This time it took place in Istanbul (October 15 – 20). ‘Where West Meets East’ was the motto of this Catch the Vision conference. It enrolled 52 participants, facilitators and guest speakers from 24 countries, with geographical coverage ranging from Iceland to South Africa, from Canada to Russia. The key educational modules of the event were as follows:

• 1. Youth Empowerment, incl. introduction to the YMCA ‘Agents of Change’ model.
• 2. Intercultural Learning
• 3. ‘Do No Harm’ as a Conflict / Diversity Sensitive Methodology
• 4. Change Assessment

Not accidentally the mottoes of the YMCA Europe Catch the Vision conferences live longer than the events hold under them. Like the motto of the event held in Prizren, Kosovo (2004) gave the name of the YMCA Europe long-term and large-scale initiative – ’Roots for Reconciliation’. Who knows, maybe soon we’ll hear about ‘Where West Meets East’ as another example!

Yet this conference was a bridging event for the YMCA Europe Peace Work Institute within the ‘Roots for Reconciliation’ project. It served as the first session within this series, and most of the participants are expected to continue with the second and third sessions in 2013, and consequent projects in the field (2014) to be followed by a reunion (2015) to evaluate the results of the overall scheme.

Big plans, but as the saying goes ‘good beginning is half of the success’. We definitely had a very good beginning in Istanbul!

When I was asked to write and capture the event from a conference in Istanbul I felt very proud and slightly worried that my words would not do justice to the entire experience. During the week we had been exposed to a new culture, visited a different continent while being in the same country, used the Turkish YMCA with its rich history and unique look, had been treated to traditional music and dance, been exposed to the tourist and the religious side of the city, been blown away by the beautiful spinning Derbyshire’s and met some inspiring and thought provoking leaders and people from our movement. I couldn’t write everything in this one testimony but i would like to share with you two very different but special events.

During a cultural day we got to visit an outdoor model museum and soak up the countries amazing history in many languages, breathtaking sights adorned both sides of the river as we sailed around Istanbul and when we stepped off the boat into Asia there was a shared understanding of this is truly where East meets West. Our Turkish friends and Haluk especially spoiled us, that evening over Turkish food we were blown away by the meditating Derbyshire’s, who were a total contrast from the shop owners and were wearing beautiful white traditional robes, a young lady belly dancing and traditional music which got the entire conference up on its feet led by Haluk and Juan. As an awkwardly clapping English man I could only marvel and clap along as Dorina (Kosovo) and Vicktor (Macedonia) showed us amazing rhythm and traditional dance from the Eastern side of Europe. What made the evening even more special for me was sitting with my new friend Musa from Turkey who explained everything to our table and was so welcoming and open that you just felt part of the whole experience and watching Haluk who was so proud and encouraging everyone to join in. It was truly an amazing evening and something that will stay with me forever.

Now the English contingent had prepared for a cultural night, and between us we had each brought something that would contribute to a traditional “English tea party” The program changed and the cultural evening was taken out, but after a evening of games at the Turkish YMCA led and organised by Basti (Germany) a large group sat in the street socializing. Rachel and I decided this was a great time for a tea party and set about making tea in a traditional English Teapot for all our friends. Picture this… Participants from Germany, England, Georgia, Turkey, Czech Republic, Russia, Holland, Kosovo and Armenia all sat in the streets of Istanbul drinking tea in bright white cups, eating short bread biscuits and discussing whether to have milk in their tea or should they drink it with their little finger extended out. The queen would have been truly proud of this moment!

For me it was so special that we were invited to join in and experience the Turkish culture but also equally as special to share a taste of England and some Western culture with our new friends. We donated the teapot to Haluk and the Turkish YMCA to thank them for their kindness and hospitality. What I truly learned from this conference… East or West, Europe or Asia, English tea or Turkish coffee… it did not matter because together we are YMCA!

Adrian from YMCA England (28 yo)

For more insights please visit YMCA Europe Roots for Reconciliation Facebook page

It was the year 2007 when I first traveled to Nagorno Karabakh, but the memories of very long, tiring journey are still vivid, just like are the feelings I had on the way there – going to the unknown place that is linked with so many turbulent news, rumors and stereotypes…

We arrived and at the first glance the place itself lived up to my expectations – the traces of the war were still visible and the rainy weather added up to the somewhat sad environment, but there was one thing that impressed from the very start of my acquaintance with Karabakh and still continues to have big impact on me – the people of there!

