“Peace Culture”: Peer Learning among Bulgarian Students

During October and November 2014, students from different schools in Sofia have been participating in a project implemented by the Youth Section of the United Nations Association in Bulgaria and Sofia Municipality. The project involves four schools in the capital. The students’ mission is to teach their classmates on subjects such as human rights, tolerance, non-violence and peace culture.

All the 25 volunteers participated in a 2-day initial training focused on the subject of human rights at school. The knowledge was passed on to the youngsters by the members of the Youth Section of the United Nations Association in Bulgaria using interactive learning techniques such as World Café, games, etc. After the initial training, students divided in teams and with the help of the UNA Youth Section members they starting visiting their schoolmates’ classes. This part of the project lasted from the beginning of October to the middle of November. The task of the students was to simply teach other youngsters about peace culture. The techniques implemented allowed the knowledge on a certain subject to be acquired by the students avoiding the barrier of formal teaching. The one teaching is no longer “the teacher”, it’s the students themselves who are passing the knowledge on to their classmates. With the help of a series of interactive games used during the process, the students make their own conclusions and definitions on basic terms, related to serious and popular subjects.

A second training was held for the 25 volunteers, this time on the subject of “Communication techniques”. This session helped them in the final stage of the project when students presented their results during an event they organized themselves. Their main task was to interpret in a creative way the subjects of human rights, tolerance and non-violence in front of a certain public. The event was held on 2nd of December 2014 at one of the most popular halls of the Sofia University. The project “Peace Culture” is implemented by the Youth Section of the United Nations Association in Bulgaria and is funded by the Strategy of Sofia Municipality for physical training and sports. It’s also supporting the candidature of Sofia for European Capital of Sports for 2018.

For more information, please contact Elitsa Akseva at BPID.

Information provided by BPID, Bulgarian Platform for Development Cooperation