Clark University - Clark News Fall 2002
Nurturing the Seeds of Peace (fall 2002)
Alumnus helps teens from the Middle East build friendship and trust
By Judith Jaeger
It looks like an ordinary summer camp. Teenagers play sports, do arts and crafts, swim. They eat meals together and sleep in bunk houses at night. But as Ethan Schechter '02 will tell you, the Seeds of Peace International Camp is anything but ordinary.
Seeds of Peace is a nonprofit, non-political organization that helps teenagers from regions of conflict, mainly the Middle East and the Balkans, learn the skills of peace making. The summer camp, which is located in western Maine, brings together teenagers from opposing sides of national conflicts for three weeks of activities focused on building trust and friendship and humanizing the other side. For one three-week session this summer, for example, the camp was populated by teenagers from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The goal of Seeds of Peace is to teach these teenagers the skills to overcome cultural differences and live together peacefully at camp, so that they can use those skills and experiences at home. The hope is that these teenagers will become adults who not only want peace in their region, but also have the skills to achieve it.
Schechter, who was a counselor at the camp this summer, describes the experience as "very intense."
"It's also such a rewarding experience. I really feel like I'm doing something significant, that I'm making a positive change," Schechter says.
Learning to live together
In many ways, the camp is like any other. A typical day includes a wide variety of activities, including sports, art, drama, fishing and canoeing. There's an afternoon swim session in the lake and a special activity every night. But each day also includes one or more coexistence sessions. In these two-hour meetings, Schechter explains, the teenagers work in small groups with professional facilitators to talk about how they have been affected by the conflicts in their region.
Coexistence permeates all aspects of camp life, Schechter says. Teenagers from different nations are mixed together in every activity. In one session of camp, Schechter chaperoned a bunk house of Pakistanis, Indians and Afghanis. Everyone speaks English, Schechter adds, not only to promote communication, but to prevent campers from spending time only with people from their own country.
"The whole point is to get out of your comfort zone," Schechter says.
Friendship, trust and communication
As a counselor, Schechter taught canoeing and street hockey, helped organize evening activities and slept in the bunk houses. He adds that counselors also help foster trust and friendship among the different cultural groups at camp. To that end, the counselors receive extensive training. Schechter learned about physical and emotional trauma, and what to do if a camper has a flashback. Current and former State Department officials and foreign-service professionals also briefed counselors about the campers' homelands and the conflicts in those areas of the world.
Fostering communication was also part of Schechter's work as a counselor. Although they aren't directly involved with the coexistence sessions, Schechter says, counselors help the campers continue those discussions informally throughout the day. If he noticed a conversation that was beginning to escalate, for example, Schechter made sure both campers were seated, or reminded them to take turns listening and talking. According to Schechter, not everyone arrives in Maine prepared to listen.
"It's a peace camp, so everyone assumes they're going to make peace with the enemy and that's not always the case. Some just want to explain their situation to the other side but aren't ready to listen. Teaching people to listen is a large part of the process," he says.
A life-changing experience
This was Schechter's first summer as a Seeds of Peace camp counselor, but it was not his first time at the camp. Schechter was 14 years old when he was first invited to attend the camp as part of the American delegation. It was a life-changing experience.
"As a 14-year-old American, I hadn't been exposed to people outside my own community," says Schechter, who attended the camp from 1995 to 1998. "Hearing the stories from the other kids and what they had been through totally opened my mind."
Although he took a break from the camp while in college, Seeds of Peace continued to influence Schechter's life. At Clark, Schechter studied the Middle East and approached his scholarship with an international focus by completing his degree in the University's International Studies Stream. During his junior year, he studied at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. Schechter was there at the start of the Palestinian uprising and lost a friend from Seeds of Peace in the opening rounds of violence.
"It was an amazing year," he says. "I came back a very different person than when I left."
Although he's not sure how just yet, Schechter hopes to put these experiences to good use.
"I'm still not sure what I want to do, but I know that I'm interested in the Middle East and in conflict resolution," he says.
For now, Schechter is working with the Seeds of Peace—Jerusalem Center, organizing meetings for Israeli and Palestinian campers to help them stay in touch with each other and providing a safe meeting space.
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Ethan Schechter '02 at the Seeds of Peace International Camp