Zeke Reich is a psychotherapist at a community mental health clinic in Washington DC. He vividly recalls an encounter at the Initiatives of Change conference centre at Caux which changed his perspective on life forever:

I first went to Caux as a 23-year-old New Yorker, excited about the experience but hardly prepared for it. I lived in an insular world, surrounded by friends who were white, elite, and secularly Jewish. Neither spirituality nor diversity had a comfortable place in our world – and I was good at avoiding discomfort.

I appreciated the spiritual experience of being at Caux, which deepened my connection to my own religious background, and generally speaking I appreciated the intercultural one too.

I made friends, revised preconceptions, and opened up to people whose lives and cultures differed dramatically from mine.

But when I was with conference participants from North Africa or the Middle East, I was unable to extend this openness. Almost without being aware of it, I imagined that as a Jewish person I was viewed as culpable for the actions of the state of Israel.

Unable either to defend Israeli policy or tolerate criticism of it, I kept my distance from people from the region and kept my heart walled off by fear.

I kept my heart walled off by fear.

Things came to a head during my third summer at Caux, in 2006, when war broke out between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. A man from Beirut was unable to return home, and participants from the region were in turmoil. I and other Jewish Americans at Caux felt like the eyes of the entire conference were on us and that, for many people, we had become representatives of ‘the enemy’.

My first instinct was to keep my distance even more: maintain my walls, avoid discomfort, let fear stay in control. But I was thwarted by the spirit of Caux – that is, by the persistent encouragement of two white-haired women from different continents who would not let me avoid the challenge of honest dialogue.

And so it was that I found myself sitting in a quiet corner of the main hall with a Gazan woman, someone I had known – and successfully distanced myself from – on previous visits to Caux. I readied myself for debate, as though hearing her views without rebutting them would have meant betraying every one of my ancestors.

I just want you to listen.

But rather than starting a debate, the woman said, ‘I would like you to listen to what it’s like for me back at home. You don't have to agree with everything I say, but you don't have to defend yourself either. I just want you to listen.’ For the first time, I began to allow my walls to come down.

She described Israeli helicopters flying over her home, sleepless nights waiting for explosions, daily bursts of helpless rage – incontrovertible facts about her life. Suddenly questions of politics and blame were irrelevant: this was the truth of her experience, which I could appreciate and care about instead of focusing on my own fear of being blamed.

After that night, a whole world opened up. I played soccer with a group of Tunisians, took a walk with the man from Beirut, and woke up at 4 am to attend prayer with Egyptian Muslims. I started to see each person as an individual, not a representative of a whole region; and in turn I stopped imagining that I was seen solely as Israel’s emissary.

At the same time, I was the first Jewish person some of my new friends had ever met. As I described Jewish values and sang traditional Friday night blessings, I delighted not only in sharing my spirituality but in connecting with it more deeply myself.

I started to see each person as an individual, not a representative of a whole region.

At the end of the conference there was a time of sharing about the week, and I raised my hand. I talked about the fear that had ruled me and I asked my friends to forgive me for my defensiveness.

As I spoke, I felt my body taken over by two sensations, unfamiliar yet strangely comfortable: my feet pressing into the floor and my heart bursting with fullness. I had never been so grounded in my own spiritual heritage – and, at the same time, I had never been so willing to connect with others, across what had once been walls of fear.

Read more about the Tools for Change conference which Zeke attended in Caux in 2006

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Watch Zeke speak at the Tools for Change conference in Caux, 2006 (from 9"23')

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Portrait: Joanna Margueritte
• All other photos: Initiatives of Change
• Video Howard Grace Report Caux 2006: IofC & For a new world Archives

Peter Riddell works for Initiatives of Change in the United Kingdom and has accompanied peacemakers in the Somali diaspora for over 15 years. He describes a key encounter which took place in summer 2005 at Caux:

‘There are two people in the Somali delegation whose names include Omar,’ said the man from the allocation team at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux. ‘As we didn’t have any information about them, we’ve put them in the same bedroom. I hope that’s all right?’ Though I was one of the hosts of the delegation, I didn’t have any further information either. So I nodded.

In fact, it could have been very un-all right. It transpired that Omar Salad Elmi was a former provincial governor and member of parliament, belonging to the Hawiye clan, while his room-mate, former member of parliament Mohamed Abukar Omar, belonged to the Benadir community. The Hawiye had violently expelled the Benadir from the capital city, Mogadishu, at the beginning of the civil war in 1991. But things turned out in a way that could not have been anticipated.

