Anas Badawi: The Triple Change

A Creative Leadership Story

11/02/2022
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Anas Badawi.jpg
Anas Badawi

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!

 

Anas Badawi soeaking at CL 2021
Anas speaking at Creative Leadership 2021

 

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.

 

Anas Badawi civic participation

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 Badawi civic participation
Anas (sitting fourth from the left) with members of Y-Peer Syria

 

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.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

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

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Jacqueline Coté to become President of IofC Switzerland in April 2022

Press Release

24/01/2022
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Photo credit: Boris Palefroy

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.
 

 

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Sofia Syodorenko: A zero waste lifestyle is a mindful lifestyle

By Hajar Bichri

21/01/2022
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Sofia Zero Waste
Sofia and her zero waste waterbottle

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.

 

Sofia Zero Waste
Sofia presenting reuseable every-day items: a waterbottle, a mug with a spoon and a shopping bag

 

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

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

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

 

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Jacqueline Coté

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

PeaceCon@10: COVID, Climate, and Conflict

Rising to the Challenges of a Disrupted World

26-28 January 2022

 

Organized by the Alliance for Peacebuilding in partnership with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), PeaceCon@10 comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, displacement, disinformation and democratic backsliding are just a few of the disruptions facing the peacebuilding field and peacebuilders are rising to meet these challenges. The impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt across the world. Mass distribution of the vaccine has not been made widely available to vulnerable communities. Meanwhile, sources like disinformation have caused vaccine hesitancy among populations globally.

At the same time, the world is grappling with the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures, a melting Arctic, worsening droughts, and wildfires present a danger to human life and the future of our planet as climate impacts drive conflict and insecurity. This all comes at a time when the world is experiencing a 30-year high in violent conflict. Today, more than 80 million people are displaced globally, and an estimated 235 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection – the highest numbers in modern history. We hope you will join us as we gather and examine these challenges and strategize a path forward.

PeaceCon@10 will feature 50+ outstanding panel conversations, interactive workshops, and keynote addresses on how to #RiseToBuildPeace. Together at PeaceCon@10, we will explore how to address the 30-year high in violent conflict and COVID-19’s “stabilization in reverse,” as well as the compounding impact of climate change and conflict. Keynote speakers include international bestselling science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, award-winning author, peacebuilder, and researcher Séverine Autesserre, USAID Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization Robert Jenkins, and more! 

Initiatives of Change Switzerland will be represented on January 28 by Co-Director General Nick Foster, for the 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM EST (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM CET) session - The Role of Peace Fora in Peacebuilding.

Throughout the year, organizations worldwide convene different peace fora, or conferences, to create space for exchange between actors and institutions on how we might build peace. This year, the organizers of PeaceCon, the Caux Forum, Geneva Peace Week, and the FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum are coming together for a conversation about why peace fora matter, and how we contribute to peace.

In what ways do peace fora foster peace? What are the essential ingredients? Where do we struggle? And how might we harness collective action across the annual calendar in order to strengthen our work?

 

 

 

 

 



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Andrew Lancaster: Responsibilities without borders

11/01/2022
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Former President of the Council of IofC Switzerland, Antoine Jaulmes, interviews Andrew Lancaster from Australia, who has just stepped down from the Council.

 

Andrew Lancaster
Andrew Lancaster

For the last 16 years, members of the Council of Initiatives of Change Switzerland have appreciated Andrew Lancaster’s listening skills and friendly support. The last three presidents of the Council of IofC Switzerland (I think I can speak without risk on behalf of my predecessor and successor) have valued his efficient and ever available help.

Andrew is also the convener of the Silvia Zuber Fund Committee, which over the last ten years has provided grants to people from Asia and Africa who have needed help to finance their visits to Caux and/or for IofC programmes in their own regions.

But this is only a slice of his much longer association with Initiatives of Change. So let’s hear about that directly from him.

