This article is the second in a series of interviews with people affected by the war in Ukraine who have found temporary shelter at the Caux Refuge.

For more than a week Anatolii, Tetiana, and their three sons lived without electricity, heating or water in freezing temperatures in the village of Horenka near Kyiv. After a long journey through Ukraine and the EU they have now found peace in Caux.

Now the boys are enrolled in a local school. They are playing and laughing once again and Anatolii and Tetiana say they can’t wish for more.

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How did the war in Ukraine start for your family?

Anatoli: Everything started in the first minutes of day one, at 4am on 24 February. Helicopters came. Some people said there were around 30 of them. By 9 am three of them were on fire, very near to our house. That was the start of the war.

Were you at home with your children when the Russian army attacked?

Anatolii: Yes, we were working from home, so we were there with the kids. It was impressive to see the helicopters being shot down. Then Ukrainian helicopters came and started to fly above our forest to protect Hostomel, the city and airport northwest of Kyiv. All this was very loud. We saw enemy combat Mi-24 and K-52 helicopters.

So you knew the difference already?

Anatolii: Yes, we did know the difference from the experience of the past eight years. Their helicopters are much louder as well. On the first day, it was only combat helicopters. But the next day the artillery fire landed 200 or 300 metres away from our house. I think it was a howitzer: I don’t know for sure. Some people were curious – and it ended badly for them.

Tetiana: Yes, so we didn’t go to check. The electricity and heat were turned off the same day. There was no water as well. It was freezing cold.

When did you realize that the situation had escalated? When did you consider leaving?

Anatolii: Tetiana didn’t want to leave at all.

Tetiana: I hoped that even if Russian troops attacked, they would follow the Hostomel highway. But then the Ukrainian army blew up the main bridge through Irpin, so that the Russians couldn’t attack over it. They tried five times to blow up a small bridge through Moschun, a village near Kyiv, but it wasn’t destroyed, so the Russians were able to use that. They devastated Moschun and started work on our village. The streets in the village centre were all burning.   

So the area where you lived was under attack from the very beginning?

Tetiana: They started artillery shelling gradually from the first week. Three houses at first, then more…. On 3 March, I think, our industrial zone was already burning. All the horizon was red with flames.

Had you anticipated the war and made any preparations beforehand?

Anatolii: During the first few days, we organized a local self-defense group. Even the children of our community helped to build the checkpoint. Our three boys helped to bring tyres from our yard to build it. There were about 15 self-organized adult men. We built Czech hedgehogs (a static anti-tank defence made of metal angle beams) and set up a rota for everyone to be on duty. But we only had one hunting gun and one pneumatic weapon between us.

Tetiana: So we had no weapons to protect ourselves. Our community was completely unprepared for the war. Nothing was ready, absolutely nothing. We had no evacuation plan.

How and when did you decide to evacuate?

Anatolii: It took us a while to wrap our minds around the fact that we needed to evacuate.

Tetiana: There was shelling for the first eight days but not all the time. But when we heard shelling – buh-buh-buh-buh – the whole time, we understood that… (Tetiana’s voice breaks).

Anatolii: I went to the hospital to offer help, because the central military hospital was already full and unable to keep up with the influx of injured people. And the Leleka private maternity hospital was treating the injured. Eight guys were injured and two killed in the first fight. I saw this all happening in front of my own eyes and helped as I could.

Tetiana: Even then we hoped that the Ukrainians would push them away from the Kyiv region. I had a feeling that as long as I stayed nothing would happen to our home. But then, after a week, I understood that this was not a good idea. I knew that we needed to save our kids first and forget about the house.

What happened next? Did you leave by car?

Anatolii: Only Tetiana with the kids at first, not me. I stayed with our rabbits. (Tetiana and Anatolii laugh.) I was on duty at our local checkpoint. I’ve seen them using Pion howitzers.  It was unforgettable – it looked like a small nuclear explosion. There were no dead bodies afterwards because temperatures were so high. Everything was burned to ashes.

Tetiana: I spent one night with the kids in our small apartment in Kyiv and we left at 7 am the next morning. I didn’t have any plan except to drive West.  I had no specific destination in my head: wherever I drove to would be OK. I had never driven for more than an hour in my entire life. I don’t know where I got the energy to drive from 7 am until it got too dark to drive. By then we were in Vinnytsia.