The story goes back to 1994, when Osman Jama Ali, a former government minister living in the UK, attended a meeting of potential peacemakers in Sweden organized by Initiatives of Change (IofC) and was deeply affected.

In 2004, just after resigning as Deputy Prime Minister of a transitional government which failed to establish its authority, he declared that he wanted to give the rest of his life to ‘reconcile my people’. He invited Dr Ahmed Sharif Abbas from the Benadir community and Abdi Afrah Gure from the Hawiye clan to work with him.

Together they gathered leaders of Somalia’s major clans in the UK diaspora at a workshop at IofC’s London centre in March 2005. In a remarkably short time, they achieved consensus on the situation in their country and set up a charity, which they called Somali Initiative for Dialogue and Democracy (SIDD). That August, they brought 20 senior Somalis from different clans to Caux: 10 of them nominated by the Somali Prime Minister.

‘The peaceful and honest spirit prevailing at Caux prompted us to initiate amongst ourselves a new kind of frank and sincere conversation,’ Omar Salad recalled later. ‘Although most of us had known each other for many decades, we had never had such discussions. We cleared a cloud of ambiguity and mistrust from amongst us.’

The peaceful and honest spirit prevailing at Caux prompted us to initiate amongst ourselves a new kind of frank and sincere conversation.

In a plenary meeting, Omar Salad apologized to the Benadir present for the actions of his clan – the first time such an apology had been made. The Benadir were so touched that they invited a senior elder, Sayid Ma’alow, who was living in Switzerland, to come to Caux to receive the apology. Sayid Ma’alow had vowed never to speak to anyone from the clans which had committed the atrocities, but he eventually agreed to come.

Omar Salad shook his hand and said, ‘I am an ex-member of the community whose militia committed crimes against you, your family and community, and I want to have a word with you.’ Sayid Ma’alow hesitated, and then agreed to hear him out. 

‘Although I personally disagree with the atrocities my ex-community’s militia did to you,’ Omar Salad said, ‘on behalf of that community I ask you to forgive me for that offence done to you, your family and community.’

After a moment’s silence Sayid Ma’alow thanked him for his courage and sincerity. ‘I can only accept your apology on a personal basis,’ he continued. ‘It is up to both communities to come together and talk about how to resolve the problem.’ The two men agreed that they would work together for reconciliation, peace and justice in Somali society.

The two men agreed that they would work together for reconciliation, peace and justice in Somali society.

This was a significant event in the development of a network of senior Somalis, dedicated to rebuilding their country, in the UK diaspora. Omar Salad returned to Somalia and became a noted peacemaker, dedicated to reconciling the clans. Over 60 clan leaders took part in dialogue facilitation courses, so as to ‘help our people talk to each other again’.

With IofC-UK’s support, SIDD’s trustees took many initiatives of reconciliation within the diaspora, while also briefing UK politicians and diplomats, and publishing reports and newpaper articles. When a federal government was established in Somalia in 2012 after 21 years of civil war, some of the SIDD network returned to Somalia, at considerable risk to themselves, to serve as ministers, advisers and diplomats in successive governments.

As for using ‘sharing the same name’ as a criterion for room-allocation in Caux, I don’t recommend it as a general principle. But in this case, it turned out to have been inspired!

Read more:

• Ten Years of Somali Peace-making in Diaspora, by Dr. Ahmed Sharif Abbas and Peter Riddell (2016)
• A Story of Somali Peacemaking in Diaspora, by Peter Riddell (2013)

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World. 

• Photos: Initiatives of Change & Peter Riddell
• Photo top: First meeting of Benadir and Hawiye – anti-clockwise from right: Sayid Ma’alow, Hassan Mohamud Geeseye, Omar Salad Elmi, Mohamed Abukar Haji Omar, n/a, Khalid Maou Abdulkadir, Dr Ahmed Sharif Abbas

Before you arrive in your room in Caux, someone from the housekeeping team will have been there before you, to check that it is clean, that the bed is made up and the light bulbs work. If you can’t work out how to use the new-fangled keys – or to operate the plug in one of the older baths – the housekeepers will come to your rescue.

‘I didn’t want to go into housekeeping,’ remembers Maya Fiaux from Switzerland, who led the team for over 30 years. ‘I considered it something for older women. Then I helped one winter conference and decided we needed to rejuvenate the work.’

