On 13 July 2022, at the American University of Armenia (AUA) the first introductory meeting took place with the first group of the YMCA Scholarship Program participants and the YMCA Europe team. During the meeting each of the participants had a chance to present himself/herself and share their interest and motivation, knowledge and skills they […]
“My story in Roots started seven years ago. In 2015, I attended a ProFest which still is one of my most beloved YMCA memories. In 2017, I got the honor to join Peace Work Institute, and since then I have been actively involved in different projects and activities within the Roots. There are things we […]
What is PEACE for me? A short word with a deep meaning. Peace, as well as happiness, is difficult to evaluate. When we have it, we take it for granted. And it seems that’s how it should be. Because peace, love, joy and beauty are our nature, our divine foundation. We are enjoying the sun […]
“Before I tell you what the e-bridge is about and why it is so important for me as a young person, let me go back to the beginning of how the story started and how we came up with this project. Back in 2020, when the world got hit by COVID-19 and our lives changed […]
“As our staff worked through the summer months preparing the e-bridge digital platform, we dreamed together about how young people would engage with the platform and how it would open new conversations and hopefully help our communities look forward. There was a new air of optimism in Kosovo as for the first time in the […]
…I felt very proud and excited to become one of the ‘Rooters’ with the Peace Work Institute in 2012 and for what is about to happen]and considered it a responsibility… We, young people have used this space to build relationships across cultural dividers… I come from Georgia. It is a small country with two red points on the […]
Upon applying for one of the Peace Work Institute, I was nervous and excited, I wasn’t sure what I would experience. Now, I can truly say each project has blown my expectations out of the water. I was met with wonderful, friendly, intelligent peacemakers who have now become my dear friends. I have learnt vastly about peace […]
I felt a bit privileged to be invited to participate in this Project (‘Give Peace a Chance’ – ROOTS Tandem Group Project – Istanbul, Turkey) as a guest because I was neither a Peace Work Institute participant, nor a Tandem Group member. As all my fellow friends, I had certain concerns about the visit to Turkey and the […]
Quite to my astonishment, the Peace Work Institute ‘happened’ to me, like all the best things in life, when I didn’t even know how much I needed them and what a significant impact they would have. I joined Peace Work Institute at the second training session in Berlin as a part of the Art4Peace project. Being a part of several YMCA TenSing […]
Before becoming a part of the Peace Work Institute family, I have heard about this project from my friends who were participating in the previous events held by the Roots. The stories they told, the emotions they had, the connections they kept with the international friends made me think of becoming one of them. I applied and got admitted. At first, I […]
