Hope for a Better World through Peace-Building Skills
How do you create peace? The question stands at the heart of ARK. War and violence come too easily. Bombs, guns, bullets, battleships — we human beings build and use them without a second thought. Creating peace, however, is much harder. Peace comes from actively learning and absorbing the core principles of cooperation, appreciation of diversity, responsible decision making and conflict resolution.
For two weeks a year, in the summers of 2003 (ARK I), 2004 (ARK II), 2005 (ARK III, 2007 (ARK IV) and 2009 (ARK V), young people gathered from different countries and cultures to learn and teach peace-building skills focusing on the strengths of dignity, dialogue and responsibility. The 60 young people and 12 adults of ARK V represent:
- Indigenous Mayans from San Lucas, Guatemala
- Palestinians from the Middle East
- Lithuanians
- Africans from Malawi
- African-, Native-, Vietnamese-, Chinese-, Egyptian- and Anglo-Americans from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
They gathered for ARK V in San Lucas, Guatemala, June 10-24, 2009 to expand and deepen their commitment to peace building. Their theme: A Culture of Peace. They collaborated as servant leaders, learning to communicate in, around and despite four languages: Spanish, Arabic, Lithuanian and English. Using the model of servant leadership, they created an environment in which listening, mutual respect, discernment/wisdom, respectful problem sharing and solving resulted in community building that flourished. They bonded as a compassionate global family.
This quilt was created and made for ARK by Kathy Dobovsky of Minneapolis. It celebrates all five of the ARK summits.
