Featured Program - October 2008  

The Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement (SMWIPM) launched its pilot, "Summer Peace Camps," July 26th to July 31st, 2008. The Summer Peace Camps (SPC) are an interactive, week-long set of programs convened to empower Egyptian youth in seeing school as a space for active knowledge seeking and for creating particapatory learning environments.

Aimed at 13 to 15 year olds, the Summer Peace Camps’ ultimate goal is to empower youth in promoting messages of peace throughout their communities. Members of the Peace Movement’s youth network of young people aged 15 to 28 years of age are also receiving training to become certified trainers for the SPCs.

This pilot project adopts a ‘peer to peer’, youth-led development model for the camps. Peer education is an educational model that relies on different groups of young people teaching and learning from one another. Adopting the peer education model is part of the movement’s efforts to bridge the divide between different sectors of young people and to allow for open platforms of communication. All segments of the program will focus on creating cultures of peace through highlighting the values of tolerance, acceptance, communication and respect. The culture of peace is the main focus of these camps and takes different forms in the program through art, environmental, and sports activities. The program activities are tailored to promote attitudes of responsibility towards one’s community through caring for the environment and understanding the importance of team work and cooperation through sports. The program also concentrates on the internet as a tool of knowledge, maintaining the importance of internet safety. And it focuses on unleashing one’s creativity and imagination through artistic activities.