Middle East Association of Training and Retreat Centers
MEATRC
 

Activities' Report 2002 / 2003
Prepared by Nuha Khoury, October 2003

The year 2002/2003 was the year we began addressing the theme of Non–Violence, Conflict Resolution, Reconciliation and Mediation. The capacity building program, which MEATRC had followed in 2001 and 2002, had enabled it to deal with the issue of Non–Violence, Conflict Resolution, Reconciliation and Mediation that its sister associations in OIKOSNET had started with in 2000. The approach that MEATRC used and continues to use in dealing with the issue of Non–Violence, Conflict Resolution, Reconciliation and Mediation, maintains the capacity building element through conducting of workshops for our member centers on conflict resolution and non-violent communications. Given the need to continue with the capacity-building programs for the member centers of, MEATRC has decided to continue with these programs on the sub-regional level. The regions themselves will determine the themes of these programs. As for the activities that have taken place on the regional and sub-regional levels from October 2002 until October 2003, the following is a report:

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Executive Committee Meetings

1. An Executive Committee meeting took place on 26-27 November 2002 in Aiya Napa Conference Center, Cyprus. The discussion focused on the following issues:

2. An Executive Committee meeting took place on July16-17, 2003 in Aiya Napa Conference Center, Cyprus. The discussion focused on the following issues:

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Regional Training

The annual regional meeting was held in November21-26, 2002. The training program was held in Aiya Napa Conference Center, Cyprus, and was conducted in partnership with the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC). This cooperation between MEATRC and the MECC was very fruitful and will be repeated for other programs. The training, which introduced the participants to the alternative dispute resolution techniques, including: mediation, arbitration, conflict strategies, dispute management, negotiations techniques, etc., ended the 2-year focus of MEATRC on capacity building, on the regional level, and introduced the subject of Non–Violence, Conflict Resolution, Reconciliation and Mediation to MEATRC’s member centers. A visit to Nicosia, the former capital of Cyprus that was divided after the 1974 war, was conducted as part of program.

One session of the Regional Training was dedicated to the discussion of MEATRC website, which Vesper Society, through Network 21, is supporting. Shady Hannoneh, from the International Center of Bethlehem, discussed the benefits of having the Website, and explained the technical aspects that the member centers of MEATRC needed to know to send the relevant information for the Website.

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Sub Regional Training

a. Egypt

·        October 21-25/2002. A four-day training at Itsa Center was held on “Foundational Support.” This workshop was the second workshop, the first of which took place in December 2001. However, one session of this workshop was dedicated to the issue of violence and the 3 participants of the CLLT from MEATRC were able to share their experience in that session 

The main issues that the training focused on were the following:

1. Capacity building definitions

2. Main Factor of the capacity building 

3. Institutional capacity building steps.

4. The differences between training and capacity building.

5. Organization assessment

6. Performance indicators

7. Performance gaps

8. Training interventions and nun training interventions

9. Contents of institutional capacity building plan.

10. Capacity Building strategies

The main issues of the training was as following:

1. The Biblical conception of Conflict Resolution

2. Biblical images of the conflict management 

3. The human continuance and the community interaction

4. What is the conflict?                                                              

5. The head lines for conflict management

6. Problem-analysis

7. The negotiation and its roles

8. The intervention: Intervention between two disputants

b. Syria and Lebanon

The main issues that were dealt with in the workshop were:

1. The patterns of violence, which include:

- Image violence

- Motion/movement violence

- Violence of speech

- Violence in mass media

2. The subject on Education and Violence was also introduced and the issues discussed were as follows:

- Violence in the family

- Violence in the School

- Violence in the Street

- Violence in Social Organizations

3. Violence and Parties was another topic that was introduced, and the issues discussed were as follows:

- Violence of the Authorities (Government)

- Violence of the Political Parties

- Violence of Political Movements

4. A field visit was conducted to Khiam Prison in South Lebanon as part of the program. The visit included listening to stories of torture, which took place during the Israeli occupation in South Lebanon.  On the way back, the group visited the Antoinette's Convent in Nabatieh.

c. Palestine

On November, 2002-January 2003 a seminar on volunteering was organized by the International Center of Bethlehem. The seminar, to which a follow-up workshop was organized on Monday & Tuesday, June 30 - July 1, 2003, aimed at increasing the spirit of volunteerism and was designed to equip organizations to develop a cadre of volunteers for their organizations.

Seventeen people from 9 local NGOs/CROs gathered at the International Center of Bethlehem for the workshop entitled “Building a Society of Volunteers.” Al-Liqa, also a member of MEATRC, participated and were joined by representatives from the Arab Educational Institute, Bethlehem University, the Peace Center of Bethlehem, Sabeel Liberation Theology Center, Wi’am, and the YMCA Rehabilitation Center.

The workshop dealt with the theory and history of volunteerism, covering such topics as: what is volunteerism, the history of volunteerism in Palestine, the importance of volunteerism in building civil society, the characteristics of volunteers and the ethics of volunteerism. The workshop also focused on practical considerations for strengthening volunteer programs. Discussion centered on the particular experience of local institutions in their volunteer programs, and how to recruit, select and train volunteers. Throughout, the discussion was lively. While the experience of the participating institutions with volunteers differed, all expressed a need to improve how they deal with volunteers, including better orientation and training for them. In the evaluations, everyone expressed keen interest in more training in this area, particularly focusing on how to motivate volunteers in Palestinian society. Another workshop responding to the needs of the participants is planed for December 2003. 

d. Cyprus 

During the summer of 2003, the Aiya Napa Conference Center (ANCC) organized a conference on peace and reconciliation in Ayia Napa Conference Center under the title “Monitoring Civil Peace in Lebanon: The Declining State and Alert Citizenship." An on going program since 1999, a report was published for the fifth year in a row, which is based on a Grid of 120 indicators of the Lebanese coexistence pact, documentary research and a debate that gathered over twenty university students, researchers and social actors.

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 Publications

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Network’21

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Remaining Scheduled Activities for 2003

The annual regional training program for MEATRC members will be held in Beit al-Salam Conference in Alexandria- Egypt between 5 – 10 Nov 2003. The training program, entitled “Together we Reconcile with God and the Others,” will continue with the theme of Non–Violence, Conflict Resolution, Reconciliation and Mediation, and will focus on training the member Centers on conflict resolution strategies and techniques.

1.   Lebanon and Syria

A one-week training Communication workshop on computer and Internet use is organized at the end of November 2003 for the Syrian centers.

2. Palestine

A continuation of the workshop on the issue of Volunteers will be held in Palestine at the International Center of Bethlehem in December of 2003.

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The OIKOSNET Evaluation

During the 25^th Annual meeting of OIKOSNET in Thailand in October 2002, a decision was made to conduct an external evaluation of the OIKOSNET. Two regions selected for this evaluation, namely MEATRC and ACISCA.