Pro Peace

🕊️ Peace can be learned | Western Balkans 🌍
In the Western Balkans, learning peace also means looking back to move forward: How can learning about the past help young people shape a more peaceful future?
In Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo, students learn about the Holocaust, but often have few opportunities to explore its regional history and the experiences of local Jewish communities. At the same time, teachers often lack accessible resources and practical tools for teaching this complex and sensitive history.
Together with local partners, Pro Peace developed a Teacher’s Manual and trained around 250 teachers on how to teach Holocaust and sensitive topics.
These trainings go beyond historical facts. They equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to explore with their students how prejudice, discrimination and exclusion can grow – and what this history can teach us about our own choices today.
Peace can be learned. 💛

🕊️ Peace can be learned | Germany 🌍

Young people face conflicts, different opinions and growing polarization every day. But where do they learn how to deal with them?

In Germany, peace education is still not systematically embedded in schools. Yet the ability to resolve conflicts without violence, question stereotypes and understand different perspectives needs to be learned and practised.

That’s why Pro Peace and a broad alliance launched “Frieden in den Lehrplan” – Peace in the Curriculum.

The campaign calls for peace education to become a permanent part of Germany’s education system – from primary school to graduation.

More than 9,000 people have already signed. Want to join them? Sign the petition “Frieden in den Lehrplan”. 🕊️

Schon Pläne für die nächsten Tage? Besucht uns auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse in Halle 3 Stand H32!
Wir freuen uns mit euch zu quatschen und die Friedensarbeit von Pro Peace näher zu bringen denn Frieden beginnt mit Bildung!

🕊️ Peace can be learned | Ukraine 🌍
In Odesa, Russia’s full-scale invasion shapes everyday life. Repeated drone and missile attacks, displacement and insecurity put enormous pressure on people and can strain relationships between neighbors.
In these difficult circumstances, community-led activities become even more important.
Together with our partner Zatsikavleni, Pro Peace supports residents in taking action. They learn to identify shared problems, listen to different perspectives, mobilize their communities and develop practical solutions together.
This also means creating dialogue between residents, municipal services and local authorities – connecting those affected by local challenges with those who can help address them.
The goal: instead of waiting for change, neighbours organize, engage with local institutions and help shape it themselves.
Because even in times of war, people can strengthen their communities by acting together.

, Geschäftsführer Gesellschaft im Wandel gGmbH
Wir fordern:
▪️Friedensbildung von der Grundschule bis zur Oberstufe in die Curricula aufnehmen
▪️Friedensbildung in der Aus- und Weiterbildung von Lehrkräften stärken
▪️Mehr Fachleute für Friedensbildung an die Schulen, statt nur Jugendoffiziere der Bundeswehr
👉 Jetzt unterzeichnen: www.propeace.de/lehrplan

Bündnispartner:
.familienbildungswerk_ob .bildungswerk .bawue Friedensinstitut der .for.future
afpb e. V., Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienst für den Frieden e. V., Bildungswerk der Deutschen Friedensgesellschaft – Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen Hessen, Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend – Diözesanverband Freiburg, Eine Welt Netz Oberhausen e.V., Friedensakademie Rheinland-Pfalz – Akademie für Krisenprävention und Zivile Konfliktbearbeitung, Friedensinitiative Oberhausen, KURVE Wustrow - Bildungs- und Begegnungsstätte für gewaltfreie Aktion e. V., Ohne Rüstung Leben e. V., pax christi Diözesanverband Speyer, Referat Friedensbildung im Ökumenewerk der Nordkirche, Stiftung die schwelle
Erstunterzeichnende:
.karim l Zeynep Karaosman von
& viele weitere!
Danke an

🕊️ Peace can be learned | Jordan 🌍

In Jordan, 25 young facilitators from seven governorates came together to explore a practical question: How can we deal with disagreements without letting them divide us?

Through the National Dialogue Forum, they practised how to listen before reacting, question stereotypes, look for common ground and make sure different perspectives are heard.

