Alternatives to Violence
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AVP INTERNATIONALNEWSContents (Last updated 8 May 1999)Report of the Fifth
Annual AVP Conference, held in Houston, September 1998 Do you have any items of news? Send them to avp@ndirect.co.ukIt is hoped to build up a list of facilitators who are qualified and interested in working outside their own countries. While AVP-International hopes to find financial support for travelling facilitators and establish a Fund for this purpose, at present, private donations and groups, local to the facilitator, are the only sources of help. Donations to the International Travel Fund are welcome. Back to
news CUBAAt Cuba Yearly Meeting (CYM) sessions in February, AVP-Cuba was formally established under the care of CYM with seven CYM Apprentice Facilitators forming the leadership team. The National Coordinator for AVP-Cuba is: Ania Mora Concepcion Eduardo Diaz ECUADORIn February and March in Quito, Ecuador, forty-three people were introduced to alternatives to violence in three community workshops. Thirteen participated in an advanced workshop with the hope of continuing training to become facilitators. The participants were from human rights organizations, active in prisons, several groups which help women know and use their rights and 10 teachers from schools in violent, marginalized areas of Quito. Many arrived at the workshops ready to discuss and analyse the causes and implications of violence in their society and find some possible political responses. This was to be expected given the current economic-social-political climate in Ecuador with a government apparently unable to avoid a process of confrontation which moves closer every day to destructive, violent conflict. Some of the participants left frustrated and disappointed because of the lack of documentary material and conceptual constructs; but the majority caught the creative vision we offered: there are powerful resources in each person that can serve to promote positive alternatives in a situation that seems hopeless. The facilitators in these workshops were Diana Bracy, from California, Jorge Arauz, an Ecuadorian living in Philadelphia, and Jens Braun, raised in Ecuador but living in Connecticut. In good AVP tradition these folks found their own resources to come to Ecuador and join in the process of establishing a core of AVP facilitators here. These four workshops followed two others in previous years. Training for facilitators is planned later in 1999. This effort is coordinated by the Prison Ministry Committee of Advent/St. Nicholas Lutheran/Episcopal Church of Quito. We are very interested in hearing from other facilitators with a good command of Spanish who would be available to help in future workshops. USAThe following articles originally appeared in Transformer, the newsletter of AVP-USA. TRANSFORMING AVP-USA, REBUILDING AVP-USA BASED ON HONESTY, RESPECT AND CARINGBy Kaki Sjogren, AVP-Pennsylvania Almost seven years since the founding of AVP-USA, and four years since the establishment of a national office, the Board met in Albany, NY, over Presidents’ Day weekend. Some of us had to outrace a snowstorm, while others had to outwit striking airline pilots. Upon arrival we were warmly greeted and royally treated by our hosts in what had been a tall, stately, turreted mansion, now the Albany Friends Meeting. We had come with trepidation, but not due to the weather report. Six months before our Executive Director, Marjorie Kerr had reported continuing funding problems, a drop in volunteerism, a drop in productivity of committees and in enthusiasm. Short of a significant change in the trend, she said, we should adopt a plan to shut down the national office and discontinue the salaried staff position. The Leadership Team (our corporate officers and the executive director) were then instructed by the Board to create a shutdown plan. The Structures Committee and an Imagine a New Society ("INSE") Ad Hoc Committee were to review AVP administration, management and governance in anticipation of adapting to an all volunteer national organization. Before leaving for the Board meeting, we had received packets of proposals to restructure AVP-USA. There were six, plus another delivered on site, as well as the Leadership Team plan for shutdown. There were obviously many points of view to be considered. “How”, we asked ourselves, “would we come to consensus about anything?” The Leadership Team had the onerous task of facilitating us through the morass. They had cleverly devised an agenda for the first day and one-half that looked very much like an AVP advanced workshop agenda. Early on the first evening we learned to affirm by standing "ovation", a practice that was to be repeated time and again. We contradicted the perceptions that AVP is too big, and AVP is too serious, and AVP is all mixed up, by forming small groups, singing silly songs, and putting together jigsaw puzzle pieces marked by AVP regions. We brainstormed the goals of AVP-USA and the means to those goals, and then held a "dime auction" to assess the value of the means. Consensus decision-making got some of the highest bids. We worked very hard at the consensus decision making