“When I was a child, people used to ask me, ‘what is your dream’? I always said peace. Now I am at the Generations For Peace (GFP) training, learning how to equip myself in order to convey a message that I already love and believe in. Peace is a noble goal and it deserves attention. It will have a great impact on us and on our communities.” Thara’ Al Smadi (Volunteer – Left)

As January drew to a close, so too did our first successful training of the year. From 24-29 January, GFP conducted a training to support the upcoming Social Cohesion in Host Communities programme. 50 staff from Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) and Higher Council for Youth (HCY) centres, gathered together to hone their skills and knowledge in varied peace-building and conflict transformation related topics. The sessions were designed to cover both theoretical and practical elements of GFP programmes, including the following: Facilitating with your Target Group, Programme Cycle Planning Model, and Designing and Planning Ongoing Activities, among other capacity-building subjects.

The training follows Generations For Peace and UNICEF’s commitment to a two-year partnership that will benefit 5,000 Jordanian and Syrian refugee children and youth in 12 host communities. The programme aims to support behaviour change amongst youth and children, in turn strengthening relationships and promoting greater tolerance and understanding. This training was the first of many steps towards achieving those goals.

Lama Hattab, Programmes Director for GFP, elaborated on the significance of this first training: “It was designed to provide the youth centre volunteers and staff with the skills and knowledge to start their journeys of bringing about sustainable change in their communities; it also marked several cases of individual change in the volunteers themselves. I’m so glad to see how confident and passionate they are to start this journey and really looking forward to seeing them in action”. 

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www.generationsforpeace.org