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Andrew, how did you meet Initiatives of Change and engage in your lifelong commitment with it?

Let me use a few snapshots to capture my early experiences with Initiatives of Change:

From almost as early as I can remember my parents followed the discipline of an early morning quiet time.

There were always folk from Moral-Rearmament (MRA/now Initiatives of Change) staying with us, often for prolonged periods. They related numerous and telling examples of lives being changed.

At an MRA conference in 1965 Peter Howard’s play, We Are Tomorrow, was produced. I had the only non-speaking part. It went on to be performed in various venues in Victoria and Tasmania.

I then felt a sense of calling to defer my civil engineering studies in order to serve as stage manager. This, and similar decisions by others, enabled the play to be performed further afield in Queensland, and then in New Zealand.

In 1966 a large international MRA conference took place in Canberra during which a new, rough-hewn, musical, Sing Out Australia, was performed for the first time. The next morning Rajmohan Gandhi invited us to bring it to India for six months to support him and his colleagues in their bid ‘to build a strong, clean and united India’. The boldness of his vision captured our attention and four months later an intergenerational group of 52, mainly Australians and New Zealanders, arrived in India.

A group of young Indians were in the midst of developing their own production, India Arise. A number of us joined them as they toured India. Within a year India Arise arrived in Caux, soon moving on for performances in various European countries. This was my introduction to Caux.

At the end of that year’s Caux summer, I was invited to the MRA centre in the north-west of England to recuperate from a bout of hepatitis I had caught in India. I joined a small but very active community there for what extended to two years. I then based in central London for the next four years. That is when I got to know, became engaged to and married my wife Margaret.

Immediately after our wedding we went to Canada for eight months to engage in the ongoing work of rebuilding the MRA team there. In 1981, we returned to the UK for 18 months, this time with our two older sons, and once more based in Tirley Garth. Apart from these spells overseas we have lived in Canberra, Australia.

I also co-edited with John Bond the monthly MRA/IofC World Bulletin from 1991 for 12 years.

 

So this takes you very far from Caux….

Absolutely. Our home in Canberra has been one of the hubs of IofC activities in Australia. Among other things we built friendships with federal parliamentarians and with members of the diplomatic corps as well as providing accommodation for IofC colleagues visiting from other parts of Australia and abroad. We were also involved in the planning of a series of international IofC conferences in Australia.

 

Andrew Lancatser Global ASsembly 2012 Caux
Andrew (third from the left) at the Global Assembly in Caux, 2012


When did you work in Caux and in which capacity?

In 1996 Yukihisa Fujita from Japan conceived a Caux conference with the theme Agenda For Reconciliation (AfR) for Caux’s 50th anniversary. One outcome of this was a proposal from a senior Japanese politician that there should be a political round table in Caux, running parallel to part of the AfR conferences. I was asked to coordinate it, which I did for five years. The AfR conferences then morphed into the Caux Forum for Human Security under Mohamed Sahnoun’s leadership. Concurrently Margaret and I joined the Caux Allocation Team.

In 2005 I was invited to join the Council of the Caux Foundation (now IofC Switzerland). In 2008-2009 you, Antoine, and I steered the so-called Caux Review. The Silvia Zuber Fund (SZF) assignment came some time after that. Having known Silvia, it has meant a great deal to me to implement her visionary bequest to the Foundation. Over ten years we have made nearly 650 grants. One enormous satisfaction of this was to meet face-to-face in Caux any number of people – mainly Caux Interns and Caux Scholars – who would not have experienced Caux but for the support of the Silvia Zuber Fund.

 

So, to do all that, how much time did you spend in Caux? 

On average, we have been in Caux for three weeks, every year from 1996 to 2019.

 

Which people or events made a lasting impression on you?

There are so many over the years since that first visit in 1967. I was deeply struck by the passion of William Nkomo and Philip Vundla from South Africa. Also from Africa was Didacienne Mukahabeshimana who spoke of her experiences during the Rwandan genocide.