process. Everyone wanted to be clear that we were doing the right thing. No one wanted even one of us to be uncomfortable with what we were doing. Some were impatient with the process, wanting to get on with closing the office. Others voiced caution, saying that we might be "throwing the baby out with the bath water", that our problem of a lack of volunteerism would remain after closing the national office, leaving us with no organization. When there were three persons still opposed to closing the office at the start of the second night session, we entered into a fishbowl. By the end of the evening we had consensus. No one would stand in the way of the decision. The office would close, and we would spend the next day and one half determining how the organization would function thereafter. It was a tearful time, for it meant that Marjorie Kerr would no longer be that friendly voice at the other end of the AVP-USA line. We could no longer lean on her. We would all have to lean on each other. Half of us went to work identifying and prioritizing tasks to be handled during the transition. The other half of us created a vision of an organization that would be nonhierarchical, streamlined and as simple as possible. We would volunteer for tasks to take us through the transition time, and cast a proposed form for restructuring to be decided upon definitely at the annual meeting September 3-6, in Burlington, NJ. We left believing we had developed a truly egalitarian form for the organization. With this structure and your involvement, we may have time to serve national while serving as facilitators at the local level. In the closing moments of the meeting, we built an affirmation pyramid around Marjorie, opening up new space for her in our community. And as we left, it felt we had "walked our talk"! NEW ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTUREby Candace Mayer LaRue, AVP-New York In the first year of the development of AVP/USA, two alternative visions for a national organization were considered. One vision, which was accepted at that time, was a fairly traditional nonprofit corporation model with strong central administration. The other alternative structure was for a nonhierarchical approach - uncharted territory back then, and uncharted territory it remains. However, after more than 6 years of hard and often frustrating work it seems that the traditional, hierarchical approach is flawed for us, and that an alternative vision, one which is more consistent with AVP values and mission, is a crucial and exciting next step. At the most recent AVP/USA meeting an attempt was made to enter those uncharted waters. The first steps in devising a nontraditional national organization are outlined below. The "final" version will never exist, because if properly designed and executed, our national organization will become a living model for true nonviolent community - and as such will continuously evolve and grow. The new committee structure is an interim step which seeks to lay the groundwork for a new organizational structure. The new structure as envisioned proposes the elimination of a representative board and a central decision making body (the Leadership Team) and instead relies upon empowered committees and an annual membership meeting. Decisions will normally be made by committees, on a consensus basis and policy changes will come through the annual meeting. Regional organizing, based upon the actual alliances and support networks of the local chapters rather than arbitrary geographical boundaries, will be crucial to maintaining a strong and high quality program. One of the new committees is specifically designed to encourage regional growth and development. Many of the details will require bylaws changes and need to be widely discussed during the next six months. For instance, in the proposed model, officers have mainly fiduciary responsibilities, and are nominated to the annual meeting by the committee with which they serve. So, for example, the Treasurer is nominated by fundraising and finance, and the secretary is nominated by the Products Distribution and Communication committee. In order to facilitate networking and coordination of committees, a "Committee of Committees" will operate, membership to be composed of the co-chairs of each committee. The C of C will not be a decision making body, but rather will send decisions back to the appropriate committee(s) for consensus decision making after ensuring that all important information has been shared. During the transition period between now and Labor Day (the next annual meeting date) six committees will be fully functioning, with assistance from the current Leadership Team in effecting the transition. Additionally, the Education Committee will continue to exist with a goal of completing the youth manual prior to the conference. The new committees are listed below along with the charges they have been given: REGIONAL SUPPORT AND NETWORKING: This committee is charged with encouraging and supporting regional growth and development. The members of this committee are charged with handling general inquiries and requests for support that used to come into the national office, developing communication structures