Week Seven Moving from unhealthy to healthy community: Belief, faith and lived experience....

Week Seven Moving from unhealthy to healthy community: Belief, faith and lived experience.

Exchanging flowers at a post-Ramadan ceremony organised by CAFOD partner, Pakigdait, in the Philippines.

Week Seven Moving from unhealthy to healthy community: Belief, faith and lived experience.

Lesson objectives and outcomesStudents will be given the opportunity to:• study a community-building project in an area that has suffered inter-religious conflict in the

Philippines • hear a personal account of faith and action from El Salvador• consider how faith and personal beliefs influence their own and others’ actions• identify the need for, and some of the challenges of achieving, harmonious relations between

religions in today’s world.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:• describe a community-building project in the Philippines• describe relationships between religious belief, personal faith and lived experience in specific

contexts (the Philippines and El Salvador)• more deeply appreciate to what extent their own faith and personal beliefs influence their actions.

Peace building in the Philippines

“When we returned to Kauswagan in November 2000 (after fleeing when violence erupted in the area) I started talking to the older people in the Muslim community to ask their opinions about the conflict. I think they trusted me as I was the son of the former mayor.

“Next to our house there was an Evangelical church. Every morning I used to have coffee with the priest there and we became friends. I also knew a Protestant pastor here and got in touch with the Catholic priest. Later I discovered that the priest was still traumatised at that time since he had been held hostage by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (separatist group).”


“We arranged to meet in a neutral venue with the Catholic and Protestant and Evangelical ministers. At first there was a lot of silence and no-one would talk. The Catholic priest said accusingly that the [separatist group] had been staying in my house. Nobody said anything and there was a lot of silence. It was as if a platoon of angels was among us.

“I spoke of the ‘Prince of Peace’ and said that Muslims also believe in that. Jesus conveyed the meaning of peace to criminals. The priest was a bit tongue-tied - here was a Muslim saying that we are all torch bearers of peace! The meeting was going really badly and I thought we were going to have to give up. But then the priest asked: ‘What shall we do?’ That was enough to motivate me again and I said we could show the people of this town that this is not a conflict of religion; it was about land.”


“We decided to get at least ten people together from each religious group. It was approved by the Bishop and we arranged a peace rally called the ‘Pilgrimage of Peace’. I was so happy! We provided packed lunches for 50, but more and more people came until there were about 700. We had to start cooking noodles very fast to feed everyone.“Next we asked all the over-65s in the town to a workshop. Everyone brought food and we shared it at the local gym. We talked about relations between Muslims and Christians and how the relations were harmonious in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. We wondered what had gone wrong. They believed the missing link was communication. In the past if Muslims had a conflict amongst themselves the Christians would mediate, and vice versa. Now the chiefs of the outlying villages all meet together to help each other resolve conflicts in their own areas. Many are building ‘barangay halls’ – places where people can meet and resolve conflict…”

Peace-building in the Philippines

“...We are all human beings and children of God. My hope is that we won’t look at each other and think ‘what is your religion or status in life?’ but rather as fellow human beings. Everything is interrelated and we all need one another.“…My faith counts a lot in my work. It sustains me and gives me stamina. It guides me on how to attain harmony and unity of human beings and nature. The challenge now for my faith worldwide is that the Muslim name is seen to mean ‘terrorist’. It’s our responsibility as Muslims, and a global challenge, to show what our faith is really about.“When I came to the UK I went to Southampton and Burnley and spoke in churches there. They were amazed that a Muslim was there talking to Catholics about how Catholics helped Muslims. This is the meaning of interfaith; that we transcend ‘Muslim’ or ‘Catholic’… What we need is harmonious relations, not only among Catholics and Muslims but among all religious groups.”

to view a short clip of Luis from El Salvador who works for harmony between young people and the wider community.

Musa Luis

Faith

Personal beliefs

How these beliefs are lived out in actions

How these actions build harmony between communities

Me

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Fill in this chart

Week EightCurrent Affairs – Darfur

African Union peace-keepers on patrol in Darfur.

Week Eight Current Affairs – Darfur

Lesson objectives and outcomesStudents will be given the opportunity to:• study the current situation in Darfur• consider how community relations broke down• consider how this situation is being addressed, internationally and locally• analyse the situation using spiritual and ethical principles.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:• explain something of the current situation in Darfur, and its causes• give examples of how this situation is being addressed, internationally and locally• analyse the situation using spiritual and ethical principles.

Interview Bdria Hamed, (18)

Bdria and her family arrived at Dereig refugee camp near Nyala three months ago from Jwakin village, 200km away. She describes how 700 people attacked their village on horses and camels.