Then they put these skills into practice. The facilitators organised their own dialogue activities in their communities, bringing other young people together to talk through differences and disagreements. A practical training manual helps them continue using and sharing what they have learned.

Because peace starts with something very practical: listening before reacting, trying to understand another perspective and finding ways forward together.

Peace can be learned. 💛

🕊️ Peace can be learned | Philippines 🌍

In the Philippines, history taught in schools has long focused heavily on the north of the country. Stories and perspectives from Mindanao in the south – home to many Muslim and Indigenous communities – have received far less attention.

But how we learn about the past shapes how we see the present. When perspectives are missing, stereotypes can persist – and conflicts become harder to understand and in turn address.
That’s where the Mindanao History Studies Roadshow comes in.

Through exhibitions, films and discussions, students learn about perspectives from Mindanao that many have rarely come across in the classroom. Since 2023, the roadshow has reached around 1,000 students.

And it doesn’t stop there. More than 100 textbooks and teaching materials have been reviewed with a simple but important question: Whose stories are being told in the Philippine education system – and whose are still missing?

Peace can be learned. 💛

🕊️ Peace can be learned | Palestine & Israel 🌍

In Palestine, ten women journalists came together in Ramallah for three days to explore a practical question: How can we tell stories responsibly – especially when they deal with conflict and sensitive issues?

Together, they practised how to check whether information is reliable, protect their social-media accounts and create content that is accurate, engaging and sensitive to conflict.

Because the way stories are told matters. What journalists verify, how they frame an issue and whose perspectives they include can shape how people understand each other and a conflict.

Peace can be learned. 💛

🕊Um Anmeldung wird gebeten🕊
Gespräch mit Ghassan Bannoura & Elie Avidor aus Palästina & Israel mit anschließendem offenen Austausch
Zeit: Mittwoch, 14. Oktober 2026, 19 Uhr
Ort: Kölner VHS-Forum im Museum am Neumarkt, Cäcilienstraße 29-33, 50667 Köln
Sprache: Englisch mit Übersetzung ins Deutsche
Eintritt: frei
Veranstalter: Pro Peace, AGIAMONDO e.V., Kölner VHS
Register here: https://www.propeace.de/de/anmeldung-zur-veranstaltung

Info:
Seit dem 7. Oktober 2023 und dem darauffolgenden Krieg in Gaza ist das Bemühen um Friedensfindung einmal mehr deutlich erschwert.
Ghassan Bannoura und Elie Avidor von der israelisch-palästinensischen Bewegung Combatants for Peace berichten aus erster Hand über die aktuelle Lage im Westjordanland. Gemeinsam geben sie Einblicke, wie sich das Leben der Menschen in den vergangenen Jahren verändert hat – und wie Israelis und Palästinenser*innen auch unter diesen schwierigen Bedingungen gemeinsam und gewaltfrei für eine friedliche Zukunft eintreten.
Combatants for Peace wurde vor 20 Jahren von ehemaligen israelischen Soldaten und palästinensischen Kämpfern gegründet. Sie legten ihre Waffen nieder und beschlossen, sich gemeinsam gewaltfrei für eine friedliche Zukunft einzusetzen. Mit zivilem Widerstand, Bildungsarbeit und kreativen, gewaltfreien Formen des Aktivismus arbeitet Combatants for Peace daran, Strukturen der Unterdrückung zu überwinden und eine Realität zu schaffen, in der alle Menschen in Palästina und Israel in Würde und Sicherheit leben können.

🕊️ International Day of Peace | 21. September
Frieden kann man lernen! 🌍🕊️
Heute, am Internationalen Tag des Friedens, machen auf die Bedeutung von Friedensbildung aufmerksam. In verschiedenen Ländern und Kontexten arbeiten wir mit Menschen, die lernen, Konflikte friedlich zu bewältigen, Dialog zu fördern und zu gerechteren und inklusiveren Gesellschaften beizutragen.
In den kommenden Wochen werden die Pro Peace-Programme weltweit zeigen, wie Friedensbildung in ihrer Arbeit aussieht – von Schulen und Jugendgruppen über Gemeinschaften bis hin zu politischem Engagement.