throughout the nation, maintaining the Transformer, and acting in an advisory capacity to local chapters. This committee is also expected to facilitate the collection of activity data and production of an annual report. This committee particularly needs members from the places other than the East Coast. FUNDRAISING AND FINANCE: This committee will raise funds, finalize the budget proposal in consultation with the committee of committees, provide financial oversight including the nomination and oversight of the treasurer. This committee is particularly in need of individuals with experience in fundraising and grant writing. PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTION/COMMUNICATION: Manual and product distribution, mass mailings, and maintenance of the database and the archives are all responsibilities of this committee. A volunteer has already been found to handle distribution of manuals and materials may be ordered through the Houston address. This committee will certainly be in need of occasional assistance with mailings and is seeking a permanent archives site. CONFERENCE PLANNING: The next conference will be planned and facilitated by this committee, including planning the agenda and providing conference materials. It will be the responsibility of this committee to draft the needed bylaws changes to be presented at the annual meeting over Labor Day. The Annual Meeting will be held in Burlington, NJ on September 5 to 8, 1999. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: This committee will provide assistance and startup expertise for the organization. They will set up the voice mail system that will route calls after the office is closed and will assist with database development and other similar tasks. They will also be charged with development of a simple guide to email for the Luddites among us. Individuals with computer or other technical skills, such as phone systems, are needed. COMMITTEE OF COMMITTEES: This committee will be formed from within the other committees. Members will commit to regular communication in order to coordinate efforts. This committee will be responsible for working with the fundraising committee to develop a realistic budget and for long range strategy planning. This committee will also develop policy proposals in conjunction with the other committees. A NOTE FROM MARJORIEDear AVP friends, As you read this you are undoubtedly aware of the decision to close the national office and discontinue the position of Executive Director. My remaining time with you is short, and will be filled with the many tasks involved in closing the office and reorganizing. There may not be the opportunity for me to speak my heart to each of you who has so touched mine. AVP/USA service has reminded me of the Peace Corps slogan: “the toughest job you will ever love”. In perfect and very imperfect community we have walked a long path together. With some, our interactions may have been brief and business oriented. With others, more spontaneous. Still, with others I have walked a long path through difficult times, have known your confidences, shared your laughter and sometimes your anger, fears and tears. But always there has been AVP lighting the way, calling ourselves to our highest selves, enflaming our passions. Throughout I have known your respect, warmth, your trust, your humanity. I have cherished my time in your service, the bitter and the sweet. The tasks have been mundane, the wisdom, the light, the love profound. As I leave the national office my heart is full, my vision clear. I leave with trust in our process and positive expectations for the future. To every thing there is a season. It is time for change. Still, there is that sense of sadness and loss. Only a full heart can break. The hardest part in all this is the thought of losing touch with many of you and the on going news of your local community’s struggles and growth. I hope to continue the rapport and friendships we have developed. Through May 31 you may be able to reach me at the AVP/USA office. Otherwise my contact information will be in the directory. I continue to serve as the AVP/USA Representative to AVP International. I will no longer be your Executive Director, but I will continue to be a member and serve the AVP/USA community. Thank you for the opportunity for rich and rewarding service. May we move into a brighter future. In AVPartnership, Marjorie Kerr SOUTH AFRICAby Theresa Edlemann, AVP South Africa The following article originally appeared in Transformer, the newsletter of AVP-USA. South Africa is a country engaging in processes of profound change. The first democratic elections of 1994 marked the demise of the apartheid government and ushered in a time of complexity and challenges for all its people. The inherent violence of the apartheid system is still in the process of working its way out in our lives and society. Every one of us is constantly faced with the paradoxes of the wonderful changes that have taken place as well as crime, poverty and the legacies of systematic injustice. AVP - and Transforming Power - have come to a situation crying out for the opportunities for change, growth and healing they provide. Soon after the first democratic