They took our cows and goats and everything. After that they started killing people one by one. They came and closed the water points. The people started running away when they felt they were in danger. They took everything, anything that people had managed to grab and take with them. They ambushed us on the road and took it. These people attacked us and we didn’t have any choice but to run away. We don’t have any weapons. They came in big numbers. People are scattered in villages, so we couldn’t fight back. I was scared.

On the way here we spent three days without food. We have relatives in Nyala so they hired lorries to come to the village and take us from there to here. We came without anything. On the way we were attacked again. Four people were killed.

There are two million displaced people in Darfur and 225,000 refugees in Chad.

Life in the camp is hard, and we have very little, but at least we feel safe now.

Week EightCurrent Affairs – Darfur

Week Eight Current Affairs – Darfur

When the basic needs of food, water and shelter have been addressed in the camps andvillages, the challenge of community building remains.

There are three very different groups of people: • displaced people or refugees who have crossed borders from different clans and villages • nomads (wandering cattle herders) who have also been forced away from their usual areas• local ‘host’ communities (those already living in the area).

Problems include:• people coping with trauma and the after effects of violence• overcrowding and increased pressure on limited local services• tension between people with different traditions, viewpoints and priorities.

You are part of the expanding community in the area of Nyala, Darfur.

Take one of the following roles: • refugee widowed mother with four young children • traumatised teenager• refugee man with no income and a family to feed• a local man living in Nyala who has taken in his sister and six children and is struggling to

support them.

In role, discuss your needs and decide on five actions you will take to help improve yourstandard of living and to build a more peaceful community in Darfur.

What is really being done?


Mohammed Abdelkarem, a coordinator at the Psychosocial Centre in Dereig, recounts how the project was begun: “We sat with the community, men, women, youth, traditional healers. We asked them the best way to create peace.”

Amina Abdullah explains: “The environment here is really crowded, everyone is living in the same place. These kinds of problems are here: problems between different clans and different villages, different areas.”

Mohammed outlines the strategies used by the Centre: “We form a peaceful co-existence committee. This builds trust between the people and corrects misunderstandings and bad conceptions and tries to change bad habits (eg. traditional singing of songs that incite war).”


“Peace-building means creating trust between communities, like the host community and nomads. We use social events such as football matches and horse races. We have a meeting with co-existing communities monthly. If any conflict appears we do mediation. We do workshops on how to negotiate and how to do conflict resolution.”

Amina received training at the Centre and now trains others in using sewing machines and in macaroni making. She also helps supervise the kindergarden. “For me it’s a service to the community because we are all the same and I can provide some services to the community.”

ACT/Caritas also helps host communities struggling to cope, eg by providing clean water points in Nyala itself, as well as in the camps around Nyala.”


Compare with your own solutions – how are they similar/different?

to watch a 50-second clip in which the President of Islamic Relief International, Dr Hany El-Banna, explains the importance of interfaith groups working together on humanitarian relief.

Click Here

What is being done internationally?

“The UN Commission of Inquiry on Darfur found that international offences such as crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in Darfur.” (Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the UN Secretary-General, Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1564 of 18 September 2004, 25 January 2005, p. 4)

The UN handed the results of the Commission of Inquiry to the International Criminal Court in March 2005. Some arrest warrants were issued in 2007.While the world watches the situation deteriorate, CAFOD is calling on the international community to put its weight behind securing inclusive dialogue in both Chad and Darfur. Only dialogue will provide long-term peace and address the historical root causes of the conflict.

to find out more about the International Criminal Court.

to visit the BBC website for the latest news on Darfur.

for the latest on the work of CAFOD partners in Darfur.

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Time out to reflect…


Let us pray:God of all humanity,in a world full of fear,open our hearts to your love.When we walk in lonely places,open our minds to your hope.As we seek paths in the darkness,open our eyes to your light.May we turn away from hatred, towards love.May we turn away from intolerance, towards understanding.We commit ourselves in compassion and love,to our sisters and brothers in Darfur and Chad.Together, not alone, we pray for peace. Amen.

Week Nine Reflection and action: What about our school/college/local community?

Orphaned at the age of 11 when she lost her parents to AIDS, Catherine Musangi is now performing puppetry to warn young people in Kenya about the virus.


Lesson objectives and outcomesStudents will be given the opportunity to:• study aspects of the inspection criteria for community cohesion in Catholic schools• consider how well their own school/college is building community cohesion• begin to draft a strategy for building community cohesion in the school/college, or local area,

and globally.

By the end of the lesson students will be able to:• explain aspects of the inspection criteria for community cohesion in Catholic schools• give their own opinion on how well their own school/college is building community cohesion• outline a strategy for building community cohesion in the school/college, or local area, and

globally.

