Essay: Global Peacebuilding and Interfaith Leadership

September 6, 2016
Peace Through Education
Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) are created to help out those in need without the struggle of governmental restrictions. Most of the time they can have a great influence on the world but sometimes they can negatively affect those they try to help. Depending on whether or not a certain NGO is well funded, it affects the impact they can have on the community that they are trying to help. The power of an NGO comes from its funding and how much money they have at liberty to use. True help happens when those in need are able to live and prosper on their own without a constant need for outside help. Education is the most powerful form of “service” and help because it gives those in need the ability to succeed and help future generations.
The room to read organization focuses on two goals: the first step is to create an environment of literacy that will bring a demand for more children in developing countries to want to read from a young age. The second is to motivate girls to finish their secondary school and to go farther in their education. Not only are they trying to create a global movement, the more basic/strong aspects of the Room to Read model include: programs to support girls both financially and emotionally, both in school and after graduation; building new schools and providing training or supplementary materials to teachers; establishing and stocking libraries and publishing books in the local language. The organization has founded over 15,000 libraries and impacted the lives of 7.8 million children. Room to Read has now become a prominent in the world due to its mission and the way that they are approaching at it. Instead of just funneling money to villages, they are giving the proper teaching tools and knowledge that will positively affect the future of those communities.
Many countries are still ruled by people who grew up in turmoil and who have not learned how to properly educate their population. Cambodia has had a particularly rough century with the khmer rouge genocide and extreme political corruption. The country now has an extreme problem with correct education. Salt Academy is an organization that removes girls from abusive families or sex trade and place them in orphanages to then involve them in sports and education. Their overall mission is to create an education in which sports contribute to equal treatment, better development and peaceful competition. Team sports are a powerful agent for change and an effective programmatic tool to help achieve goals in health, education, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, child protection and child development. Education does not simply have to be through an academic lens, activities like sports can play a great role into furthering a goal of peace.  I worked with the Salt Academy in Cambodia for a month to construct roofs and shelters and to teach English to the orphan girls.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a world renowned NGO or just and organization that focuses on helping on small group of people. As long as they educate those they help, then leave a positive imprint on the world. Another example of a Cambodian NGO is the Kdei Karuna Organization (KdK). For more than 10 years it has established itself as a one of the most valuable peacebuilding NGO’s in Cambodia. “Through participatory and community-engaged approaches, KdK has implemented truth-telling and memorialization initiatives between a number of groups, including former Khmer Rouge cadres and victims, ethnic minorities, and youth.” Kdei Karuna means “compassionate action to heal” in Sanskrit and it aims to contribute to sustainable peace efforts by addressing the scars of conflict inflicted over decades of instability and war.
The mission of the Fundatia Inocenti Romanian Children’s Relief Organization is to support Romanian children and families in need and prevent child abandonment. Inocenti has offered specialized professional therapy and services to children and families in need since 1990. They have also focused on giving resources and money towards teachers to help out the Roma people (gypsies). They currently have 500 volunteers that serve more than 2,000 abandoned and at-risk children with special needs in Bucharest and Bistrita-Nasaud County.
Peace can only be achieved by your own values, there is no third party or person that can come in and implement their own piece because in the end it never works out. Education helps teach those values and lets people decide on their own.