Generations For Peace, Tastakel partner for first-ever programme in Syria

AMMAN — Generations For Peace and Tastakel Women’s Organisation have announced a partnership to implement the “IDEAS”programme, to promote Interfaith Dialogue for Empowering and Advancing Society across multiple areas in Syria. 

The seven-month programme will start in January and is Generations For Peace’s first-ever programme in Syria, according to a statement from the global non-profit peacebuilding organisation.   

Generations For Peace has had active programmes across the region and globally for the last 14 years, including supporting Syrian refugees and host communities as part of the Syrian Refugee Response in Jordan and Lebanon. 

Now, this first programme partnership in Syria is intended to pilot implementation addressing the unique local context in different communities in the country, the statement said. 

The selected implementation locations present an opportunity to engage and bring together members of many diverse groups and components of the Syrian population. 

The programme engages people from multiple Syrian regions; some are areas of majority Sunni Arab Muslims, while in contrast other locations have unique historical ties to the Greek Orthodox Christian community. 

It also engages communities with varied ethnic identities, like Kurdish and Turkmen identities, particularly from places where the recent conflict and intervention by other local and regional military forces has caused increased tension between Kurdish and Arab residents, the statement said.  

Carol Daniel-Kasbari, Chief Programmes Officer at Generations For Peace, said: “Partnering with Tastakel enables the programme to leverage the unique access Tastakel has to all of these different identity groups, to bring together a diverse group of beneficiaries and create an inclusive peacebuilding community in Syria.” 

“With support from Generations For Peace, Tastakel will cultivate and train women and men in essential skills for conflict transformation across faith lines, as well as support the empowerment of women in civil society. We will focus on areas with high potential for interfaith interaction among participants of all sectarian backgrounds including Sunnis, Alawites, Christians, Kurds and Druze. In doing so, we aim to create agents of societal transformation capable of uniting diverse communities around a common goal, leveraging and developing the tools at their disposal, and sowing the seeds of long-term, sustainable peace in Syria,” she said.

Hind Kabawat, President of Tastakel, said: “This partnership with Generations For Peace is a great opportunity for us to work with a reputable and like-minded partner to initiate dialogue among women and men from all religions and invest in conflict transformation education, offering intensive leadership workshops and support for local community initiatives.” 

“Engaging women in such a process and creating space for them to undertake active roles in civil society, is extremely important to build a stronger, equal and more collaborative society. The greatest change agent regarding all the issues around gender, race, war, class and religion in the future of Syria will be an emerging network of empowered men and women,” Kabawat added.

The pilot programme will train 120 individuals, aged 18-45, 60 per cent female, 40 per cent male, working for Syria-focused organisations, with an emphasis on locally based non-governmental organisations with a focus on humanitarian services, peacebuilding, or public services.

The training will include law and transitional justice; gender; advocacy; resilience; conflict transformation and peacebuilding. The programme combines theory and practice, with the community initiatives component providing an opportunity for the trainees to design and implement mini-projects relevant to their local context, the statement said. 

Generations For Peace (GFP) is a Jordan-based global non-profit organisation founded and chaired by HRH Prince Feisal, dedicated to sustainable peace building and conflict transformation through sport, arts, advocacy, dialogue, empowerment and media. 

Tastakel is a non-governmental, non-profit Syrian organisation initiated by a collective of Syrian women who believe in the power of ideas, education, dialogue, and mediation to build stronger societies by supporting women’s role in peacebuilding.