elections in 1994, Steve Angell visited Johannesburg to run AVP workshops and train local trainers. The nucleus of the group that he started is still in place and in the process of developing a strong trainer base in order to take workshops into a range of contexts and communities. They have managed to raise funds to employ a part-time secretary and conduct workshops in a range of contexts. About 18 months after Steve's visit to Johannesburg, Elaine Dyer (AVP Aortorea/New Zealand) visited both Johannesburg and Cape Town (together with Kim Hope and Theresa Holman of AVP Britain), followed a few months later by a visit to Cape Town by John Shuford in November 1996. The outcome of this was a committed team of trainers in another part of the country,who have also grown in numbers over time and are planning to move into local prisons in the next few months. The move of a Cape Town trainer into the Eastern Cape – the poorest province in the country and birthplace of both Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko – has resulted in a new wave of workshops being conducted. The first group from this region will attend a Training of Trainers in Cape Town in November this year. There has been wonderful trainer support from AVP Cape Town trainers for this initiative and generous financial assistance from the Quaker Peace Centre. The first Basic workshop was run with the assistance an AVP USA trainer who was working in the region on a 6 month contract! AVP in South Africa has grown out of the love and sacrificial generosity of a range of people – the guardian angels from various countries who came to start us off, and the commitment of people whose lives have been changed and enriched through their involvement with the organization at various levels. The patterns of violence run deep in our society and the challenge of finding alternatives is an ongoing, exciting and dynamic journey. NIGERIATRANSFORMING POWER IN NIGERIAby Mark Bitel, John Conchie, Karin Fry, Oleufemi Hughes and Stavey Primus, AVP-Britain The following article originally appeared in Transformer, the newsletter of AVP-USA. Conflict is at the heart of every transaction in Nigeria, from buying anything from anyone, to getting on a bus, or making a phone call. Only Transforming Power could have got five AVP facilitators into Nigeria without visas! At the eleventh hour (and 58th minute), we were given permission to come. As we arrived in Nigeria it was night, we were tired and longing for rest. On the trip from the airport when we were told to get out of taxis on an unlit street somewhere in Lagos, and then told we were to get into some different taxis to go to our final destination, my heart sank. However, as soon as the taxis were dismissed, we were told we had really arrived and that the story about the other taxis was a way of concealing out destination form the taxi drivers. Behind us a metal gate topped with barbed wire was unlocked. We entered the gates and they were locked behind us. Was this really going to be our home for the next four weeks? What had we let ourselves in for? Next morning we discovered that we were not leading a series of three-day workshops but rather what turned out to be a month-long Training for Facilitators! The Nigerians we met were frustrated by their military dictatorships, hungry for change, and for an end to military rule that has wrecked the economy. Some have cautious optimism in a new democratic system espoused by General Abubakar while others are skeptical, having seen it all before. The group brought with them the diversity of their tribal backgrounds and strong Christian and Muslim beliefs. They were a group drawn from the North, South and East of the country, men and women, ex-prisoners and prison welfare officers, human rights workers, administrators, sewing machine operators and social workers. A few had the status of chiefs and others Imams. Here we were, from England, with American exercises, keeping our fingers crossed that they were robust enough to be transplanted to an African country. Our main man and coordinator, Mark Bitel, set just the right tone saying how honored we felt to be invited to Nigeria to explore issues of conflict. We are not experts and we do not have all the answers. Together you can decide what is most appropriate for you in your culture, in your specific situations. When we asked in the beginning what would wreck this course, it was taken both seriously and light-heartedly: lateness, a military coup, refusal to participate, power failure, boycotts. The status differences in the group seemed to be temporarily suspended as consensus and non-hierarchical ways of working were instituted. Chiefs gave up their thrones; women who had initially been quiet started to challenge the men more assertively. Even so, religious differences and the north/south divide remained a ghost. All AVP ideas seemed to resonate with participants, who were extraordinarily open to learning and sharing ideas. What struck me was the universal nature of conflict, whether infidelity, gender differences or conflict within the family. The concept of Transforming power was taken with particular relish. Over the month, we saw examples of Transforming Power right there – interactions at home, in the street, at the course itself. What was so disarming and so wondrous in this group was the seeming easy ability to express themselves with fluidity, whether discussing complex concepts, expressing love, or being totally creative in Light and Livelies. The latter were a hoot as people flung themselves into them. Watching roleplays was like watching theater. Such was the enthusiasm that everything got analyzed and dissected right down to the happy and sad faces on the evaluation sheets. We saw more of this creativity as they adapted materials to local conditions and their own methods during the facilitator training. By the end of the month we had facilitators workshops with 36 participants. 