Stories from the Field

In 2009, Laura Molnar returned to Romania full of enthusiasm after attending a training workshop in Geneva, Switzerland on a recently launched program called Learning to Live Together (LTLT). “This is exactly what I was looking for,” she thought and immediately began working to engage teachers in Bucharest to implement the program with their students. […]

Tana River County in southeastern Kenya is an emblem of diversity and resilience. Endowed with natural resources, it has endless potential, but the harsh weather conditions test the strength of its people daily. The land swings between extremes—erratic rainfall with upstream floods one season, and relentless drought and water scarcity the next. These conditions often

Shanti Ashram is a creative laboratory that addresses local issues and provides constructive solutions for communities in Coimbatore, India. With a team of only 40 members, the organization has managed to reach 250,000 people all around Coimbatore and some other areas of India. How has Shanti Ashram achieved such an impact? If presented with this

Ms. Nageeba Hassan has been at the forefront of the implementation and training on the Learning to Live Together Programme in Uganda, reaching children, parents, and teachers through Restoring and Empowering Communities (REC), an organization that she co-founded in 2004.

A teacher by profession, she has expertise in the fields of counseling, positive parenting, meditation, negotiation, interreligious dialogue, and intercultural learning. Her hard work and passion have taken her to many countries, training teachers and educators on ethics education for children, and speaking about interfaith collaboration. Her persistency and drive have helped her make real changes in the lives of many children in Uganda, their families, and their communities.

Since 2011, the Learning to Live Together (LTLT) Programme has been making headway in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the leadership of Ms. Ismeta Salihspahić, local GNRC Coordinator, and one of the main advocators of the Programme in the country. In the past couple of years, the Programme has reached more than 400 students annually, in six different schools, fostering solidarity and mutual understanding among children from different religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Since May 2019, teachers in the counties of Baringo and Elgeyo-Marakwet, in Kenya, have been systematically implementing the Learning to Live Together Programme among students from 30 schools, following the Teachers Activity Book developed for the implementation process.

This is the outcome of the 4-days Facilitator Training Workshop help in April 2019, for 64 teachers on the use of the LTLT Programme. The workshop was organized by World Vision Kenya, and KNATCOM, with the technical support of Arigatou International – Geneva.

Ms. Mercedes Román has been a key driving force in the implementation and dissemination of the Learning to Live Together Programme in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since before it’s conception. She was part of the first group of experts, gathered by Arigatou International in 1998, to work on the launch of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC), and has been working with Arigatou International ever since.

As GNRC Coordinator for Latin America, she conducted several test workshops in the region to try out what was then known as the Ethics Education Toolkit. After the launch of Learning to Live Together, she has conducted countless Facilitator Training Workshops in the region, as well as Europe.

Ms. Román has dedicated her life-work to serve the most vulnerable in our society, and to promote the rights of the child, to contribute to their full and sound development. Nowadays, she is the Senior Advisor for the GNRC in LAC and is also part of the group of experts working in the adaptation of the Learning to Live Together Programme to middle childhood years.

In this interview, she shares about her journey working with children and women in vulnerable situations, and how her family and religious background instilled in her a strong sense of justice, generosity and caring for the most needed members of society.

The Learning to Live Together Programme (LTLT) was first introduced to Indonesia during a facilitator training workshop conducted by GNRC South Asia and Arigatou International – Geneva, in partnership with the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO in 2012 and with the help of Ms. Wati Wardani and Mr. Fendra Kusmani. Since then, it has reached more than 1,000 children in more than 30 schools in the country.

“In 2007 at Azania Secondary School, I overhead from my classmates about the Peace Club initiative at school. “Peace?” I asked, not sure why I was intrigued, but after one meeting I became overly interested in the idea to take an active peacebuilding role.” This is how Yusuph Masanja, Coordinator of GNRC (Global Network of Religions) Tanzania, describes his first contact with the GNRC Peace Clubs. Since then, he has stayed on the front line advocating for the GNRC mission.

After participating in the Second International Train the Trainers in April 2017, the 27 new official trainers have been putting into practice all their learnings and moving ahead across a wide range of areas, designing new programs for facilitators, crafting projects to foster peacebuilding, interfaith collaboration, and children and youth participation, as well as working for the prevention of violence against children.

Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas and Global Network of Religions of Children (GNRC) El Salvador have been pioneers in the implementation of the Learning to Live Together (LTLT) Programme since 2007 when the pilot process that led to the development of the LTLT manual was initiated.

Ten years later, and after engaging in a number of trainings and implementations in different areas of the country, the two organizations are joining forces again to work on Bridging the Gap, a two-year project funded by the Dutch Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid (Cordaid), that aims to strengthen the local and social fabric and youth leadership in at risk areas in El Salvador.

A total of 47 children from a Christian community in Istmina, Choco Region in Colombia are being benefited by the implementation of the Learning to Live Together programme (LTLT) since November 2016.