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Students Spread Ideas of Peace For Immediate Release: 
Safia Ansari '08 helps situate one of the 500 trees planted in her reforestation project in Nicaragua. RICHMOND, Ind. — Five Earlham College students and recent graduates worked to instill a passion for peace in youth in the U.S., Nicaragua and Africa this summer as they completed $10,000 peace initiatives. The five worked on summer peace projects, two of which were funded by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program while Earlham President Douglas C. Bennett funded a third project. "This experience was life-changing for me," says Dan Mahle '08, a member of the hip hop music duo IDeology, who joined Jamie Utt '08 and his "The Wall" interactive program to create Change from Within: A Verbal Vehicle for Peace and Youth Empowerment. The speaking and performance tour was featured at five youth conferences throughout the U.S. Despite learning a lot about scheduling, accounting and budgeting, Utt and Mahle agreed that perhaps the most powerful lesson came from their audiences. "I learned that regardless of where they are from, young people everywhere have a passion and desire to make the world a better place, which gives me a great deal of hope for the future," Utt says. 
Arts for Peace workshop participants gather for an art lesson in the project initiated by Earlham students in Sierra Leone. Mahle says Change from Within was structured to encourage youth to work toward peace in their home communities. "The beauty of our project is that it is merely intended to plant seeds of curiosity that we hope will grow into a peaceful paradigm shift throughout our generation," Utt says. "We saw our work as part of a larger movement for peace and justice among young people, and we were able to get 1,500 people excited about making change in themselves and in their communities. If only a fraction of those people can make some change in their communities, then we have created a ripple effect that can impact a tremendous amount of positive change all around the world." Second-year students Syed Mafiz "Onik" Kamal and Ishmail Sheriff Daoh also hope their project, Arts for Peace, has lasting benefits. They worked to establish an annual art workshop for war-affected children in Daoh's hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone. "My aim was to spread the ideas of peace, tolerance and understanding," Kamal says. 
Dan Mahle '08 (right) performs with IDeology in Wilkinson Theatre on the Earlham campus during New Student Orientation in August. Through hard work and perseverance, Kamal and Daoh were able to secure the 13 participants, a facility, an art teacher, supplies, lodging and food for an eight-day art workshop. Supplies weren't limited to brushes and paints,
but included bed linens, sanitary water, transportation, personal hygiene
items, and even a radio for the youth to share. "When they first came in they were not comfortable and wondered what they had gotten themselves into," Kamal says of the workshop participants. "By the end, they were all like one. They were crying when they were leaving the workshop." Kamal and Daoh plan to host a spring semester art exhibition that features 30-35 paintings they brought back from the workshop. Proceeds from the sale will help sustain the project. "We have set up a system where such a workshop will happen every year," Kamal says. "These first participants they know the message, and they know they are supposed to spread the word of peace." Safia Ansari's summer reforestation project is already bearing fruit. Literally. Ansari gathered 20 youth from the impoverished town of Posoltega, Nicaragua, to plant 500 fruit trees in areas that were made barren by the mudslides of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. A second part of Ansari's project was to involve the youth in educational and recreational activities. "The youth often told me how happy they were to find something they could do to help the community," Ansari says. "They had never had an opportunity to help their community, and they were very thankful. I often heard the youth talking with pride about the money and the food the fruit would generate for their community." Workshops and activities were scheduled on Mondays and Fridays throughout the eight-week project, while half days on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays were spent planting trees. Ansari says that she returned from her trip to Posoltega with renewed interest in finding additional grants for other projects. In addition to wanting to plant more trees, she would like to help adequately furnish the local school, and she would like to expand the library's offerings. The current library has only 50 books. All of the groups report that the most rewarding part of their summer adventures was working for peace with the youth, and the least favorite parts were the logistical and scheduling difficulties. "It was very difficult gathering the participants and the supplies," Kamal says. " I think I learned that no matter how well you think you have planned a project, things never go as planned — but sometimes they might even go better than planned." — EC — Contact:
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |