MasterPeace Ro Association

Provide practical tools for peaceful living including skills and methods for conflict resolution and violence prevention Masterpeace Ro Association is an association which was founded in January 2016, but its work began in early August 2015, as the four founding members established MasterPeace Romania Club as part of MasterPeace International, an organization that advocates peace through artistic means, workshops etc, being present in more than 50 countries, winner of the Luxembourg peace Prize for "Outstanding peace organization". Working with young people enables us to influence their ideas, beliefs and attitudes, which is essential to achieve the right to be heard, the right to an identity and challenge the causes of poverty and discrimination and to bring about lasting changes, promote volunteerism and create active citizens of the future. We started in August 2015 with a series of four workshops on what the term peace means and how to reach this goal, not only externally, but also inside, because if we don’t believe in the importance of peace, then we cannot make the people around us believe in it, too. The project’s objectives were sharing strategies, tools and innovations in the field of social responsibility, reconciliation and solving the problem by promoting peace and human rights. The four workshops were attended by 80 participants. The next event was held on 21 September 2015, a call to arms, so to speak, where young people were invited to create any symbols, drawings or other artistic creations related to peace. We managed to involve a total of 40 educational institutions, from within Romania, as well as abroad. In Ploiești the MasterPeaceRomania club members attended the events unfolding in 5 educational institutions ("Toma N Socolescu" Technical College from Ploiești, Bușteni Sanatorium School, "Elie Radu" Technical College from Ploiești, Poienarii Apostoli School and Măneciu Ungureni High School). Also in the County Library "N Iorga" in Ploiești, two partner associations ("Youth Volunteers Valea Calugareasca" and "A drop of happiness") drew graffiti with peace signs. The impact was huge: 16 schools in Romania attended five non-governmental associations, 250 students, 50 teachers and 20 volunteers. We aim to improve the educational system with comprehensive partnerships and we have two VET schools (Toma N Socolescu Tehnical College, 1 Mai Tehnical High-school Ploiești) that benefit from our continuous trainings regarding the human rights and using ICT tools and new methodologies that can equip pupils with a better chance for the labour market. On November 7, 2015 MasterPeace Romania Club received from the Youth Forum of Romania the Structured Dialogue Romania prize of 2015 as a symbol of the association’s members' participation in the development of policies proposed by the Youth Forum on the agenda of the Romanian Ministry of Youth and Sports. MasterPeace Ro Association held a series of three trainings on "Sustainable Development Goals" ("SDGs"). The trainers‘ learning objectives were: introduction to the post-2015 agenda origins in 2030; increasing awareness of sustainable development goals and how they impact Romania; how we can work to reach these sustainable development objectives; preparations to integrate the SDG’s into national plans and strategies. This project ended on 26 March 2016 with a workshop in partnership with the "Youth Delegate to the UN" Association, where David Timiș, Delegate of Youth to the UN of Romania, held a 3-hour training to a total of 30 participants coming from over 6 associations from Ploiești. MasterPeace Ro Association was present through two volunteers at the International Festival of Peace in Fez, Morocco, which took place between 8 and 17 April 2016 and it was held with the help of the Ministry of Youth from Morocco. The festival was part of the association's agenda to raise public awareness about peace, enabling people to make peaceful and healthy decisions for themselves, their families, nations and continent; We are partnering the NoHate Speech Movement from Romania in calls for action against anti-semitic hate speech online and offline and propose positive counternarratives that promote Human Rights as a basis for inclusive and tolerant societies. We had five workshops on different international days commemorating different moments in time. We have developed a Financial Workshop that was presented to 6 schools and more the 240 pupils in the rural area of the Prahova county. Economics and casual responsibility were the main targets in making the pupils understand the role of each individual in the society. From November 2016 to present we have started to implement the project School of peace in 10 schools across Romania, a pilot program unique for Romania where we involved 100 pupils and 20 teachers. As a starting point we have started a boot camp in November 2016 for 30 teachers and pupils involved in the project training, them in project management, peace-building activities and nonviolent communication. 20 members and volunteers of the association are involved in trainings and developing the curriculum using outdoor and indoor activities. Our work with IDP’s or immigrants was comprised of 3 activities: Global Humanitarian network from Nigeria visited a Internally Displaced People (IDPs) camp in December 2016, most refugees came from a combat region of Nigeria. MasterPeace Ro Association from Romania has donated several products for the refugees in the IDP's as a first step in helping the people that are in need and making their voices heard. Also, we have managed to hold an online training on Sustainable Development Goals with the members of the Nigerian NGO and take steps in making connections with the IDP’s and gather their stories. The second activity was with a partner organisation, "Action to save children and their rights” from Kampala, Uganda, that is committed to providing sustainable solutions to the social problems stemming from poverty. Self-development is crucial to achieving this. By giving young people and women training, skills and trades, we are giving them power. The power to take control and change their lives forever, and to help others do the same. The last activity was with the occasion of World Book Day 2017 by donating books and other supplies to a school that is being rebuilt in Somalia. Children have the right to develop, thus we are working to rebuild educational frameworks for IDP children in Somalia. We have implemented several workshop in using ICT tools in the teaching experience and we have used as trainers Mr. Marian Dragomir and Mrs. Maria Horgos, Scientix ambassador. The scope of the project was teaching pupils from VET high school to use different platforms and equipping them with the necessary competences for the new labour market. Marian Dragomir has coordinated three projects (2015-1-BG01-KA219-014229_2 "Acting 2 Speak English"/ 2016-1-PL01-KA “Water Our Precious Treasure”/ 2016-1-EE01-KA “Understanding and Critical Media Literacy”) for “Toma N. Socolescu” Technical College, a VET high school and thus his experience is extended in holding training for teachers and using nonformal activities with pupils. Maria Horgos has been working in a VET project as trainer for the ICT techniques and new methods for delivering technical information (European Specialization in Forming the Future Building Technicians” No. 2015-1-R001-KA, Erasmus Key 1 project, VET). MasterPeace Ro Association took part in the International Youth Day in 2017. The activities that took place gathered more then 250 direct participants from Ploiești, Câmpina, Brașov and Bucharest. We implemented the activities in our partner schools and cultural institution, such as "I.L. Caragiale" National College, "Spiru Haret" College, "Toma N. Socolescu" Technical College, "1 Mai" Technical High-school, Șotrile Gymnasium, ”Constantin Stere” Gymnasium, "N. Iorga" County Library. On the 16th of June 2017 Masterpeace Ro Association from Romania held for the second year The Peace Walk in the city of Ploiești, a unique event in Romania that referrers to the Human Rights and the need of raising awareness that we are all equal and we need to protect our dignity and rights. On this day we also celebrated The Day of the African Child. The Peace Walk gathered more then 80 members and volunteers of MasterPeace Ro Association and hundreds on the way. Our international partners were MasterPeace International and Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light Association from South Korea. The event was also sponsored and supported by PETROTEL - LUKOIL S.A. For one hour we were able to make our voices be heard on the main boulevard of the city and we tried to present our partners’ vision of the Values of Peace. On World Refugee Day, 20 June 2017, we celebrated the courage of refugees. We honoured those who help them stay safe. We thought of solutions to their plight. MasterPeace Ro organised a workshop with the help of Zonta Club Ploiești. We used the event to forge a collaboration with MasterPeace Turkey that took to the streets of Turkey and interviewed several refugees. Their answers made for a great presentation of what it is to be a refugee. Yazan Rustom: "I'm feeling like a homeless person in a different country because I still didn't get used to living here. If there will be a chance to rebuild my home, I'd surely want to go back to my country." MasterPeace Ro activity Empowering Women was held on the 8th of March 2017 at the "Nicolae Iorga" County Library of Ploiești with the participation of a group of feminist activists from Ploiești. The activity marked The Action Day Countering Sexist Hate Speech and took notice of the SDGs as ways of combating sexist talk across Prahova county, having in mind different examples of discrimination offered by the members of the group. The activity was also marked by a global live link with Global Sisterhood organization that created a powerful connection across the globe (http://women.unify.org/) In August 2017 we were welcomed to the United Nations Global Compact. It is the world's largest organization, with nearly 12,000 business and non-business participants in 140 countries. As a participant, MasterPeace Ro committed to support the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact with respect to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, advance these principles within our sphere of influence and make a clear statement of this commitment to the general public, take part in the activities of the UN Global Compact according to our type of organization, communicate every two years the UN Global Compact on our engagement in its activities and our efforts to support the ten principles. MasterPeaceRo, in collaboration with HWPL (Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light) and IPYG (International Peace Youth Group), organised the 2019 Peace Education Conference, which was held in Bucharest on the 04.02.2019. The event gathered more than 500 youth and guests that rejoiced the company of several speakers, including a memorable speech from Chairman Man Hee Lee himself, in which he spoke about the power of youth, the importance of peacekeeping and also of spreading the Peace Education throughout the world. In May of 2019 we also held another Peace Walk, which generated an even stronger response from the local community, several civilian groups expressing their desire to be a part of this activity through sports, like cycling.