Before every conference, she welcomed a team of women from around Switzerland, who descended on the Caux Palace to make beds. ‘I remember one of them asking me if I would ever have time to get married: what she didn’t know was that my husband-to-be had just proposed to me!’

During the conferences, she marshalled a team of conference participants. In 1998, one of them was Monica McIntosh (later Ellis), a senior official in the housing department of Ealing, London. She had just been through a painful divorce, and the care she received from Maya and her colleagues, and from Initiatives of Change friends in London, launched a change in her life.

Working in the housekeeping team meant: teamwork, trustbulding, inclusion, multiculturalism and community-building.

At a conference in Australia in 2009, Monica told how the practice of inner listening, which she had learnt through IofC, had affected her working life. ‘One day during my time of inner listening, I faced the thought that I had had a part in not being honest with the residents of a government-owned housing estate which had got into a state of disrepair. There had been a breakdown of trust.'

‘I was faced with a critical choice. Despite my director saying we would have a string of litigation cases, I acted to apologize for the wrong. Subsequently we were able to start working together on a trust-based partnership.’

‘Monica introduced new elements in our department, developed team-building and efficiency, promoting the core values of IofC not only in the whole house but far beyond,’ says Maya. ‘One year, she spent some days with us in our home near Lausanne and spoke at an event we organized. One of my friends was so impressed by what she said that she became a regular helper at Caux.’

Over time, Monica took over as coordinator of the housekeeping team. To engage younger people, she produced a manual, which stated the department’s mission as ‘creating an atmosphere of welcome and care, where we put into practice the values we talk about in the conferences: teamwork, trustbulding, inclusion, multiculturalism and community-building’.

When, after remarrying, Monica moved to Barbados, Bukiwe Maseko, a businesswoman from South Africa, became chef de département. ‘I always had that dream of serving the world,’ she said. ‘When I arrived in Caux I felt that my dream was coming true. This place is so warm and welcoming. You have time to listen to one another and to experience the spirit of real teamwork. Above all, you get that fulfilment of caring for people. That is what the world needs.’

Both Monica and Bukiwe were active in IofC in their own countries, and particulary with IofC’s women’s programme, Creators of Peace. Monica was Treasurer of Creators of Peace International for some years, and on her return to Barbados organized the first Creators of Peace Circle in the Caribbean. Bukiwe was Treasurer of IofC South Africa from 2004 until her death in 2016, aged 52. Sadly Monica died the next year, aged 68. 

You get that fulfilment of caring for people. That is what the world needs.

‘We had such fun working together,’ remembers Maya. ‘We had to be very careful with our pass-keys. Sometimes we lost one. Then the whole team would search in all the possibe and impossible places. Once we found the missing key in a plant pot!’

The housekeepers are just one of the many behind-the-scenes teams of volunteers who have kept the Caux conference centre going over the past 75 years.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photos: portraits Maya and Monica, group, bedroom: Initiatives of Change
• Photo Bukiwe: Mike Brown
• All other photos: Ulrike Ott Chanu

Between 2003 and 2013, Caux was the scene of seven political dialogues between deeply divided Burundian leaders. They brought together representatives of political parties and armed rebel movements, former presidents of the Republic, religious leaders and civil society activists. These meetings were confidential and discrete, often outside the main summer conference season.

The objective of these gatherings was to free Burundi from civil war – and to do this by preparing minds, bringing people together. This involved inspiring people to examine their motivation and attitudes, heal the wounds of the past, free themselves from their fears, and show their own vulnerability. The facilitators did not propose solutions or even dialogue but instead sought with the protagonists what to do to bring about lasting solutions.

These round tables and seminars were the culmination of a long process which began in 2000. Their architects were Thomas Ntambu and Michel Kipoké from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bonaventure Nkeshimana from Burundi. Patiently and methodically, they met one-to-one with people from the different sides of the political spectrum and built up relationships of trust.

Thomas Ntambu was a former military officer, who had been part of a politico-military group that aimed to overthrow the Mobutu dictatorship, a lawyer, and now an expert in the consolidation of peace. After his meeting with Initiatives of Change (IofC) he said of the rebels, ‘We had the same problems in our ranks as those we were denouncing: dreams of power, villas, luxurious cars, women.’ He understood that without a change in behaviour, any revolution would be disappointing. He found the hope that people can change.

