Final Project Report

PEACE IN OUR SCHOOLS: A youth-led initiative working with school students and young adults around the world to help them learn peacebuilding and conflict resolution techniques, promoting openness, and combating anti-Semitism and all forms of religious violence.

Executive Summary

Peace in Our Schools was one of the three Campus Pitch Competition winners in 2021. Lika Torikashvili and Ramiz Bakhtiar, two former youth delegates to the UN and the founders of the Network of Former Youth Delegates to the United Nations, are the brains behind the initiative, Peace in Our Schools. Ramiz is an Afghan Muslim, while Lika is a Jew from Georgia. Ramiz and Lika teach anti-Semitism prevention, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding through their initiative, Peace in Our Schools. Since its inception, Peace in Our Schools has worked with 500 children at 9 schools in Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina—two carefully chosen locations that fit the project's objectives. We arranged peace seminars within schools in both countries, bringing facilitators from various religions and peacebuilders from various countries together, namely, Afghanistan, Georgia, Bosnia, Chad, and Indonesia. Students from different backgrounds and experiences were picked, and they shared personal experiences with their peers from other religions in addition to learning. In Georgia, the age range for students was 13-16, primarily middle and high school students.