Week NineReflection and action: What about our school/college/local community?

All Catholic schools and colleges are now inspected to determine how well they are promoting community cohesion in their local area. In order to be deemed ‘outstanding’ the school or college must show that it is active in all areas on the list below. Mark your school/college out of 10 for each of the following:


1. The inclusion of all is a central goal and a shared vision.

2. Acts of collective worship leave room for the other person’s spiritual identity, modes of expression and values.

3. Provision for RE results in attitudes of respect for all faiths, mutual understanding and integrity, enabling pupils to challenge each other’s beliefs and values.

4. Pupils’ friendship bonds cross cultural/ faith/ social/ economic boundaries.

5. They show concern for one another, especially the weak and vulnerable.

6. Opportunities are given to dialogue and to collaborate with people of different backgrounds.

7. Within the school there is concern, respect and hospitality towards the other.

8. Pupils take responsibility for one another as members of one human family.

9. They encounter the suffering and marginalised via local activities.

10. Governors work to improve education for all pupils in the locality.

11. The school premises are used by groups in the neighbourhood.

12. Parents from all backgrounds have the opportunity to be involved in school life.

For the more closely the world comes together, the more widely do people's obligations transcend particular groups and extend to the whole world. The Church in the Modern World, (30).


For the more closely the world comes together, the more widely do people's obligations transcend particular groups and extend to the whole world. The Church in the Modern World, (30).

Week NineReflection and action: What about our school/college/local community?

Draw branches and write ways of achieving the actions on them

Write the issue (community cohesion) on the trunk

Draw fruits and label them with your action ideas

On the roots, write the resources needed to do your actions

The Solutions Tree

Week Ten Summary of learning

A worshipper lights a candle in St. Mark’s church, Belgrade, Serbia.


Lesson objectives and outcomesStudents will be given the opportunity to:• recap the material covered in this unit• reflect on the importance of hope• discuss assignment ideas.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:• explain one message that they will take away from this unit• say why hope is an essential part of a strategy to build community• know the requirements of the assignment and start thinking of ideas.


Look at these three hope-filled quotations from Rwanda, the Philippines and the UK:“Division is created by bad leadership. The Rwandan government is fighting against segregation. This gives me hope.”Rwandan survivor, Tharcisse Mukamahttp://www.rwandansurvivors.blogspot.com/

“What has happened in Oldham [riots] over the past few days has been terrible. But Leicester is a city which has actually overcome the trauma of racial conflict… we have been through it and we have come out the other side.”Paul Winstone, a policy officer at Leicester City Councilhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1357865.stm

“My hope is that we won’t look at each other and think ‘what is your religion or status in life?’ but rather as fellow human beings.”Musa Sanguila, Mindanao, The Philippines

What is your hope for your local, or global, community?

Assignment titles

Essay suggestions:

• Community cohesion – global issue, Christian call, eternal reality.• Compare two communities in which community cohesion has been a challenge and identify

lessons from their experience that could be applied in a local situation of tension.• “There can be no peace in the world until there is peace among the religions.” Discuss.

Artefacts could include:

• a mural depicting actions that lead to the breakdown and building up of community• a T-shirt design that promotes community cohesion• a triptych or set of stained glass windows for a school chapel depicting Biblical and modern

interpretations of the passage: “Those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.” ( I John 4:21).


Presentations could include:

• news stories about community breakdown in the UK and overseas matched with advice drawn from Biblical and Catholic Social Teaching

• an explanation of the situation in Darfur, its causes and possible solutions, based on spiritual and ethical principles

• a study of community cohesion in the school/college community or the local area, with a strategy for improvement.

Projects could include:

• producing a report with photographs for CAFOD’s youth website ‘Big Deal’ on how your local community has learnt from a community in a developing country

• a survey of attitudes in the local area toward peoples of different faith or ethnic background• designing an inclusive liturgy expressing local, national and global community cohesion.

Credits

Resources for actionCAFOD regularly gives opportunities for young people to express their solidarity with people in developing countries by prayer, fundraising activities around Fast Days or campaigning. To find out more:

for CAFOD’s website for young people, Big Deal

for pages for secondary teachers

(For regular updates on new free resources, sign up for the e-bulletin at the above address).

Picture creditsChris Bain, Annie Bungeroth, Simon Rawles,

Laura Storr, Marcella Haddad, Noel Gavin,

and Owen Humphries (Press Association).

Illustration: Jane Smith

Click Here

Click Here

A community cohesion unit for post-16 General RE.

Suitable for use with NOCN framework and Extended Project.

One world, one family

CAFOD is a member of Caritas InternationalRegistered Charity No. 285776

Week Seven Moving from unhealthy to healthy community: Belief, faith and lived experience....

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