Michel Kipoké, a lawyer, was much sought after by major media outlets for his debating skills. He said that it was within IofC that he learned to listen. ‘The most important thing is not what we have to say to our partners, but what they have to say to us,’ he said. ‘With listening, benevolence and humility about one’s own limitations, a new state of mind is instilled.’ He liked to say, ‘Caux does not solve problems, but it creates the atmosphere that allows them to be solved.’

The most important thing is not what we have to say to our partners, but what they have to say to us.

Bonaventure Nkeshimana, former mayor of a Hutu neighbourhood in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, was the contact man with all the stakeholders.

Aldo Ajello, the European Union representative for the Great Lakes region, came to meet the Burundian delegates at the first round table in March 2003. At the end, he spoke of ‘the miracle of Caux’. In his report, he stated that ‘the colloquium organized by IofC has clearly succeeded in breaking the ice between the Burundian warring parties’.

In the spring of 2003, two leaders of the armed rebel movement CNDD-FDD said that their presence at the round table in Caux had been decisive in enabling them to emerge from armed conflict and re-enter the political process.

Caux does not solve problems, but it creates the atmosphere that allows them to be solved.

In June 2003, another round table was organized to continue the dialogue between the Burundian government and the Palipehutu-FNL, the most radical rebel movement still active on the ground (see photo at the top, with government and army representatives on the left and the delegation of the rebel movement on the right, with red caps in front of them). 

It then took more than three years of support for the Palipehutu-FNL leaders to help them break out of their logic of war. In September 2006, they signed a ceasefire agreement.

In its October 2012 report on the situation in Burundi, the well-known International Crisis Group noted that the round table in Caux that year had made it possible to lay ‘the foundations for dialogue between the opposition and the ruling party’.

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs provided most of the funding for this work of accompaniment and for the round tables.

Read more on the peacebuilding process

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photos: Frédéric Chavanne (photo top: Round Table June 2003)
• Peace Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by Frédéric Chavanne, For a Change (Vol 10, Nr 2), 2007

The archives of the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre, now held by the Canton of Vaud, are an endless source of precious information. Swiss archivist Eliane Stallybrass describes the work to preserve Caux’s history for the future, which began with the determination of one woman.

Erika Utzinger (photo top in the light-green pullover) did not make much noise. She probably never spoke from the platform in the Caux Palace, but her work has put the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre on the map for generations to come.

As a full-time worker with Moral Re-Armament (now Initiatives of Change/IofC), she did secretarial work for several people (men!) for many years. She saw all the documents they were handling and was convinced they should not be lost.

In 1961 she started collecting every written document she could lay her hands on: letters, reports, newspapers….

She found a place in the third floor corridor of the Caux Palace, next to the offices, to store these documents. Serge Borel from Switzerland helped her by constructing shelves and a system of hanging files, which she labelled. She started to put every paper in the right place, by year, by subject, by person. It was a huge job. She took a course in dealing with archives. Patiently, year after year, she collected everything that was lying around, creating an extraordinary fund of international material.

She did not make much noise. But her work has put the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre on the map for generations to come.

 

It was not always easy for her. People could not understand why she was doing it. It seemed more important to deal with the present than the past. But when they needed a document, many just marched into the archives and helped themselves, much to Erika’s despair.

In 1997, I left full-time work with IofC and looked for a job. It was hard. But the archivist of the city of Geneva, Micheline Tripet, who had worked with Moral Re-Armament in its early days in Caux, helped me to find a job sorting papers for a well-known Geneva family.

At the beginning I was not too excited. Archives were old papers in a stuffy place! But I discovered how fascinating it could be. One of IofC’s pioneers in Switzerland, Daniel Mottu, also asked me to deal with his papers.

So I got curious about the Caux archives and visited the place where Erika was working so diligently. She hoped I would take over from her. I had to disappoint her. Then Micheline came up with the suggestion that we could give our archives to the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV). We had had no clue that that was a possibility.

At the beginning I was not too excited. Archives were old papers in a stuffy place! But I discovered how fascinating it could be.

We invited the director of the ACV, Gilbert Coutaz, to Caux. He looked at the metres of hanging files, and said he would take the lot. So Erika and I spent two years indexing all the documents according to the ACV’s rules and finally gave the first 160 linear metres to the Vaud Archives in 2002.