Did you go on volunteering, Anatolii, after your family left?

Anatolii: There were still many people who had decided to stay in Horenka. Even when a lot of houses had been burnt to ashes, people thought that the Russians were just clearing their way along the Warsaw highway, through which they planned to attack.

During these times I was evacuating neighbours who had stayed in our village. The problem wasn’t evacuating, the problem was where to? I evacuated one family to our apartment in Kyiv, where they are still living. I hope they will be safe there. I evacuated another couple of families to their families. But then the Russians started to target all moving objects and it wasn’t safe to continue. I’ve seen a lot of wrecked cars in villages and there is also a lot of photo proof from Horenka. Looking back, I was just incredibly lucky.  

Do you know if your house still exists now?

Anatolii: It has no windows, but it’s still there. We are very lucky because the bomb destroyed a part of our neighbour’s house. The school of our kids has been burnt down.

What country in the EU did you plan to go to initially?

Anatolii: There was no plan here either. Tetiana was moving in the direction of Romania. Before we reunited, I didn’t sleep for 36 hours straight. 

How were the kids through all of this? Were you able to explain what had happened? How did you keep them occupied?

Tetiana: Maybe we will see consequences in the future. We didn’t explain anything at all to them.  

Anatolii: While we were still at home, there were two main tasks – chopping firewood to heat the house and cooking meals. I was at the checkpoint most of the time, there was constant artillery shelling. We could not hide in the basement because our house is situated in a swampy area. The children occupied themselves. Most of the time, they were just trying to get warm. The oldest helped with chopping firewood. When we got to the EU, we were on the move the whole time. They slept most of the time in the car since they were so exhausted. They didn’t even ask where we were going.

Tetiana: They probably just knew that in Ukraine there were bombs and shooting and here not. That was enough for them. They didn’t show signs of great anxiety or stress and that was a help. I don’t know how we would have got anywhere at all if they had been crying. We got lost many times on our way to Switzerland. But compared to what we went through in Ukraine it was nothing.

Anatolii: We were very lucky.

Did you manage to get your kids into a local school near Caux?

Anatolii: Yes, the school here is fantastic. They organized a special class with five boys, a teacher and a translator.   

Tetiana: The boys love badminton and there is a wonderful centre in Lausanne.  

How was your welcome in Caux?

Tetiana: We’re very happy that we were welcomed so kindly here in Caux. We had very limited resources and no idea what we would do. After these eight days in Ukraine without light and electricity, with nothing, it’s an absolute paradise here.

Anatolii: We did not expect such a welcome at all. We want to thank everyone from IofC Switzerland for all for the organizational work they did when we arrived and for helping us get our kids into school. They really gave our kids a chance!

About the author

Anastasia Slyvinska is a journalist from Kyiv, Ukraine. She has worked as a TV host, a foreign reporter and a manager for media outlets in Ukraine and abroad. Having worked at both Ukrainian and Canadian Parliaments she combines her media expertise with her political sciences background, holding a MA in Political Science. Anastasia has been part of the IofC community since 2014 when she first participated at the conference Just Governance for Human Security. She is currently living in Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

YOU CAN HELP!

 

As our own sources of funding are running out, we need your help to support the Caux Refuge project financially. We need CHF 20,000 to ensure that the group can be hosted until the end of 2022. We will use these funds to finance food aid and other costs related to the group's stay at the Villa Maria in Caux.

We thank you for your support. Please pledge your support here and specify “Caux Refuge” when making your contribution. If you have any proposals and questions, please get in touch with us.

 

 

Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles are those of the interviewees and not do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the interviewer and Initiatives of Change Switzerland.

When Indonesian law student Agustina Zahrotul Jannah discovered the Young Ambassadors Programme (YAP) on Google she felt both excited and hopeless: excited because she hoped it might give her the skills to address such ‘terrifying’ issues as sexual abuse, gender inequality and child marriage; hopeless because it was focused on young people in Europe.

Then, to her delight, she discovered that the programme had been forced online by the pandemic, and had opened its doors to applications from all over the world. She signed up as one of over 60 participants in YAP 2021, the seventh such programme and the first online.