24 of these started and completed the facilitator's workshop successfully. We ran a community workshop and a prison workshop (for prison welfare officers) with four facilitators just trained leading each course. The whole group decided by consensus to set up a Steering Committee to take AVP-Nigeria forward in prisons and the community, in the North and South of the country. The team left Nigeria on September 7, worn out with the intense schedule but much richer for the experience which was worth every minute. In early 1999 we hope to host three Nigerian facilitators in Britain. The British council is funding their airfares. Donations can be sent to the AVP- Britain office, 547 High Road, London E11-4PB U.K. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN ZIMBABWEby Radical Razaan and Transforming Theresa, AVP-South Africa and Journeying John, AVP-Delaware The following article originally appeared in Transformer, the newsletter of AVP-USA. The World Council of Churchs held its Eighth International Assembly held at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare in December 1998. The thousands of delegates to the conference came from churches all over the world included bishops, clergy and laymen from Protestant denominations and Eastern orthodox churches as well as many of the new churches from Africa. THE INVITATION - AVP International was invited to conduct "taster" AVP workshops for delegates and AVP International Co-ordinator, Bill McMechan, invited AVP in South Africa to take responsibility for the program. Three facilitators went in the end: Razaan Bailey, Cape Town, Theresa Edlmann, Grahamstown, and John Shuford, AVP Delaware. In Zimbabwe - Linking Up with the AVP Community - Once in Harare, Razaan, John and Theresa met up with Ute Caspers from Germany – an AVP facilitator who was also presenting some exercises in workshops she had arranged directly with the WCC. They were able to help Ute out in one workshop and she was able to step into the breach when Theresa took Razaan to the doctor on the morning of a workshop. Corneliu Constantineanu, an AVP facilitator from Croatia, also joined in with some workshops. True AVP community in action! THE PADARE Each of the six 90-minute AVP sessions had a similar agenda. Visitors and delegates to the Assembly were given a brief background to AVP and participated in some exercises from a basic Level workshop (Adjective Names, Concentric Circles, Big Wind Blows, Violence /Non-violence Brainstorm, AVP Principles and the Mandala). The participants loved the opportunity to engage at a personal level through the exercises, and having a sense of an AVP workshop made discussion about AVP in the last section of the workshop much deeper and more informed. Eighty-six people attended the workshops. Several had been to AVP workshops or were facilitators themselves – from Croatia, Germany, USA, Canada, England, Zimbabwe and South Africa. There were also people from Pakistan, India, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) who were interested in helping to initiate AVP in their countries. AVP was also given a display booth in the Peace and Justice Tent – one of the exhibition venues in the Padare. Again, putting the display together was a team effort. John brought mounted photographs from workshops he had facilitated in USA prisons and internationally. AVP Cape Town contributed a magnificent large colourful banner of the mandala and a collage of photographs from workshops in South Africa. Theresa "borrowed" Marjorie's idea of a display of the flags of countries where AVP is present, with contact details for that country next to each flag. There were also brochures available with information about AVP and AVP International contact details. The combined effect was very eye-catching and effective! The mandala banner from AVP Cape Town was given to the International Peace to the City Campaign, which collected banners from around the world to form an exhibition at the Hague Appeal for Peace in May 1999. The media also proved to be very interested in AVP. Several media teams videoed sections of workshops (footage was seen on both Zimbabwean and South African national television), there was mention of AVP in an article in the Harare-based Herald newspaper and Theresa was interviewed for a German national radio station. The aim of presenting these workshops was to raise awareness about AVP and to encourage individuals and organizations to become part of or initiate AVP in their countries. This