 

 

A wonderful event took place with local authorities present and Erika was duly thanked. Gilbert Coutaz said, ‘Moral Re-Armament is returning to Vaud soil.’ Cornelio Sommaruga, who as President of the Swiss Initiatives of Change Foundation at that time had supported the project, welcomed it as evidence of IofC’s willingness to be open and transparent.

We have now reached 200 metres, and there is more to go. When Gilbert Coutaz discovered that we had films, recordings of meetings, the words and music of 548 songs, and so much more, he encouraged us to give everything. Now I am dealing with the photos which is a headache sometimes, as many carry no details of who is in them, when they were taken and by whom!

 

 

We are already seeing the fruit of this work. Several students have done research on Moral Re-Armament in the Vaud Archives. The latest is Cyril Michaud, who has just completed his doctoral thesis on ‘Moral Re-Armament on Swiss soil. From 1932 to 1969’. This is the first of two theses financed by the Swiss Federal Fund for Scientific Research. The second, by Audrey Bonvin, covers the period from 1970 onwards and will be presented in a few weeks’ time.

Initiatives of Change and the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre are truly becoming part of history.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photos: Initiatives of Change and Eliane Stallybrass
• Newspaper article: 24 heures (28 February 2002)

At the turn of the century, Cornelio Sommaruga was President of the Caux Foundation and later of IofC International. Andrew Stallybrass worked alongside him in Geneva. He writes:

I first met Cornelio Sommaruga at a private dinner party. He was then head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and was just back from Cuba, where he’d met with Fidel Castro, in the middle of the night, just before leaving.

In 1999, after he left the Red Cross, he became President of the Caux Foundation. He played an important role in the change of Moral Re-Armament’s name to Initiatives of Change (IofC) in 2001 and in the creation in 2002 of IofC International, of which he became the first President.

His commitment to IofC and the Caux conferences, especially those related to human security, led many in international circles to re-evaluate this hard-to-classify movement. Several times in Geneva, I have heard people say, ‘If Cornelio’s involved, I’ll need to take another look!’

If Cornelio's involved, I'll need to take another look.

We worked together in the IofC Geneva office, close to the United Nations, and in sight of his old ICRC headquarters. One morning, when we exchanged the usual pleasantries, I informed him that I was a little shaken – my wife had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. The next day, she received a handwritten card from him, and he’d won my deep gratitude and affection.

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Sommaruga is a tall, broad, imposing physical presence, who greets everyone with ‘Grüss Gott’. He explains that the greeting, typical in Austria, Bavaria and eastern Switzerland, invokes the third presence in every encounter. ‘We’re not alone in this world,’ he says. He has friends on every continent. He knows the world – and the world knows him!

We’re not alone in this world.

Sommaruga’s roots are in Tessin, the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland. He was born in 1932, the first of six children in a Swiss diplomatic family posted to Rome. He feels that his two strongest formative influences were his parents’ Christian faith, and the Scout movement. His first humanitarian commitment was volunteering to help the infirm on pilgrimages to Lourdes.

He held dual Swiss and Italian nationality until he was 20. His father sent him to a private school so that he did not have to join the fascist youth movement in Mussolini’s Italy. For two years during the war, his father stayed on in Rome, while the rest of the family lived just across the Swiss border in Lugano. Both parents helped Jews to escape persecution – his father filling the children’s beds in Rome with fugitives, and his mother helping refugees to settle in Switzerland. These experiences gave him a ‘special attention’ for the Holocaust and Jewish people.

Today, coming up to 90, he is struggling to recover from Long Covid. The walls of his room in a convalescent home carry pictures of his six children and 16 grandchildren, who gather once a year over Whitsun, filling the best part of a small hotel.

Sommaruga remains Honorary President of the IofC International Association. He speaks of ‘the wonderful international network of motivated people’, but sees the need for more transparency between national groups.

He introduced the theme of ‘globalizing responsibility for human security’ to the Caux conferences. He worries that the world gives too little attention to the root causes of violence: ‘the vast economic and social disparities between and within states; the legal and illegal transfers of weapons and particularly small arms’. Civil society must try to counteract these forces, he believes. 

‘It needs a multilateral, intercultural and inter-religious approach,’ he stresses. But, he repeats, we are never alone. 'The power that gave us free will can inspire those of good will to work for a better future. There are more people than you think inspired by God or conscience working for true and lasting peace.’ Sommaruga is convinced that each of us has ‘an ethical responsibility to work for reconciliation through forgiveness and justice’, starting with ourselves.