Young people as key role for positive change

‘The programme helped me to understand myself better and to get rid of insecurities,’ Agustina says. She emerged convinced that young people have a key role in enabling positive change.

Agustina describes herself as a ‘junior’ in the programme, and was somewhat overawed by the participation of people with PhDs, such as Besa Kadriu, a professor at South East European University in Macedonia. ‘Later I realized we all bring different perspectives.’

A chance to share ideas and meet people

Like Agustina, Besa was attracted to YAP because of her desire to bring change in her country, where she is part of the Albanian community. ‘In our society we have big conflicts between different ethnicities,’ she says. ‘I feel that the higher state institutions do not always do their best for the different groups.’

For Besa, taking part in YAP was a chance ‘to share my ideas and meet people who know what it means to respect the values, culture, language and symbols of others’. She was impressed by the diversity of the participants and the chance to learn from each other, and left with ideas about developing an elective study programme at her university on multi-ethnic issues.

The importance of listening

Shereen Siwpersad has been working for IofC Netherlands since April 2021 and teaches at Delft University of Technology. ‘As a communications officer and a teacher, the emphasis is always on talking, writing, sending out information,’ she says. ‘But the YAP programme put a lot of emphasis on listening in an empathetic and engaged manner. The listening exercises helped me to become a better teacher. I think I am now better able to show empathy and pick up on the things my students are not saying.

‘If I was to describe YAP in three words I would say thought-provoking, inspiring and wholesome. There was a really good group dynamic, good atmosphere and good ideas.’

Playing an active role in transforming society

‘YAP helped me become a confident speaker on serious global issues, without fear of judgment,’ says Kairi Kuusemaa, who is a Relationship Manager at her family’s organic farm in Estonia and represents her country at Ubuntu United Nations, a dialogue platform which brings together young people from 193 countries.

‘I attended YAP 2021 because I wanted to play an active role in transforming society and to explore the dynamic relatationship between personal and global change,’ she says. ‘I was afraid that I would not be able to make a positive difference in my community, but I gained the confidence that anything in this world is possible.’

In spite of the online format, many of the participants made strong connections with each other. ‘We still help each other until now,’ says Agustina.

If I was to describe YAP in three words I would say thought-provoking, inspiring and wholesome.

 

Written by Mary Lean based on interviews by Hajar Bichri

 

In October 2020, we reported on Water Warriors, a groundbreaking collaboration between experts and activists in Kenya, India and Sweden launched by Initiatives for Land, Lives, and Peace (ILLP), the organizers of the annual Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security. It aims to address water scarcity in Habeswein, a Somali-speaking community in Wajir county, Kenya. 

 

 

The pandemic meant that training which should have been onsite was moved online, streamed from Sweden. It was not until 2021, just before the emergence of the Omicron variant, that the Swedish and Indian trainers were able to visit Habeswein in person and work with the local community on how to put their training into practice.

 

 

ILLP is now raising money to build the first of a series of river dams before the rains come in April. This structure will hold 500,000 cubic metres of water and transform the lives of 20,000 people.

Follow this link to learn more and help support the project with a donation. 

 

 

Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace organizes the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security (CDES) and co-organizes, in partnership with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, the annual  Summer Academy on Land, Security and Climate.

For further information, please contact Rishabh Khanna.

Photos: Rishabh Khanna and Mohammed Ogle

This article is the first in a series of interviews with people affected by the war in Ukraine who have found temporary shelter at the Caux Refuge.

On the morning of 24 February, Alina Shymanska and her mother Liudmyla woke up to the news that the Russian army had bombed a military airport in her native city Zhytomyr, Ukraine, just 10 kilometers from their home.

That morning divided the lives of many Ukrainians into “before” and “after”. The horrifying sound of the air-raid siren became an omen for all the pain and suffering that would follow and overnight, Alina's yearly bucket list outlining her dreams, aspirations, and goals, became utterly irrelevant.

Alina is the perfect example of a new generation of young Ukrainians who have known Ukraine only as an independent sovereign state. Before the war broke out, Alina had had big plans for her life in Ukraine. A member of the Professional Government Association of Ukraine and a youth delegate at the United Network of Young Peacebuilders, the World Forum for Democracy, the Yalta European Strategy Forum and at UNESCO, she was actively committed to many causes and had been dreaming of a brighter future for her country, working relentlessly to make this dream come true.

Alina’s involvement in community-work in Ukraine ranged from helping children suffering from bullying, to regularly donating her old clothes to those in need.

Her convictions as a young leader led her to become a Young Ambassador at the Caux conferences in 2018 and she took part in the Caux Scholars Program and the Asia Plateau Initiative in 2019. Her participation in different IofC events shaped her future work and motivated her to put even more effort into issues she cared about.

Now Alina and her mother Liudmyla have found a safe place in Caux to decompress and think about the next steps.

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Tell us a little bit about yourself. What were the causes close to your heart back in Ukraine?

Alina - Before leaving Ukraine I worked as a project manager at the IT Academy in Zhytomyr which provides high-quality education in a rapidly developing IT sphere. I loved it there.

Another cause that is close to my heart was organizing a group of volunteers to form an NGO called “Open Up Initiative”, helping talented and creative kids deal with bullying, injustice, and hate speech at school. I was bullied myself when I was a student and this helped me understand the pain and suffering such kids go through. That’s how this initiative was born. We listened to them, supported their ideas and aspirations, helped them open up and took them to conferences, forums, and educational camps all over Ukraine. It was a positive change for them from their negative experience at school and showed them new ways and opportunities.

You stayed in Zhytomyr for a few days after the war started. What was the tipping point when you realized that you and your mother had to leave and look for a safe place to stay?

Alina – On 27 February we were still in Zhytomyr. It was the third day of the war and the Russian army dropped six bombs on the military airport 10 kilometers from where I lived. My mom initially refused to leave. I cried and asked her to go to the railway station with me. I knew I couldn't leave her in such a danger. 

Image

Liudmyla, so initially you were planning to stay at home and continue to work?

Liudmyla - Initially I didn’t want to go. I told my daughter that I would just say goodbye at the railway station and stay behind. I continued to work in a shop in our city during those first two days of the war and my plan was to continue doing so as long as possible. A lot of shops were already closed so I felt I couldn't just leave.

Alina - I think at that time many people did not believe the war would last so long. My mom thought about her house and her garden, and didn’t want to leave because there was where she had some stability, work, and property. She wondered who would look after us once we crossed the border. Back then, nobody knew if we would receive help, especially not with as much generosity and compassion as we see and feel now in Caux.

How did you convince your mother to go with you in the end?

Alina - When I decided to leave I insisted my mother should take her ID because we needed to go through several block posts before we could reach the railway station. My initial plan was to travel to Lviv, in Western Ukraine. My train was canceled because of the bombing, but there was a possibility of taking another train coming from Kramatorsk in the East. We later found out that it was a special evacuation train for people from Kramatorsk. We ran towards the train and I begged them to let us get on board. By then, my mother had decided to travel with me to the border and then go back home. So right until the end she still didn’t think she would leave.

Liudmyla - In fact, I still want to go back to my house and my normal life as soon as possible. 

How long did it take you to arrive in Switzerland?

Alina - It took us four days. We crossed the border to the Slovak Republic. People there helped us a lot, and treated us with generosity and kindness. They shared food and gave us a place to sleep. Up to that point, we almost had no sleep at all. I was so grateful to be able to sleep. On 2 March, we finally crossed the Swiss border.

What happened when you first arrived in Switzerland?

Alina - When arriving at Geneva airport, we were welcomed by a police officer whom we asked for help because we had no place to stay. We were sent to a refugee camp and stayed there, together with many other refugees from all over the world. Ukrainians were new to Switzerland, so both officials and volunteers were a little bit confused and overwhelmed, considering the number of people coming to Switzerland. It was a tough experience. We sat on a bench for hours, waiting for someone to come back with our documents. Then they gave us beds in a room we shared with ten other people from Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Somalia, who were also hoping to get asylum. From there, they soon sent us to another camp, close to the border with Austria and Liechtenstein where we spent another five or six days. It was quite a journey before we managed to get to Caux.

