Peace Education
Aaghaz-e-Dosti is involved in citizen diplomacy primiarly through peace education activities in schools and colleges in India and Pakistan. The aim is to break stereotypes and misconceptions, facilitate an understanding of the issues of conflict, its victims, how it affects us all and develop faith in peace building and conflict resolution.
Some of our current peace education activities are:
Aman Chaupal – We organise interaction sessions wherein someone from Pakistan addresses the questions of students. This session is a question-answer format so the focus is completely to have the audience get answers, understand the “other” perspective, side of the story which otherwise remains inaccessible due to politics of knowledge and media.
Classroom to Classroom Connect – We connect an Indian classroom with a classroom in Pakistan through video conference to facilitate interaction between students. The students interact with their peers across the border. The students of both countries tell each other about their country, their everyday life and culture thereby countering stereotypes and misconceptions. We have had really interesting conversations in these sessions, like Indian and Pakistani students jointly singing songs.
Peace Workshops – We conduct peace building workshops in India and Pakistan to facilitate an understanding of peace building, conflict resolution in general and Indo-Pak issues in specific. The theme and content of workshops of Aaghaz-e-Dosti are customised according to the institution and the audience. To know more, see
Letter Exchange Program – We have Letter exchange Programs between students of an Indian and a Pakistani school. This initiative called “Indo-Pak Pen Pals” has three modules meant to facilitate knowledge exchange and interaction between students.
Greeting Card Exchange Program – We have Indian and Pakistani schools, alternative educational institutions to exchange cards on Independence Day, Festivals and Solidarity cards (we had students to send solidarity cards for Peshawar School Attack, Gulshan i Iqbal Blast, Uri Attack to their peers across the border) to break stereotypes.
Indo-Pak Peace Calendar – Indo-Pak Peace Calendar is a unique calendar by Aaghaz-e-Dosti that carries twelve beautiful paintings made by students from India and Pakistan, and messages of peace from renowned Indo-Pak peace personalities.
Friends Beyond Borders – Friends Beyond Borders (FBB) is an eight-week virtual peace building course of Aaghaz-e-Dosti wherein an Indian and a Pakistani are paired to be e-pals. Over eight weeks, e-pals are guided by a mentor who gives them weekly plans/activities based on a curriculum designed to familiarize them with the ‘other’, its culture, society, politics and the existence of divergent narratives.
We are open to explore more activities.
Join the Peace Education School Network
We invite your esteemed school to be a part of our peace education school network. We have had participation from the following schools:
India
- City Montessori School, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
- Columbia Foundation Sr Sec School, Delhi
- Delhi University Social Centre school, Delhi
- Ecole Mondiale World School, Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Fr Agnel School, Delhi
- Gems Akademia International School, Kolkata, West Bengal
- Gujarat Public School, Vadodara, Gujarat
- Gyan Mandir Public School, Delhi
- Hali Apna School, Panipat, Haryana
- Headstart School, Bangalore, Karnataka
- Indraprastha Hindu Girls Sr. Sec School, Delhi
- ITL Public School, Delhi
- Kendriya Vidyalaya, Hakimpet, Telangana
- Kendriya Vidyala NRC, Nashik, Maharashtra
- Kendriya Vidyalaya School No. 1, Uppal Hyderabad, Telangana
- KIIT World School, Delhi
- Navnirman Vidyalaya, Surat, Gujarat
- Navrachna International School, Vadodara, Gujarat
- Pardada Pardadi Inter College, Anupshahr village, UP
- Prakriya Green Wisdom School, Bangalore, Karnataka
- Purkal Youth Development Society, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
- Rainbow English Sr. Sec. School, Delhi
- Rishikul Senior Secondary School, Village Ahar Kurana, Panipat
- Sabir Abdullah Public High School, Panzinara, Srinagar, J&K
- Sir Chhoturam Heritage Public School, Panipat, Haryana
- St Fidelis College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
- St Stephens School, Chandigarh
Pakistan
- AIOU, Gojra, Toba Tek Singh
- Air Foundation School System, Umerkot, Sindh
- Bacha Khan Model High School, Swabi, KPK
- Bacha Khan Model High School, Nauthia, KPK
- Excellent Education Center, Lahore
- Evergreen Schooling Systems, Karachi
- Ghauri Wisdom High School, Lahore
- GDA Public Higher Secondary School, Gwadar, Balochistan
- Govt Degree College, Chitral
- G.H. School, Gojra, Toba Tek Singh
- Habib Girls Higher Secondary School, Karach
- Hampton School, Karachi
- Islamabad Model college for girls, Islamabad
- Lahore Grammar School, Johar Town branch, Lahore
- Lahore Grammar School, Township branch, Lahore
- Lang Lands School & College, Chitral
- Lasani Public School, Sadiqabad
- National College of Mandi, Faizabad, Dist Nankana Sahib
- National Textile Institute, Islamabad
- Resource Academia International School System, Lahore
- Saint Anthony School, Rawalpindi
- School of International Studies in Science and Arts, Lahore
- SLS School, Islamabad
- SMB Fatimah Jinnah Govt Girls School, Karachi
- Sir Syed Ideal School System, Islamabad
- Street to School Organisation, Karachi
- St Patrick’s High School, Karachi
- St Patrick’s College, Karachi
- Unique School System, Mazang, Lahore
Oman
- Indian School, Salalah
To contact us, kindly drop an email at aaghazedosti@gmail.com
Aaghaz-e-Dosti 