Empowering through innovation with MasterPeace India-Odisha

In a time where economic pressure on farmers is greater than ever, and the costs of and access to renewable energy remain a barrier for rural populations, investing in innovations to address both needs is essential.  Towards that end, MasterPeace India-Odisha, together with Brunel University in the UK, have established a Solar Powered Horticulture Cold Storage Unit in 45 villages of Daspalla, Odisha.

Relying on renewable solar energy via an array of solar panels, to power its cold chain technology, their goal is to provide storage for locally grown fruits and vegetables.   Making use of such storage, reduces the need for "distress selling" (having to sell off products as quickly as possible) and doubles the income of farmers. This innovation has a particular benefit for 500 female farmers in Daspalla, who represent a significant percentage of the farming community.

MasterPeace and Stichting Move (with support from VSB foundation) developed the concept “Create your World, Move your talent”. With this concept we inspire youngsters (age group between 14 - 21) to develop their skills and talents in a creative and playful way. Once they feel confident using their talents, the youngsters are called to take action improving the community, tackling challenges their communities face. 

We cover the 3 stages: “me”, “me & you”, “us”.

See for more explanation (in Dutch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPtdVKn0bVQ  

We implemented the concept at the Spaarne college in Haarlem, from the 26th - 28th of January 2022. The teachers of the school were very interested to learn about the concept (in a train-the-trainer session) and they did all their best to guide the students through the days.  200 students from the 2nd year VMBO participated. With at the end of the day: many happy faces, from students and teachers!

So, actually, to turn a smile on someone’s face is exactly what we try to teach the students with Create Your World. Society tends to be more individualistic, especially due to corona-lockdowns. So students might feel overwhelmed by the challenges they face and might not see directly how they can make a change, make an impact.

With Create your World we make them see how a small act of kindness, already can make a big difference.

• First day, who thinks he can stand on his head?

On the first day the students developed their creative, artistic talents. Maybe even discovered “hidden” ones, like song-writing, or doing crazy moves!

We offered 12 workshops, with various disciplines: theatre & performance arts, drawing & street art, vlog & photography, rap, breakdance, hiphop, singer songwriting & music.

Workshop breakdance
Workshop rap
Workshop performance arts

• Second day, let’s team up

The second day the students developed their knowledge about talents one step further, doing a quizz showing them their preference in behavior. Are you an explorer, or an organizing person? Do you take into account details, or are you rather a storyteller?

With grown confidence, the students teamed up. Respecting each other’s talents (and therefore differences), they discovered how much stronger you are working together. We asked them to list some challenges they, their teachers, and their community might face. And even more important: what you can do about it.

We got the most inspiring ideas to make a positive impact. 

• Handing out cards, just to ask the simple question: how are you today?
• Create a tik-tok video on the topic of respect
• Making your own post-cards and give them to someone else for 1-on-1 contact
• Giving away fruit to people on the streets
• Recognizing the hard work teachers do by offering an award.

• Third day: and action! put a smile on your faceOn the third it was time for action. The ideas were carried out, preparations needed to be done. Students went out on the streets to help other people with their chores, or to make them smile: distributing cards, flowers and fruit on the street. 

  Another group made beautiful photos to give away to the elderly, baked cookies and handed them to teachers, made tickets for the elderly in the retirement home, set up an action to help animals in need and there was a competition for both the funniest and the best teacher.

• "The best thing we have learned is working together" - quote by one of the students

  Other experiences the students shared:
  Who does well, meets well
  Hard work is rewarded
  Don't just think about yourself

   

  All in all a very successful project with many happy faces.
  Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZRUszRIZHL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
  Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZQj_b_IhHL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
  

  

Our MasterPeace Club of Karachi, Pakistan started 2022 with a successful launching ceremony of “Karachi Interfaith Network.” The event was held on January 23, 2022, by Shaoor Foundation with the collaboration of MasterPeace Pakistan. It was a launching ceremony event where 30 experienced leaders from Karachi (Mr. Kelash Sarhadi of MP Pakistan was one of the influential leaders in the program) and other participants expressed their commitment and responsibility to aware and involve youth and teachers of the religious seminaries, schools, universities, and civil society members to understand the importance of interfaith and harmony. In this way, the event was bound by common understanding – peace as a basic human right. Lastly, the program covered various elements under SDG 4, SDG 16, and SDG 17.

