UCSB Globl Studies Alum's Views on Peace Education in Bosnia

Nyla Rodgers in Downtown Sarajevo, Bosnia

May 20, 2005:

In the winter of 2004, my passion for peace education brought me to Sarajevo, Bosnia for an internship at Education for Peace International (EFP). After graduating from the Global and International Studies department at UCSB in 2001, I devoted my professional career to creating and teaching peace education lessons in the U.S. After much deliberation, I realized if I wanted to pursue this field, I needed to move from the safe haven of California and see if peace education would actually work in a war torn society

My long trip to Sarajevo started on January 7th, 2004 on a bus ride from Vienna, Austria. The bus ride was 12 hours long and it was going to take all night through a snow storm. I was definitely the only person who spoke English on the bus and, needless to say, the only American. I fell asleep shortly into the ride and was awakened because of a flat tire. We were stopped in a small mountainside village and I was now surrounded by twenty houses; sixteen of them appeared to be bombed or abandoned and the rest appeared to still be occupied. I sat there remembering the lessons I had learned about ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war - that more than likely it was neighbors killing each other or forcing each other to flee. At that point, I really understood the concept and sat there saddened by all the possible past stories of this small village and its inhabitants. Shortly we were on the road again and I arrived in Sarajevo at 5 a.m.-just a few short hours before I would begin my first day of the three month internship at Education for Peace International (EFP).

Education for Peace International (EFP) is an incredible program that teaches peace in a holistic manner. The elements of peace are taught in every subject. EFP's main focus is that the way to create peaceful environments is to teach about the unity in diversity of all things. An example is in elementary science, we all learn that the heart, brain and lungs are the major organs that keep the body functioning healthily; using the EFP model the teacher would teach about the diverse functions of these organs and talk about how different they are but stress the fact that when they are not working in unity then the body experiences sicknesses. This approach to discussing all subjects mimics the situation in Bosnia. In Bosnia there are three ethnic groups; The Bosniacs (Muslim), The Bosnian Serbs (Orthodox) and the Bosnian Croats (Catholics). These EFP lessons highlighting the unity in diversity of all things reinforces the notion that even though the Bosnian population is comprised of three very different religious groups, they need to learn to embrace their diversity in order to live peacefully and flourish as a country.

Due to ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war, towns are still very segregated. EFP's structure seeks to break through these barriers. After a class has completed the EFP program they work in tandem with another class of a different ethnicity, who has also completed EFP program, to put together a performance dedicated to teaching the lessons that they have learned about peace. They invite parents, neighbors and politicians from all of their communities to come and see the performance. At these performances old friends who have not seen each other since the war because of their ethnic differences are reunited. Through witnessing their children's hope and need for peace, this all-encompassing approach allows whole communities to be touched by EFP’s philosophy.

In March I left Bosnia a changed woman. I felt so fortunate to witness the power peace education has to move the hearts and minds of communities that have experienced suffering and loss due to a war. The absolute necessity for peace education everywhere has been reinforced in my whole being. As I drove away from the bombed and abandoned villages, I sat there questioning how it was possible to continue to teach that war was the only viable answer to conflict. When really the fundamental goal of all life, when you look past greed and materialistic values, is to live a life of peace.