Now that you have already been in Caux for several days, what are your first impressions? Have you already met people from IofC and the village of Caux?

Alina – Yes, during my first days here I met most of the people from the village as they visited to greet us. I am so thankful to all the members of the wonderful IofC and Caux community, who brought all the essentials - healthcare items, medicine, clothes and food, all with great generosity.

Liudmyla - When we left our home town we weren't able to withdraw any money. There was no cash in ATMs and people didn't get their salaries. We had to leave with almost nothing. I carried with me with just one bag, while Alina had one piece of small luggage with her. Seeing all these generous donations was very moving.

Now that you have found a safe space to stay, how do you feel emotionally?

Alina - I finally feel safer, but very unsure of the future. Therefore I’m still not feeling 100% safe. This is probably also because I am in touch with family and friends who are still in Ukraine. Being in so close contact I feel I am with them, even though we are now living through this terrible experience from a place of comfort. Back in Ukraine people are often lacking food and essentials so I am feeling guilty, too. I often hear how important self-care is, but it is hard to care for yourself when you know that people are dying, that kids are dying. 

Is the rest of your family in safety? How are they?

Alina - My father, brother and many friends are still in Ukraine. Sadly, many members of my family are now scattered all over Europe, except for my dad and brother, who are protecting our land in the military. In my opinion our military doesn't get enough support. I am wondering how the humanitarian convoys will reach those in need, now that the bridge from Chernihiv to Kyiv was destroyed, When I think how difficult it is to evacuate people from certain areas my heart breaks.

Where do you find strength and hope to move forward in such difficult times?

Alina - In prayer. It helps me a lot when I pray, it gives me some hope and comfort. It is very important to be thankful for the gift of life, and to see the little things that matter, like breathing, being able to see, to walk, touching the earth with your feet, listening to the birds in the morning. All these small things matter a lot. In such moments of prayer and by appreciating the little things in life, I believe that light will conquer darkness!

About the author

Anastasia Slyvinska is a journalist from Kyiv, Ukraine. She has worked as a TV host, a foreign reporter and a manager for media outlets in Ukraine and abroad. Having worked at both Ukrainian and Canadian Parliaments she combines her media expertise with her political sciences background, holding a MA in Political Science. Anastasia has been part of the IofC community since 2014 when she first participated at the conference Just Governance for Human Security. She is currently living in Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

YOU CAN HELP!

 

As our own sources of funding are running out, we need your help to support the Caux Refuge project financially. We need CHF 20,000 to ensure that the group can be hosted until the end of 2022. We will use these funds to finance food aid and other costs related to the group's stay at the Villa Maria in Caux.

We thank you for your support. Please pledge your support here and specify “Caux Refuge” when making your contribution. If you have any proposals and questions, please get in touch with us.

 

 

Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles are those of the interviewees and not do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the interviewer and Initiatives of Change Switzerland.

Right now, more than 4.7 million displaced people have already left Ukraine in search of asylum, and others are moving away from Russia under the threat of imprisonment.

This war is on our European borders and as the European Centre of Initiatives of Change, we feel compelled to help those who have been forced to leave their community; their home.

What are we doing?

We have a long tradition of providing a safe space for people from conflict areas. In fact, the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre acted as a refugee centre during WWII before Initiatives of Change bought the building with the sole purpose of restoring trust between people in post-war Europe.

Therefore, we have decided to provide space for up to 30 people in Villa Maria (next to the Caux Palace). We have no intention of replacing formal asylum services and we work closely with local authorities with respect to the law. To liaise with the local agencies and services, we will appoint a liaison officer with a social service background who will be able to support this endeavor.

Why are we doing this?

For many years, the conferences in Caux Conference and Seminar Centre have benefitted not only from the contribution of many inspiring speakers and facilitators from Eastern Europe, but also from the practical support from people from Ukraine.

This is largely thanks to Foundations for Freedom, a trustbuilding programme for Eastern Europe that was born in Caux in the early ‘90s and is currently based in Ukraine. The programme has encouraged many people to take part in events in Caux.

In addition, the Weeks of International Community, which took place at the start of each summer in Caux, were also a time when Ukrainians, Russians and other Eastern Europeans came together building understanding and trust. 

What does this mean for Caux?

