Amidst the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games this month, a group of 71 young people representing eight nations gathered nearby to further develop their leadership and mentoring skills at the grassroots of sport.
As part of the Generations For Peace (GFP) Sochi Camp 2014, the delegates were empowered to effect change in their communities by promoting tolerance and the reduction of conflict and violence.
GFP is a non-profit organization based in Jordan that is “dedicated to sustainable peace building and conflict transformation through sport, arts advocacy, dialogue and empowerment,” according to the cause. Founded seven years ago by HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein and Sarah Kabbani Al Feisal of Jordan, GFP has run several such camps and mentored more than 8,400 people from 50 nations.
At its core, GFP and its delegates are using sport to distract the youngest generation from the troubles and conflicts they face in their communities daily, and to give them the skills to resolve them, without violence, in the future.
The leaders at the Sochi Camp came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Serbia, and Turkmenistan.
At the camp’s conclusion, HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein said “Our ‘Legacy Today’ partnership with Sochi 2014 and Sochi City Administration over the last five years has itself been a ground-breaking innovation.”
“As well as three Sochi Camps and a Sochi Regional Workshop, together we have also supported the actual programmes implemented by Sochi Camp Delegates in their own communities, here in Sochi, in different regions of the Russian Federation, and in twelve other countries.
“That is an unprecedented example of an Olympic Games Organising Committee and Host City implementing concrete actions to deliver lasting legacy.”
Sochi’s Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov said “this partnership has helped deliver our ‘Legacy Today’ promise in our city, and in so many other communities. We hope this may be a shining example for other host cities to follow.”
By the numbers, GFP has been successful in recruiting and training mentors and providing them the guidance to successfully develop programs in affected areas. But the organization hopes to leverage this successful start and improve effectiveness.
“We have come a long way in the last seven years and we are continuously learning, finding, and developing our capabilities. In terms of developing the programs that we have, now they are completely run by home-grown facilitators. We are continuing to look at both hosting camps as well as advanced training,” Prince Feisal explained.
“If we are going to cascade, and we need to be sustainable and that’s one of our main focuses, it doesn’t stop at the end of the camp. Our responsibility at Generations For Peace is actually beginning there.
“Our responsibility is to help support them, mentor them and let them provide opportunities for them to implement programs at home. We need to balance all of these equations to really have an impact.
“We’re not concerned about expanding so quickly that we end up becoming the victims of our own success. We’re always evolving, we’re hoping our programs will be innovative and at the cutting-edge because of the research the Generation For Peace Institute is doing.”
“We try and grow a natural growth by looking at low-cost sustainable programs, looking at building our volunteers up, and trying to get resources from local stakeholders so we can ensure the successful programs at home.”