As religious tolerance is vanishing day by day in societies, MasterPeace Pakistan is confident the introduction of “Karachi Interfaith Network” will play a significant role in providing a platform for religion and faith leaders to collaborate closely for common goals. There isn’t a second opinion on the importance of having a conceptual understanding of conflict and peace management if we dream of a harmonious society and MP Pakistan is a leading organization that advocates for such society.
Furthermore, having 30 influential social leaders uniting to collaborate to bring peace and development in the community is highly welcomed and appreciated around Karachi. Overall, the program had insightful dialogues and commitments to build workable networks around the region to establish religious harmony and productive social forces.
Importantly, the main objective of launching a faithful network in Karachi is to Increase the systematic engagement of key leaders from diverse faiths and communities for effective peacebuilding process and interfaith harmony. It is interesting to see how the interfaith network leads the way to originate a constructive network to achieve harmony amongst faiths but without a doubt, the launching is just the beginning of many impactful changes

Leaders of the Karachi Interfaith Network

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Leaders of the Karachi Interfaith Network

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Leaders of the Karachi Interfaith Network

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Leaders of the Karachi Interfaith Network

Slide Content

We tend to think of school in terms of teachers, students, and the lessons that are covered over a school year. Others might also think of facilities and materials, with access to technology getting a good amount of attention in the wider discussion of education. Before the pandemic, which led to the closure of schools and the limiting of contact between individuals in general, we rarely considered the school for its role as the essential place for socialization among young people. 1.5 years into the global struggle with Covid-19, it has become more clear than ever that a school is much more than a building, teachers are more than just instructors, and students are more than just human sponges.

https://youtu.be/31N-OSNIXnU

On January 24th, 2022, together with partners from the global learning community on whole child development, MasterPeace hosted a ‘Webinar on Youth and Mental Well Being.’ The session included presentations by researchers, input from teachers from around the world, and a panel discussion with experts on youth and mental health. The goal was to better understand the emotional challenges young people and educators face due to long standing disparities and how Covid-19 has further exacerbated those factors.

Bassem Nasir, Education Specialist at UNICEF, presented research by the international organization between 2020 and 2021 which illustrated how much in-person learning has been lost (2 trillion hours) since the start of the pandemic. Data gathered also estimated the loss of $17 trillion in future earnings by current students. Furthermore Nasir touched on the nutritional, mental, and socio-cultural ripple effect of so many children without school for so long.

To better understand how young people respond to adversity and trauma, Dr. Manolya Tanyu, senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research, presented interesting findings on the topic of resilience. How young people respond to these types of situations is, in fact, very dynamic and dependent upon several personal factors such as: age, experience, social-emotional skills and access to services. That is to say, while adversity may be felt across the globe in the wake of a pandemic or some other disaster, how young people cope with it can vary greatly.

The webinar, which was broadcasted live in partnership with Humanity Rising and Ubiquity University, included testimony from teachers from around the world regarding what they have experienced as educators since the start of the pandemic. Together with an international cross section of students they also submitted video statements regarding both the challenges and some of the strategies they have adopted to make something positive and inspiring out of the experience.

In the third and final act of the online gathering a panel of experts consisting of Ashley Nemiro from the MHPSS Collaborative; Dr. Shekhar Seshadri, Child Psychiatrist, NIMHANS; and Simón Martínez Abadía, Cultural Manager and Teacher from MasterPeace Colombia. Panelists explored local experiences related to working with young people in addressing trauma, as well as policies related to better addressing mental health of young people around the world.

As a first in what hopes to become a series of events and activities around mental well being, the webinar concluded by taking stock of what we have learned from the adversity of the past years and how we can benefit from this knowledge. Among the many conclusions was an inspiring call to action by Dr. Shekhar Seshadri, to help children create memories, to remember this pandemic not just as a period of bad things and frustration, but as a positive experience where there was time to do fun things, learn in different ways, and be creative.

https://youtu.be/tqdiBJlZAHk

Editor's Note: This article focuses specifically on teachers and students and the experiences of not having access to schools during a crisis. MasterPeace does not seek to undermine government policies regarding health and safety. We do not claim to know better than scientists and elected officials.

Additonal Reading:

• UNICEF State of the world report on Mental health
• OECD Education Working Paper: Improving education outcomes for students who have experienced trauma and/or adversity