Since space in the Villa Maria is limited, members of the Foundations for Freedom / Initiatives of Change network and their families will be given priority. 

The Villa Maria remains available for external lets and the same spaces will be available. The common spaces for refugees and external guests will remain separate and the two should not disturb one another.

Your support makes it possible

This is an urgent response to a crisis, and we are seeking funding to cover the living costs of the refugees and asylum seekers that are not be covered by the local administration. This is an unplanned expense, but one that we feel is necessary – we cannot ignore so great a need.

We have estimated that the costs would be around CHF 30- per person/day (= estimated total cost of CHF 27,000/month for 30 people, including cost of living, salary of the liaison officer etc) . Anything you can contribute will help us to provide for our community members who are seeking safety.

For now, 18 people affected by the war in Ukraine have already been welcomed to Caux these last days and more will follow soon

Please pledge your support here and specify “Caux Refuge” when making your contribution.

DONATE NOW

How can we face times of uncertainty as individuals and as an organization? And how can we confront our mental barriers to make decisions which lie at the core of the uncertainty we are facing?

These were some of the questions tackled during a webinar on Facing Uncertainty which took place on 25 July 2021 as part of the second online Creative Leadership conference. The webinar aimed to help participants from around the world explore ways of dealing with the unknown, both at a personal and an organizational level.

Anas Badawi from Y-Peer was one of four young leaders who presented their perspective on overcoming fear and responding to situations of uncertainty. Y-Peer is a youth network using an integrated approach to educate young people with the active participation of young people themselves.

Anas described his life in Syria from 2012, when he woke up each morning to different struggles and uncertainties, to 2104, when a personal turning point led him to come up with ‘the triple change’ concept.

2012

I wake up in the morning. I go to school, I find some bribes – commonly used to buy voter’s voices – and a voting ballot. Elections to parliament are taking place. It’s a perfect transient Syrian morning.

I wake up in the morning, I listen to the neighbours who are meeting in the guest room, whispering about a woman who left her home screaming because her husband was beating her. They are accusing her of being a whore. A perfect transient Syrian morning.

I wake up in the morning. My mother is convinced that the owners of fancy cars are thieves, my father believes that our country is ruled by corruption and nepotism. My family doesn’t take part in sport or cultural activities. Another perfect transient Syrian morning.

It doesn’t matter. All that matters to all Syrians at this time is migration.

2014

Three years after the war started in Syria, at 9 pm on a Friday evening, I am walking in the streets in Damascus with my friends after dinner. Suddenly, a loud noise nearby. The sound of a missile/bomb/rocket. There is death everywhere, everyone is running away.

I run towards the direction of the missile. My friends are screaming. I observe. I see victims. I help a wounded person. Another, extremely close missile. I flee home. On the list of wounded, I read the name of the person I helped – I recognize it because his brother screamed it during the incident. He is alive. I didn’t run away, I think.

I change my mind about leaving Syria. I make a decision: my presence makes a difference, I am not unneeded here!

As a result of these experiences Anas developed his concept of ‘the triple change’:

Step 1: Decision

Choosing the road, with the mindset that I have a choice between travelling or not travelling. A mental trial after which I choose the route I am walking, the conversations I am talking and the way I am following. This is the decision making.

Step 2: Belief

An absolute conviction and persuasion, from the bottom of the heart, which recruits my emotions and creates coherence between who I am and what I do. This a great source of power to support the decision I make.

Step 3: Attempts

I have made a decision. I believe. Now, I’ll work. Will I succeed first time? I don’t know, but what I do know is that I have failed tens of times. I failed at achieving, but I succeeded at trying. Failure here is not negative. It means the loss of a battle, but not of the war.

Anas explained that this personal roadmap to change has helped him take action and opened up infinite possibilities.

Who am I going to be now? I’ll break the rules. I’ll change my university studies. I’ll be a photographer, or a painter. No, a politician, an actor.

Wait, wait. Let’s take it easy. Let’s remember the triple.

I started to see positive people.

I started to study the behaviour of influencers.

I started to follow those who are capable of change.

I’ll try – that’s what I thought to myself: so I started participating in any workshops which were available,  whether I knew anything about their subjects or not.   

