Building Bridges Toolkit

The Toolkit was designed to collect and share the know-how on voluntary projects involving people seeking or who have recently found refuge, as well as raising awareness on forced migration in general. The collection of guidelines, methods and case studies is non-exhaustive and should simply foster your own inspiration and support you in implementing projects on the topic. The creation of the Toolkit has been driven by the ever bigger need of the international SCI network to exchange best practices on projects in the field. It was coordinated by SCI Switzerland with the support of Útilapu Hungary. Its existence wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Mercator Foundation Switzerland and the active contribution of the Building Bridges working group and a number of SCI branches.

METHODS AND TOOLS serve to support your work on the topic of refugees and migration with different target groups.

PEACE ISLAND

Peace education game

Time needed: 30-40 min

Objectives / aim: Think creatively on rights and rules

Level of Difficulty: easy

Resources needed: paper, markers, maybe scissors, glue, colored paper

Number of participants: Any

    Description
    This game gets the participants thinking creatively on rights and rules, works as an introduction the topic of peace and shows that we create the way we are getting along with each other.

    Steps: 

    1. Divide participants into small groups
    2. Ask participants to close their eyes and read the following text:
    «Imagine you have discovered an unknown peaceful island on which nobody lives and, as a consequence, on which there are neither rules nor regulations. Together with friends from your group, you are going to settle down there and form your own country. You don’t know what social position you will have. The task of your group is first to give a name to your island and then to agree in the group on three most important rules in your country to keep the peace on the island.»
    3. Inform that the results should be fixed on a sheet of paper. The results will be presented in front of the other groups and will be discussed jointly. The way of presentation is open. (See tips)
    4. After discussion one person from each group presents and explains the results of their work. Compare the work of different groups and then sum up the discussion:

    • Where are similarities between the groups, where are differences?
    • Was it easy to develop the idea of the island and still keeping the peaceful atmosphere?
    • What people should do to avoid wars and solve conflicts peacefully? What can we do?

    Tips:

    • You can open the phase of creation of the island so that the participants not only write down their rules but also draw, stick houses…
    • The same method can be used to start discussion on human rights.
    • You can also use this exercise at he beginning of a workcamp, to set the rules within the volunteer group.

    Link:

    Reference / original source of the method
    No More War Toolkit, p.39 (former SCI campaign)

    CONTRIBUTE!

    You can share your experience, observations, tips and tricks, pictures etc. by uploading for instance a method or a case study to the Building Bridges Toolkit. As this Toolkit is a work in progress to which all involved parties are invited to contribute, we would also be very grateful for your support and contribution in order to inspire others to continue the work towards peace and intercultural understanding.