Introducing the (Italian) Civil Peace Corps

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Italian Civil Peace Corps

During the International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth, we are celebrating and promoting the peacework of activists from across the world, and the Italian Civil Peace Corps is one them. They support local communities in Amman and Beirut, promote dialogue among young people, and help refugee kids overcoming the trauma of the war. Meet the team of the Italian Civil Peace Corps here, and read their statement below to find more information about their work:

We are the Civil Peace Corps. We represent the civil defence, a nonviolent -not an armed- one. We support local communities in Amman and Beirut to promote dialogue and tolerance.

We were officially established on June the 5th 2017 in Italy, but our creation lasted more than 3 years. On the night of December the 17th 2013, Giulio Marcon, Member of the Parliament, mentioned us for the first time during the discussion about the Stability Law of 2014. The dream of the Italian and International Pacifist Movement became reality and an unarmed army was recognized with the purpose of preventing and managing potential conflicts.

That is what we have been trying to do in Jordan and Lebanon since our arrival at the end of July. In Jordan, we work in partnership with Debate Foundation and the Jordanian Women’s Union (JWU), in order to promote dialogue among young people and encourage intercultural exchanges. We are active in Irbid, Zarqa and Amman, in several JWU’s branches, carrying out awareness focus-groups with refugee women and Jordanians along with nonviolent educational activities with their kids, to support them in overcoming the trauma of the war.

In Lebanon, we work hand in hand with civil society organisations engaged in promoting peace and development for their communities and gathering pieces of the Lebanese heterogeneous society. In Chatila and Burj el Barajneh camps, we work with teachers and their students, in order to enhance socio-educational services for refugees and to reinforce their psycho-physical health. Furthermore, we support conflicts’ transformations in the framework of the Permanent Peace Movement and Fighters for Peace NGOs, both established by ex-combatants of the Lebanese Civil War. Our efforts beside them aim to mitigate spirals of violence in Lebanon, enhancing collective memories and developing awareness among the young in order to reach sustainable reconciliation processes.

We are staying in Amman and Beirut until the end of June 2018 and, meanwhile, we hope that Civil Peace Corps’ experiment may become a permanent reality.

To contact the (Italian) Civil Peace Corps, use their social media: https://www.facebook.com/CCPLibanoGiordania/

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