I am trying.

I am learning.

In 2017, Anas’s hope and faith grew when he joined the Youth Peer Education Network (Y-PEER) and started working for its team in Syria. He managed to get the Executive Board to approve a media team and was the first person with no prior certificate to be accepted by an advanced training centre in Amman.

He explained his journey to becoming a young leader within Y-PEER Syria, through first being a member, then a facilitator, a team leader, a coordinator and finally becoming a FPC (Focal Point in Charge).

I believed in myself, I made a decision, I tried.... I changed. The triple change became a lifestyle.

- Anas Badawi -

Anas concluded:

2021:

I wake up in the morning, I organize a campaign related to the parliamentary elections with the purpose of raising awareness and encouraging young people to nominate and vote. I remember the bribes when I was at school. I emphasize active participation. I smile. I persevere.

I wake up in the morning. I implement an awareness raising session about gender-based violence for a group of women. I remember our neighbour who was subjected to violence. I emphasize that she is a victim. I smile. I go on.

I wake up in the morning. My mother knows that her children will soon be buying cars. My father holds a high judicial position. My brother is studying acting, my sister is learning to swim. I smile. I smile. And I continue.

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Interested in more? Read the report on Creative Leadership 2021 and watch Anas speak at the webinar on Facing Uncertainty (25 July 2021).

Compiled by Hajar Bichri

25 January 2022 - Christine Beerli will step down as President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland in April 2022, after four years in the role. Jacqueline Coté, former Director of Public Relations at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, will take over from her. 

‘It’s been a pleasure to serve the Foundation,’ says Beerli. ‘Our team and Council have worked closely on establishing the financial sustainability which will allow us to concentrate on fulfilling our mission of building bridges across the world’s divides. I am very pleased to have Jacqueline Coté as my successor in this important task. She is an outstanding professional with solid experience in advocacy, conflict resolution, external relations and partnerships, and is exceptionally passionate about creating safe spaces for dialogue. She brings an amazing array of qualities and creative ideas. Her specialization in mediation, communications and law, along with her previous knowledge of the Foundation, bring a unique mix of skills and experience to its leadership.’ 

‘I am deeply honoured to have been appointed as the next President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland,’ says Coté. ‘In this world of profound disruption and uncertainty, IofC’s work of breaking down barriers and helping to build trust across divided societies is more relevant than ever. I intend to capitalize on Christine Beerli’s enormous achievements during the Covid-19 pandemic to expand the reach and impact of our programmes, particularly with young people, and bring life back to the Caux Palace. I look forward to leveraging our network of IofC Members, strategic partners and friends who – along with our enthusiastic team – are all united in the desire to make a contribution to a just, peaceful and sustainable world. I also look forward to working closely with Stephanie Buri and Nick Foster, our dynamic co-directors, as well as our dedicated Council members.’

Jacqueline Coté was the Director of Public Relations and, before that, Head of Communications at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva from 2009 to 2021. She was instrumental in building the Institute’s new campus, the Maison de la Paix, as a vibrant centre for conferences and seminars, thus solidifying the reputation and outreach of the Institute in International Geneva and beyond.

Prior to that Coté was the Permanent Representative to the UN of the International Chamber of Commerce and also served as Senior Advisor Advocacy and Partnerships to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. In her early career, she practised as an international lawyer in Canada and Switzerland and held management positions in the multinational companies SGS and DuPont.  

Jacqueline Coté believes that the global agenda can best be tackled by linking the public, private and non-profit sectors, and that dialogue and empathy are essential tools in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals. She recently trained as a mediator at Harvard Law School and joined the board of several associations to continue her engagement with International Geneva.

She has Swiss, Canadian and British nationality, is a member of the Bar of Quebec and has two grown-up children who share her passion for tackling today’s global challenges in their areas of work.
 

How did Sofia Syodorenko become involved in the zero waste movement, and what does it mean to her? Now Chair of Foundations for Freedom, she is also a representative of the Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine, and moderated an online workshop on plastics and single-use consumption during the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security in 2021.

What triggered your change to a zero waste lifestyle?

