Title: “Build Understanding through Technology.”

Current Focus: Building understanding between youth of different religions throughout Southeast Asia.
Goal: To build awareness and understanding on a mass-scale.
Number of Participants per videoconference: 3,200Target Participants:

• Youth 95%
  • 16 to 21 years old
  • Students
  • Out-of-School Youth
• Adults: 5%
  • Former Insurgents
  • Soldiers
  • Victims of Conflict
  • School Teachers and Administrators
  • NGO workers
  • Local and National Government
  • Private Sector

Current Objectives:

1. Understand how Islam and Christianity are religions of peace;
2. Understand the commonalities between Islam and Christianity;
3. Understand the reasons for and effects of prejudice;
4. Understand the security, educational and economic benefits of understanding and tolerance;
5. Obtain a better understanding for people in different communities;
6. Experience empowerment through having a national voice;
7. Experience the benefits of ICT; and
8. To conclude with resolutions, which workshop participants will implement as Community Projects.

Subjects: Each videoconference is tailored to the needs of the participating cities.

Common subjects are the following:

1. Overview of prejudice and conflict in participant communities with emphasis on ethnic and religious tensions;
2. Social and economic costs of discrimination for all groups;
3. Benefits of diversity, pluralism and tolerance;
4. Methods for increasing tolerance and understanding: universal religious principles; ICT; self-initiative and responsibility; and
5. Sustainability: Community Projects that participants implement after videoconferences.

Program: Each Mass Videoconference is approximately four hours long.

We use the following techniques to engage participants:

1. Guests: We use guests on both sides of each videoconference. Guests have compelling stories epitomizing the videoconference subjects. Guests recite their stories, speak with the hosts, participate in round-table discussions with other guests at both sides of the videoconference, and interact with all audiences;
2. Resource People: We use resource people on each side of the videoconference to give commentary on what the guests are saying;
3. Hosts: We use two hosts in all videoconferences – one host in each of the participating two cities. Hosts are professional, informed and entertaining;
4. Videos: PeaceTech plays several short videos throughout each videoconference to educate and entertain participants. Some videos are made by the youth participants;
5. Small Group Discussions: All audiences are divided into small groups of ten participants, including one youth facilitator. Small groups process what they are learning in two separate sessions;
6. Art: Young actors open the videoconference with a skit epitomizing the videoconference theme. We also work with musicians whose music relates to the videoconference subjects; and
7. Youth Participation: Youth participate throughout the videoconference through question and answer periods, interactive games linking the two audiences, and conversations with one another. They also participate in designing resolutions from the videoconferences, which become Community Projects.

Sequence: Each videoconference is designed so that participants leave feeling empowered. We begin the videoconference with the challenge. The youth participants end the videoconference with a resolution for overcoming the challenge in their communities.

Section 1: The Challenge

• Presentation of prejudice and discrimination between different religious and ethnic groups.
• Methods:
  • Skits relating to videoconference theme
  • Story- telling by guests who are victims or perpetrators of discrimination or violence
  • Background information from resource speakers relating to discrimination and conflict
  • Short videos on the issues, including videos made by participants
  • Small Group Discussions where participants process what they are experiencing
  • Interactivity between videoconference cities and interactive games

Section 2: Benefits for Overcoming Discrimination and Conflict

• Participants explore why overcoming prejudice, discrimination and even violence is in all peoples’ interests and not just in the interests of those directly affected. We enable people to see what is in it for them if discrimination is reduced.
• Methods:
  • Similar methods as above plus:
    • Promotional Speaker
    • Round Table Discussions between guests and resource people
    • Question and Answer periods for audiences
    • Music: songs by pop singers relating to the theme

Section 3: Methods for Overcoming Discrimination and Conflict

• Participants experience how they can reduce discrimination and violence in their communities. Subjects they explore are:
  • ICT as a conflict resolution tool
  • Self Initiative and Volunteerism – encouraging audiences to take action and responsibility themselves.
  • Universal principles.
• Methods are similar to the methods used above.

Section 4: City Resolutions

• In this final section, participants propose their own resolutions on what they will do to reduce discrimination and violence in their schools and communities:
  • In each city, the audience is divided into approximately 150 small groups of ten people. There is one facilitator who is responsible for each group.
  • Near the videoconference’s end, the 150 facilitators summarize how their small groups want to redress discrimination and violence. The facilitators do their summarizing in a closed-door session while the videoconference is happening.
  • After the closed-door session, two representatives from each city summarize the facilitators’ suggestions.
  • Finally, the two representatives from each city go before everyone at the videoconference and present a resolution on what their city will do based on the videoconference.
  • These resolutions are refined into Community Projects at upcoming workshops.