was achieved with great success – no question. And John, Razaan and Theresa had a fantastic week in Harare as well. Many thanks, AVP, for giving us such a wonderful opportunity! UGANDADuring January, 1999, Rosemarie and Bill McMechan of AVP-Canada, participated in a Friends Peace Initiative to the Great Lakes Region in East Africa. While other members of the seven- person International team visited Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda, Bill and Rosemarie concentrated on Uganda. The main purpose of the Initiative was to determine whether or not a permanent Peace Team in the Region was feasible or necessary. It was envisaged that such a team could assist in the training of those working in community building and traumatic stress situations caused by the continuing warfare and AIDS. During the course of the three-week stay in Uganda, two AVP workshops were held, a Basic in Bubulo, near Mbale, and a T4F in Kampala. AVP was introduced into Uganda several years ago when Steven Angell (USA), Ben Norris and Elaine Dyer (New Zealand) were there for a short time. Largely through the efforts of Hilary Wright (Britain), who became a Facilitator in England and is in Uganda with her UNICEF husband, AVP became firmly established. After a series of workshops, she arranged for several AVPers to gain further experience by going to Woodbrooke, a Quaker College in England, to work with trained Facilitators. There is now a cadre of facilitators in the capital city of Kampala and in the area around Mbale. AVP-Uganda has a written constitution and an Executive Committee. The Bubulo workshop participants were mainly teachers and pastors from the area. Most of them had to travel long distances each day by uncertain transport since local accommodation was not available. Two of the facilitators, Juliet and George, were local people. What enthusiasm and interest in learning! Unfortunately, we had to make do without flip-charts, but a small broken piece of blackboard came to our aid. Lack of funds is the main impediment to the expansion of AVP-Uganda. To run workshops is very expensive in a country where few people have paid employment and subsist on the food they can grow in small plots. This necessitates paying for transportation and all food consumed by participants as well as facilitators during the workshop as well as for the usual expenses for room rental and supplies, which include notebooks and pens for all to write everything down. Food has to be supplied even in prison workshops. The prison does not feed inmates during program, though they get only one meal of maize and beans per day in any case. Up to now MCC has sponsored most workshops, but AVP-Uganda has to try to become more self-sustaining. Offering workshops in a village and having only the team travel, instead of bringing participants into a central location from a wide area, may be one way to economize. In the Kampala workshop some of the participants were ex-combatants who had served in the Ugandan army, not all on the same side or at the same time. One of them, a Major-General, had been Chief of Staff, However, they were convinced that violence was not the answer and that the AVP way of life offered a viable alternative. One very big problem for them is in finding a solution to the utter poverty in which they live and the lack of training opportunities afforded to them. If they had the funds, they would be very interested in taking the program into neighbouring countries where many of them spent years in exile. GERMANY Dear friends in the worldwide AVP community, PAG, the Projekt Alternativen zur Gewalt, AVP in Germany, is still small and struggling to get along. Doing AVP for 5 years now, we still have only a few trainers and very few lead trainers. We had our annual meeting in Bad Pyrmont at the weekend October 30 till November 1st. We planned the following workshops for the first 7 months of the coming year: January 15-17: Advanced Prison Workshop
in Hannover We will probably also be present with Mini-Workshops at the National Conference of the German branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation in Bonn, May 14-15, and on the Kirchentag, the meeting of 120.000 protestant Christians June 16-20 in Stuttgart. If anyone is going to Europe anyway and would like to help us with these or further workshops, you are very welcome. AVP Germany can be reached by E-Mail: AVPGermany@pag.de You may also reach some of our council members by E-Mail: achim@pag.de as well as further two of our lead-trainers: We are now present on the WWW at http://www.PAG.de All the best wishes in AVPartnership Adventurous Achim A request for facilitators has been received for a
team to introduce AVP to groups of landless people,
schools and, hopefully, prisons in Rio Grande area of