My Caux image of Sommaruga is of him serving ice cream at the desert buffet in the dining room, and laughing. It’s important to serve, and be seen to serve.

The power that gave us free will can inspire those of good will to work for a better future.

 

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo Somalia: ICRC / Pierre Boussel
• Photo 2006: Isabelle Mermindo
• All other photos: Initiatives of Change

Around the turn of the Millennium, many young Ukrainians came to Caux. Some of them took leadership in Foundations for Freedom (F4F), a programme for young people which offered courses in the values which underpin democracy (read also our story about Erik Andren). Among them were Angela Starovoytova and Kostiantyn Ploskyi, who first came to Caux in 2000.

In later years F4F was registered in Ukraine, where its Healing the Past project brought together people from the country’s divided communities. F4F was also a catalyst for Ukraine’s Participative Budgeting initiative, which involves people in some 230 cities in determining how their municipal budgets are spent.

Angela Starovoytova writes:

When I first came to Caux, in 2000, I had already been involved with Initiatives of Change (IofC) for some years, organizing Foundation for Freedom courses in the Ukraine. I had just spent a year in the UK with IofC. Everywhere I went everyone told me how great Caux was. This created a big doubt in me: how was it possible for something to be so perfect?

I arrived at the beginning of the summer and was one of the last people to leave at the end. Polishing silver before the conference began, I made friends with a French man in his 60s or 70s. We talked about everything – men, relationships, values, quiet times. I remember him telling me never to lower my standards: that still drives me.

I came out of the summer with the clear idea that Caux was not as ideal as it looked. You could be lonely among all these people. Everyone smiled at me but I did not believe they were sincere. Maybe I spoiled my summer by trying to prove to myself that Caux was not as great as I had been told.

I remember him telling me never to lower my standards: that still drives me. 

The next year I came with a different attitude. I wanted to find out what made people so comfortable at Caux that they opened up. I started to understand why people were smiling at me and to believe that they were sincere. I became one of them: welcoming people wherever I encountered them. As I served in the different departments of the house and helped with conferences, I became a host. 

Over a span of 20 years, Caux has been a place of renewal and inspiration, which sends me home with new energy and resources. I now work in dialogue facilitation, using methods like Non Violent Communication and space for reflection.

My experiences at Caux showed me how, when people have a safe container around them, they start to talk heart to heart. Everything that I do in my work is about creating the atmosphere where people can take off their political masks and become human beings.

Caux has been a place of renewal and inspiration, which sends me home with new energy and resources.

Kostiantyn Ploskyi remembers:

My friend and I arrived in Montreux late at night – I think it was in 2000. We didn’t know how to get to Caux, so we went to the police station, and sat there for two or three hours until they rang and arranged for someone to collect us. We didn’t want to pay for a taxi, so we got the police to help us.

This was typical of my attitude as a 25-year-old. My central idea in life was to consume – to take from everyone around me. My reasons for getting involved with Foundations for Freedom (F4C) were primarily selfish.

The people in Caux realized what I was like, but they still accepted me. I refused to contribute towards the expense of my stay but I was invited back again and again. Finally I was also touched. All these Caux visits were small steps to my opening up to faith.

A few years later, I was one of the team organizing a session on Service, Responsibility and Leadership. I had to speak from the platform and didn’t know what to say. I spent an hour in the shower thinking about it, and realized that I should apologize to friends whom I felt I had betrayed. 

The people in Caux realized what I was like, but they still accepted me.

Facing this – and speaking about it in the meeting – was a big turning point. I had always been the good guy, smiling, joking. This was the first time I was open.

In 2006 I took part in an international Initiatives of Change meeting in Malaysia. By then I was managing a big project back in Ukraine. I was well paid, but I had no peace inside. One evening after the meeting I escaped to a night club. I stayed there all night, while my hosts worried about what had happened to me.  

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On the long flight home, some clear messages came to my mind about how I was living. I realized that I would probably like to change my life.

But I couldn’t change. From time to time I had a time of quiet reflection in the morning, and eventually, after resisting the thought for a long time, I decided to apologize to girls who I had used, with no thought of a relationship. I began to feel a bit of real freedom.

I realized that I would probably like to change my life.

Then, after going on a Christian retreat, I had the thought that I should apologize to the donor organizations which I had cheated. It took me months to write to them.

