By Edward Beswick, Research Coordinator, Generations For Peace Institute

In today’s edition of the Humans of GFP blog posts, I  decided to ask five participants what their most memorable moment had been while volunteering for GFP. I wanted to find out what volunteers were most proud of, what events they found the most enjoyable and what part of helping their communities had been the most rewarding for them.

The answers capture the diversity of experience among the Delegates attending Advanced Training. From gaining confidence in public speaking to changing a child’s future for the better – here’s a snap shot of what our volunteers do and what keeps them going…

 ‘One of my most memorable experiences in the Generations For Peace programme was conducting the participatory evaluation and being able to compare that to the first time I walked into a room with students who did not understand why they were in this classroom and seeing that they loved the programme, that we were successful in facilitating the programme and that they were interested in doing it again. They took away the most important parts of it, they became more peaceful and able to communicate with each other.’

Andrea Thomas, Kyrgyzstan

‘The first event with children we had for Generations For Peace was the camp in Struga. On the second day at lunchtime the children said that they would live with us, so this was a huge thing for me. They had known us one day and they already wanted to be with us and spend time with us. This was a big motivation for me to keep working.’

– Frosina Kiprijanovska, Macedonia

‘I think the most memorable experience for me, as a Generations For Peace volunteer, is the opportunity to attend the Advanced Training in Amman at the headquarters and the chance to meet the Prince [His Royal Highness Prince Feisal of Jordan], and sharing one or two words with him. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will never forget.’

Edson Chirowodza, Zimbabwe

‘I had to take a class for our student leaders and it was a fifteen minute class, when I take a class I talk lots and I spoke for 45 minutes! I talked about youth leaders, I saw the audience’s faces and there was enthusiasm. I turned my skills to advocacy and I felt comfortable at that too, especially after I saw their faces and they told me that my lecture was good. I did not lecture in the traditional way, it was new.’

– Helga Rana Rayamajhi, Nepal

‘With one of our participants on the programme, before we showed Generations For Peace values to him he was a noisy person who wanted to be the centre of attention every time. But after four or five sessions he was an example to others, he was a top grade student, he was trying to be perfect, he wanted to be like us – the Delegates and Pioneers. When you see that someone is changing because of you, it’s a pretty good feeling. He became a person who knows his responsibilities. He knows that he doesn’t need to be the centre of attention to be noticed by everybody and be a good person.’

– Tamar Nikoleishvili, Georgia

That’s all for today.

Tomorrow I will be asking questions to people from Rwanda, Jordan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Ghana, and Indonesia, but you will have to wait and see what the question is, as we learn more about the humans of GFP.

Thanks for reading!

www.generationsforpeace.org