Bring 24 young ambassadors together for peace

Welcome to the latest update from Encompass Trust, on the progress of our international programmes. We are delighted to tell you that the next international programme (February 2016) is nearly here. We have been recruiting participants over the last few months and are nearly there in terms of the 24 required to make sure that the programme is diverse and engaging.

The programme is taking place at the Plas Gwynant Outdoor Education Centre in Snowdonia, North Wales; a venue that Encompass has used many times before. The staff and facilities are excellent and highly tailored to enable us to run the workshops and team-building activities that are so important to the success of our programmes.

Each programme cohort includes:

Eight young people from the UK. Why? Because the UK is diverse, yet often communities are closed in a sense that many live side by side but not mixing in multi-cultural activities. And of course in the UK, as of much of Western Europe, there has been a dark undertone of right wing scaremongering against new peoples and asylum seekers.

Four young people from the US. Why? - Because the US is diverse, but often communities live separate lives, and because the US is such an enormous country, many young people don't get to travel outside of their country to experience other cultures first-hand.

Four young people from Israel. Why? - Because Israel and some of its neighbours are living side by side in a state of tension and hatred.

Four young people from Palestine. Why? - Because Palestine and its neighbour Israel live in constant mistrust and fear of each other.

Four young people from Indonesia. Why? - Because Indonesia is diverse yet often sees internal religious conflict. It is of course, also the home of the Bali bombers, who planted the bomb that killed Daniel Braden, in whose name Encompass was set up.

Planning

Over the past few months, Programme Development Officer Sahdia Khan and Facilitator Helen Bartlett have been meeting regularly to plan the Feb 2016 international programme and we can safely say that they have settled on a robust and powerful programme of activities and workshops, aimed at addressing themes of identity, community, stereotype and conflict. The programme runs over a week and each day is very full of activities. At the end of the week the participants get to take part in a 'Take-over Day', where they have the opportunity to be the facilitators themselves. This gives them valuable prospect enhancing skills.

Programme Officer Sahdia, said about the programme, "We are so excited that it's nearly here. Each programme is unique and we aim to keep the activities structured yet flexible. For example, a few years ago it was necessary to change one of the days around because of events that occurred in the Middle East. It shows how relevant our programmes are. They aim to tackle real issues in a safe and secure setting."

Thank you for your support for Encompass. Look out for our next report when we will be sharing all that happened on the February programme.