When the Ukrainian representative of one of these organizations invited me to his office, I thought I would go to prison. But he thanked me and we spent two hours talking about our personal challenges. That was another bit of freedom.  

After that I started to attend Mass on Sundays. Looking back, I can see that the trip from Malaysia to Ukraine was the point when I actually found faith. Without that I would never have accepted that what I was doing was wrong. When my wife and I got married, we married in church. We now have four children.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Portrait Kostiantyn: Kostiantyn Ploskyi
• Portrait Angela: photographer unknown
• Photo Angela with WIC participants: Diana Topan
• Portrait Angela: photographer unknown
• Photos F4F in Ukraine 2019: Claude Bourdin
• Photo circle in Caux gardens: Initiatives of Change
• Photo top Angela: Anton Iemelianov

It was a Red-Letter Day in July 1999 when more than 40 young Latin Americans burst through the front door of Mountain House, Caux, and hugged everyone in sight. Gente Que Avanza (GQA) had arrived – and Caux would never be quite the same again.

‘I was at Geneva Airport when the group arrived – and cascaded through the reception area with such exuberant singing that even the Swiss security officials were tapping their feet!’ remembers Helen Duigan of Pretoria, South Africa, whose youngest son, Francois, was part of this cast of young people. ‘I felt such gratitude – this was a miracle unfolding.’

Gente Que Avanza had already established itself across Latin America as a movement dedicated to helping young people find a life purpose based on integrity and the values and world vision that came out of Moral Re-Armament (MRA, now Intiatives of Change). For some 30 years it had toured the continent with a mix of musical, dance and cultural programmes, inspiring young people to mine their talents and place them at the service of society.

‘The idea for the Caux experience started in December 1998 at our home, Waaigras, outside Pretoria,’ says Francois Duigan, who had joined the GQA cast in 1996. ‘I was back from Latin America for a few weeks and a friend from Sweden, Gunnar Söderlund, was holidaying with us with his family. As we talked about what I had been doing, the idea came up that some of the cast might visit Caux.

‘I think it came from Gunnar, with his broad thinking and mighty vision, and he was ready to run with it. I went back to Latin America with the task of floating the idea with the cast and other members of the Coordination (the cast’s planning body).’

Fabiana Villavicencio, a member of the Coordination at the time, remembers: ‘Gunnar came to Santiago where we were touring in early 1999 and launched the idea at one of our meetings. Our eyes sparkled with the possibility. We immediately started dreaming about it, even though it seemed impossible.’

At first, the idea was to send a smaller group of 10 people, but Gunnar was adamant that the whole group of about 40 should go. He said that if the idea was right, the money would be found to get them all to Caux.

Exciting as the idea was, the decision to go was not an easy one, says Fabiana. In the 1960s there had been a break between Moral Re-Armament and the cast, and for some this past was still painful and unhealed. ‘Nonetheless, we knew that if it was something of God, and if we kept an open spirit, everything would happen as he intended.’ 

Then, finally, it was happening! ‘We had the money to finance five people and then 10, 15, 30, 40,’ says Fabiana. ‘It was incredible! It wasn’t only the fact of leaving the continent for an undreamed-of adventure, but the possibility that nobody from the group would be left out.’

It was incredible. Nobody from the group would be left out.

Francois again: ‘Our arrival in the beautiful setting above Lake Geneva was out of this world. The reception was so warm and enthusiastic, we were oblivious of any division or hurt that existed. We danced and sang and made as much noise as young Latin Americans do! We got involved in the day-to-day work groups at Caux and interacted with people from all over the world. For each of us, it was the experience of a lifetime.’

And the long-term impact of this extraordinary visit? ‘The reconciliation that took place between GQA and MRA/IofC,’ says Fabiana. ‘The request for forgiveness that Jeanette Alonso, one of our founders, shared with everyone in the big room was a great example of humility and honesty in living our call concretely.’

Today, the close relationship between Gente Que Avanza and Initiatives of Change is a visible sign of what started with that visit to Waaigras in December 1998.

For each of us, it was the experience of a lifetime.

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Watch a video presentation of Gente Que Avanza in Portugese.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photos dancers and Ismar and Fabiana: T Hazell
• Photos group in Caux gardens and performing in the Main Hall: Emmy Barrios
• Photo Caux kitchen: Marta Hermosilla
• Photo top black and white: Initiatives of Change
• All other photos: photographer unknown
• Video Presentaction Gente Que Avanza on Youtube: fhechogqa