(ATR) Volleyball on a rainy day and lessons about peacemaking: the latest Generations For Peace Camp nears an end in Sochi.
The ten-day camp wraps up this weekend in the 2014 Olympic city. Sochi 2014 is one of the sponsors for the event. Nearly 60 participants, most in their early 20s, have been selected from 11 eastern European and central Asian countries; command of English was one of the requirements.
Since Oct. 1, the campers have been through a program of classroom-style presentations on conflict resolution and exercises in team building that daily have included sports activities, such as volleyball with rain sprinkling on the court outside the hotel Friday afternoon.
The camp is the first time in its three-year history that it’s been held outside of the Mideast. Five camps have been held in Jordan, where Generations For Peace was founded by IOC member and Jordanian Olympic Committee President Prince Feisal Al-Hussein.
"Being in Sochi, the first time outside the Middle East and the first time in Europe, is showing how the program is becoming a global initiative," Feisal tells Around the Rings.
Guy Olivier Faure, a Sorbonne professor who’s an expert on conflict resolution, has led classes at five past Generations For Peace camps, including the one in Sochi.
"I do many things but this is a very special project," says Faure. "There is a spirit in it, a purpose. It’s not just like a conference with the U.N. or UNESCO. It’s better than that," he said.
In addition to the classes he leads during the camp, he also meets with delegates one-on-one in the evening.
"They come and tell me problems that they don’t want to have the others hear about. And I give them advice on how to deal with the issues,"says Faure.
Faure says he has to help the students manage their expectations as peacemakers.
"They want to change their countries. And I say ‘start small, be modest, don’t be disappointed if you don’t change your country,’" he says.
Feisal says that looking ahead, he hopes that three camps can be held each year, one in Jordan, the others in Asia and Africa, parts of the world which have provided most of the participants from past camps. He says Latin America is another region being considered for a Generations for Peace campbut language is one of the challenges as the curriculum used for the camps is in English; Feisal says materials would need to be translated into Spanish.
Feisal says the search is on for a global partner to help underwrite the costs of the camps. In Sochi, along with Sochi 2014, Coca-Cola, oil company Rosneft and Volkswagen were sponsors.
"People are seeing that this not just talk. People are seeing that this is a grass roots program that delivers a concise, compact, well thought- out program for youth leaders on the power of sport. It is something that is demonstrating results," he says.
Faure says Feisal is correct to believe that sporthas great potential for conflict resolution.
"First of all, sport is a universal language. Second, it gets people together. Third, the core of sport is cooperation and competition. As long as we manage a reasonable balance so that it does not turn into just competition, we can expect a lot from sport."
The Generations For Peace Sochi camp closes Oct. 10 with a press conference including Feisal and Sochi 2014 CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko.
Written and reported in Sochi by Ed Hula.
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