds, peace ambassadors were unable to enter the Old Fort to watch the films.
6. Lack of trust among team staff caused waste of time and delays in the implementation of activities.
7. The strategy of Dar-es-Salaam participants depending on GNRC staff to chaperon them is not feasible. The management staffs were too busy with peace camp and logistics organization leaving no time to adequately monitor the youths and children.
8. Unrealistic budgeting/planning either lead to delays in some programs/schedules or caused presentations to be rushed.

VI. WAY FORWARD

1. There is a need to evaluate and reflect on the previously implemented programs (e.g. DAC, ZIFF peace camp) and look for ways to improve other future events/programs.
2. Early planning for future ZIFF Donors.
3. Early and purposeful arrangement for the East African youths to come from all the representing countries- GNRC Nairobi office to work on this area.

VII. CONCLUSION

The ZIFF 2009 was successful despite minor, yet workable, challenges. All the shortcomings that were identified during ZIFF should be worked on and there is room for improvement. A representative/Observer from NCA and others commended GNRC for a job well done in continuing to mold youths and children to a culture of peace. The NCA representative was amazed by the abilities and participation of all the Peace ambassadors during the workshop. During the Peace March (last day) 6 schools, 600 children obtained permission from the Ministry of Education and joined the march from Ecrotanal Hall to the Old Fort where the Guest of Honor (Mr. Khamis Jabir, Dep. Minister of Education) and Special Guest (Danny Glover, UNICEF goodwill ambassador) received them and their message. The march was led by a Brass band, while Dogodogo Multimedia dance group was performing at Old Fort ground.

Zanzibar International film festival - GNRC 2009 children statement

STATEMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CHILDREN WHO PARTICIPATED IN A PEACE CAMP WORKSHOP ORGANIZED BY THE GLOBAL NETWORK OF RELIGIONS FOR CHILDREN (GNRC)-Africa THROUGH ZANZIBAR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (ZIFF) July 3, 2009

Received by DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING – Zanzibar and UNICEF Ambassador Danny Glover.
Your Excellency guest of honor, we are 41 youth and children, participants in a Peace Camp from Unguja, Pemba, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Kenya and Somalia. We have learned a lot in the past three days beginning 30th June 2009 up to 2nd July 2009. Everything we learned during these three days reflected the theme “Lasting peace between People, Communication, Environment and Ethics”.

Good ethics is the foundation and vision of every individual’s well being.

We believe that the upbringing of the young generation is the responsibility of the society and therefore, children should be taught and made fully aware of the morals and values for the prosperity of the society as a whole. And not to be removed or punished.

We have learned that human’s and environment depend on one another. Therefore, it is every individual’s responsibility to keep the environment safe, friendly, and clean. Media have also played a great role in bringing solutions or conflicts into societies. Therefore media should continue to consider ethics at every stage.

Yesterday 2nd July 2009 we were overwhelmed by the words of UNICEF good will Ambassador Mr. Danny Glover who visit our in-session workshop by a surprise.

Your Excellency guest of honor, we the youth and children recommend the following to your good office:

· Youth should be in the forefront of issues regarding Peace, Ethics and Environment.
· For the sake of Peace, societies should work together in harmony regardless of age, gender, religion and political boundaries.
· The government to create legislation to support Ethics and good values, in order to bring and maintain Peace.
· Government should introduce regulations and laws governing all matters concerning the environment.
We give our special thanks to GNRC Africa and ZIFF for their support and the facilitating of the Peace Camp Workshop for youth and children, and the Ministry of Education for their cooperation. The Ministry of Education should take in consideration to allow peace education in schools around the country.

Thank you.

The childens forum at GNRC secretrait

Today there was a forum held at the GNRC Secretariat in Dar-es-Salaam. There were 25 children from 5 different peace clubs. The discussion topic was the Iranian post-election violence.
The children will draft a letter which will then be submitted to the Iranian consulate in Tanzania and to the Supreme leader of Iran...

more to come keep your finger working and eyes open!