To be completely honest, I was always a kind of zero-waste person, thanks to my mother. She always pointed out when resources were being used irrationally – water running without a purpose, lights left on, food thrown away.  This upbringing led me to get involved in environmental and waste issues.

Zero waste is not about a tiny plastic jar that cannot be recycled; it is not about giving up most of the things we love. Zero waste is about being mindful – mindful of things we do and don’t need, mindful of resources that aren’t limitless, mindful of nature that we are a part of. Based on this core idea, we can build many wonderful approaches to such routine things as waste management.  

How do you practise that in daily life?

Let me walk you through my day. I wake up in the morning and wash. I use a bamboo toothbrush which I later put in the compost. My toothpaste is in a glass jar which I can return for refilling. I use a simple bar of soap instead of shower gel. I then go to the kitchen, make coffee in a French press, and eat whatever I feel like eating (most of the foods I eat are grown locally: I eat them not only because it is an environmentally friendly thing to do, but also because Ukrainian food is insanely tasty).

After that I walk my dog, use paper bags to collect its ‘presents’, and come back home to work. In pre-pandemic times, I would walk, cycle or take a local bus to work, but now I work from home, so that’s easier. In the evenings I usually read something, or watch something, or go for a great local beer in a glass jar.

I am not a fan of shopping. I don’t have many things or clothes. If I don’t use something, I donate it; if I need something, I ask the reuse community or my friends first, and buy it only if they can’t help. When I shop for groceries, I use my own reusable bags, jars and containers.

Don’t get me wrong, I do produce trash, but the point is to see where we are wasteful and deal with the causes not with the consequences. So we ask producers to change the way they sell goods to us and challenge municipalities to create policies which will stimulate businesses not to be wasteful.

Tell us about the initiative you started.

We started by creating a local NGO, working with the local community, businesses, producers and the municipality. Then we got together with like-minded NGOs from other Ukrainian towns, and created the Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine, which is now a part of a great European network, Zero Waste Europe, and a great global network, Break Free from Plastic.

We are continuing our work on the local level, and we also support other NGOs which work on waste management. We hope that we are changing the system for the better, case by case.

Why this should concern us all?

Zero Waste is not about reusable cups and reusable bags. It is about being respectful and mindful. There is this beautiful place called planet Earth. It has multiple extremely useful resources which we are welcome to use. But if we use these resources greedily and thoughtlessly, we will face the consequences – and they can be unexpected and fatal. We have a chance to change things:  it is up to us whether to use it.

Can you give some tips for zero waste beginners?

First of all, don’t take the ‘zero waste’ concept literally, and don’t think that zero wasters don’t produce trash. We do. Start with noticing the things that you are surrounded by. Do you need them? Do you use them? Do you wear them? Do they make you happy?

Second, take a look into your trashcan, it’s a great source of information. You will probably see a lot of organic waste and packaging. Can you change this somehow? Can you start a composting site with your community? Can you buy your food with less single-use packaging? Can you substitute some single-use things you use everyday with reusable ones?

Last but not least, think of the things you truly love. Most probably they will be non-material things – people, laughter, adventure, sunny/rainy weather, getting cosy with a blanket and a good book. There is no need to believe those loud advertisements that tell you that you need to buy this or that to be happy. Nope, you don’t. The day you accept this will probably be one of the most useful days of your life.

How did you get involved with Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security (CDES)?

Good question. There are so many wonderful things in life that happen because of the words: ‘Hey, here is an idea!’  Nick Foster emailed me and a friend with these words, and that’s how we ended up organizing an online workshop as part of the CDES 2021. Its theme was ‘Plastics and Single-use Consumption: inspiring systematic change through personal transformation’. We were joined by Justine Maillot, from the Rethink Plastic Alliance and Break Free from Plastic, Jack McQuiban from Zero Waste Europe and Anna Ponikarchuk, the co-founder of Ozero, the first zero waste shop in Ukraine.

I really love intersectoral connections. They produce many wonderful out-of-the-box ideas. The workshop was a wonderful opportunity to create intersectoral connections. In a few years, we may see the impact.

Find out more about the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security

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Watch Sofia speak at the workshop "Plastics & Single-use Consumption: Inspiring Systematic Change through Personal Transformation" during the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security 2021

Photos: Sofia Syodorenko