This year it was my fourth visit to Karabakh and I just cannot help admiring the commitment, motivation and positive attitude of young people from YMCA Arstsakh (that’s how locals call their homeland)… Their desire to move forward, to learn and to create…

This time they were hosts of 55 young people representing YMCA movements of Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Karabakh itself, along with YMCA Europe multinational team of facilitators…

The event was organized within the frameworks of YMCA Europe “Roots for Reconciliation” project that is going through the second stage of implementation and during 2012 – 2015 period will involve in various activities the young people ranging from South Caucasus to Balkans; Turkey to Russia…

Promoting peace and dialogue among those whose countries were and still are in conflict with one another, with particular focus on focusing and involving young people.

It’s mY Story… everyone has a story… but we all need someone to tell it… And that’s what we want this project to be about – to let young people tell and share their stories, their life stories, their Y stories…

During this one week in old town of Shushi, there were many stories born and told; stories of friendship, personal growth, professional skills and human relationships…

This particular one is one of them…

24 young people representing 17 nationalities met in Prague from July 18th to the 24th and took part at the Peace Work Seminar organized by the European Alliance of YMCAs (YMCA Europe) and co-financed by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

The Seminar included presentations and plenary discussions about YMCA peace initiatives across the world with an emphasis on our institution´s work in the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East. Workshops on impact assessment, social transformation and youth empowering also took place during the week together with an inspiring Film Festival.

The Seminar ended with reflections from the participants under the topic “towards a peaceful future” and their commitment to continue striving for international understanding and solidarity in the local, national and global levels.

In the follow-up evaluation, the relevance of the content of the seminar was evaluated by its participants as excellent.

They are in almost unanimous ‘strong agreement’ with the statements that they have a more clear understanding of what the YMCA Peace Work is and that they have learnt a lot from sharing personal experiences of people doing the YMCA work in conflict zones.

The seminar was a robust event – none of the participants ranked the fun they had lower than ‘strongly agree’. And the last, but not the least: the young people remain really and seriously interested in the issue.

They strongly state that they would like to be part of the YMCA Peace Work in the future and that they would like to gain more knowledge and skills on how to successfully carry it out.

I really enjoyed the Peace Seminar, because I learned a lot of things about conflicts and conflicts resolution especially in the Balkan zone. The people who organized the event were wonderful and they managed to make us feel better than home, if I can say like this. The participants were open minded, very friendly and eager to share with everyone their YMCA experience, but also some of their personal stories which brought them closer to the rest of the participants. It is needless to say that the location, the accommodation and the food was above expectations (slept in a nice hotel, ate delicious food and managed to visit Prague easily). Overall this event has made a big impact on me and I will definitely grated it A++++. Thank you everyone for everything.

Andrada Deatcu, Romania

I am writing to extend my thanks and gratitude for having me in Peace Work – Impact and New Challenges program. The program helped tremendously in meeting new people, gaining knowledge and experience. I had a chance to make friends with a lot of interesting and likeminded young individuals in the atmosphere of camaraderie and fellowship. I would also like to express my appreciation for the hospitality and technical guidance you provided to the participants. It was really interesting, well thought and organized seminar. I’d like to mention the movies shown through the event, there were chosen brilliantly, and for this I want to thank Michal. In my opinion they show human nature, how can life be reshaped in unexpected way, they gave me new ideas of developing friendly and effective relations with various nations a new world of friends. Not only our team work was fun but it also enabled us to have such a fruitful experience. We had a chance to listen people who were eyewitnesses of the distractive result of wars. It was shockingly sad but instructive. We all grew closer to each other and learnt a lot about other countries and their citizens, developed leadership skills and a lot of ideas on living and cooperating side by side in peace. I hope that we can continue to strengthen friendship of those who strive for changes towards world peace. And I strongly believe the projects like our peace work seminar, Roots for Reconciliation are necessary in our days and can make changes. Thank you again.

Maria Vardanyan, Armenia