Brazil. Required for early 1999. INDIAFollowing the successful Basic w/s held at Rasulia in November, 1996, three experienced AVP facilitators were invited to visit India in 1997 to conduct four more w/s.They were Karin Fry and Stephen Kemp from Britain and Girija Taplin from Western Australia. Each of the workshops was conducted in a mixture of English and Hindi, everything spoken being translated. All flip-charts produced in one language were copied into the other. Two of the workshops were held in Itarsi, Madhya Pradesh, the first being a second level, the participants continuing on from the Basic held the previous year, the second was a Basic. The two other workshops were held at the Indian Peace Centre, Nagpur, both Basics. The Nagpur participants were predominantly Christian with some Hindu and Muslim. Some were students, others drawn from a variety of occupations; one probation officer had travelled specially from Kerala. He had enquired three years ago about AVP, having written to AVP New York, his patience was rewarded at last. Almost all the participants asked to be kept in touch with whatever happens with AVP in India. The team considers that this worthwhile mission should be followed up, but is well aware of the hurdles which have to be crossed before AVP India becomes a self-sufficient group. Dependent on two small groups, the nucleus of a training team and an administration must be generated from within. The first hurdle is the training of Indian facilitators by visiting trainers from abroad coupled with Indian facilitators travelling to, say, Britain or Australia. Other hurdles are the creation of a support and communications network and to find the funds for running AVP. Although in many ways agreeably surprised how well the AVP approach bridged cultural differences, the team was conscious of some warning signs that the underlying philosophy of AVP was challenging deep rooted cultural norms. A personal and ethical situation not unique to India. AVP in India - a chronology 1996 - John & Girija Taplin from Australia secure time on the Agenda of the 2nd All India Gathering of Friends (Quakers) in Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh, to talk about AVP. Unknown to them Karin Fry and Stephen Kemp from Britain arrive to do a workshop with young Indian Friends. This workshop was in the Friends Rural Centre in Rasulia near Hoshangabad. 1997 - Karin, Girija and Stephen return and do
a Basic and an Advanced in Itarsi also near
Hoshangabad. They then travel 400 km south to
Nagpur in Marharastra where the India Peace Centre hosts
two Basics for young people from the YMCA, YWCA, IIYW
(India Institute of Youth 1998- The same team start with a basic organised at the Police Training College in New Delhi organised by the office of Dr Kiran Bedi, famous prison administrator and reformer. Nineteen men complete. Then 600 km South to Bhopal where Friends have organised a basic on the campus of the All India Catholic University Federation. Fourteen complete including two non-Christians. Then 100 km South to Hoshangabad for a basic (18 complete) and to Sohagpur for an Advanced (10 complete). Then on to Nagpur where, the India Peace Centre being unavailable, the YWCA hosts a basic (14 complete). Twelve complete the Nagpur Advanced Nov 21-23 with one coming from Hoshangabad and one from Kerala. Then a two day journey by electric train South, then SW and North up the Kerala coast to Calicut and then 6 hours by road to the NE to a basic hosted jointly by NGOs, Shreyas and WSSM, Kanavu and Rajagiri College of social Sciences in Ernakulam Sixteen start and 8 complete. At least three who had to leave on he third day are very enthusiastic about AVP. 1999 and 2000 - It is hoped that it will be
possible to send several teams to India. We are
trying to organise to initiate AVP in Mumbai (Bombay) and
Assam. There are 900 million people in India so it
will take a while making the world non-violent, one
person at a time. We start with those who speak
English. It is hoped that each team will spend a few
weeks in one or two places and do workshops at all
levels. It might be possible to have one team visit
a place in November and another in January. Help is need in order to make the 1999 and 2000 programme a success. Please read the information below and contact John Taplin if you can help. (Full contact details below.) Indian Weather The weather can be important in deciding when and where to work. It is unpleasant on the streets when they are flooded. Either you ruin your shoes or you wade bare foot
through the muck. Some of us have a problem with
40C by day and 30C by night. So we try to avoid the
hottest and wettest months. I illustrate my point
with some climate data from the Lonely Planet book on
India. I quote the minimum-maximum temperature in
degrees Celcius and (rainfall in mm). Unfortunately
there is no data for MP or Nagpur. My guess is
somewhere between Delhi and Mumbai, perhaps nearer to
Delhi.
Planning workshops involves matching the times for which facilitators are available and the places they prefer with the times and places for which the Indians offer to organise workshops. If you have any interest in facilitating in India, please inform me promptly of your present preferences at the following addresses: John Taplin, email: jhtaplin@cygnus.uwa.edu.au or by mail: 5 Croydon St., Nedlands 6009, Australia. Jolly John Taplin So the world family of AVP continues to grow one person at a time in loving concern for all humanity and creation. What a wonderful life to have found.Buoyant Bill McMechan, AVP-International Co-ordinator
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