Assaad Chaftari from Lebanon, a former phalangist commanding officer, told his story alongside a Lebanese Muslim.

Kevin Rudd’s account of his decision as prime minister to publicly apologize, on behalf of the government and the country, to the Indigenous people of Australia for policies which led to the Stolen Generations, was unforgettable.

The full list is very long, but I cannot omit Philippe Mottu’s stirring account in 1996 of how Caux was acquired and why ‘Caux is the place!' had been his guiding conviction.

 

Thank you Andrew for sharing these memories and important moments.

I wish you a good continuation of your service for IofC in Australia and happy times with your children and grandchildren. You must be relieved to conclude your online participation in Council meetings at exotic times (because of the 10-hour time difference between Europe and Australia)!

All the best!

 

  • Photos: Initiatives of Change

 

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75 Years of Stories: Meet the team!

07/01/2022
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Yara Zgheib round black&white

When we launched the 75 Years of Stories series in February 2021 about 75 years of encounters at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux, we had no idea what an adventure we had embarked on!

The idea came from Yara Zgheib, a Lebanese novelist living in the US. She introduced the series by describing how she came to Caux in 2010, as ‘a shipwreck of a girl’ and for the first time in her life found quiet. ‘This place taught me to breathe, to see, others and myself,’ she wrote. ‘By the time I left, I felt so light I could have flown to Montreux.’

My story is not special, or mine. It belongs to this conference centre.

Caux’s story, she concluded, ‘contains hundreds of thousands of train rides, walks, talks, teas, conversations, and quiet moments of giant transformation’.

Over the last year we have shared 75 of them. Now in our final post, we’ve asked the team who took up her challenge to share their reflections, memories and what motivated them to participate in the series.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Eliane Stallybrass

Eliane Stallybrass, Switzerland

I was enthusiastic when I heard about the idea of producing one story for each of the 75 years that Caux has existed as an Initiatives of Change conference centre.

Then we started the work of finding the right stories and I even had to write a few myself, which was sometimes hard going! Recalling my memories of all these people, and of what they had brought to my life, was often moving.

Now I find I do not know some of those featuring in the more recent stories. Such is life. Like the conference centre, I am also 75.

 

Andrew Stallybrass

Andrew Stallybrass, Switzerland/UK

More than 50 years of my adult life has been largely centred around the Caux conference centre. Eliane and I now live in the village in our active retirement. I have a passion for the history of the village and the centre, and give guided tours of both, trying to bring to life some of the amazing stories wrapped up in this perch looking out over Lake Geneva.

I’ve had the immense privilege of knowing so many of the people whose stories we’ve told. So many good friends! As so often in life, you start by thinking that you may lend a hand, and find that you’ve given an arm and a leg as well. But it’s been fun and great teamwork.

 

Ulrike Ott Chanu credit D Topan

Ulrike Ott Chanu, France/Germany

When we started preparing the 75th anniversary celebrations I realized that 2021 was also my own IofC anniversary. I first came to Caux 35 years ago, in 1986. These 35 years have been an amazing journey with new skills learned, fascinating encounters, many friends from all over the world – and a place which feels like home, whenever I go there.

Working on the series was like diving back into my early years in Caux. It was fascinating to discover new facets of people I had met there but didn't know that much about. Working with our international team of writers and proofreaders wasn't only a lot of fun, but also a reflection of that core value which is so typical of Caux: bringing people together, no matter who they are and where they come from!

 

Mike Smith

Michael Smith, UK

I first went to Caux 55 years ago and have been there most years since. A particular year changed the course of my life. In 1967 Rajmohan Gandhi, a journalist and author from India, brought a troop of young Asians to Caux to perform their colourful stage production, India Arise. He appealed for young Europeans to join his team in India in a spirit of service.

I went in 1971 and stayed for three years, working on the production of his newsweekly paper Himmat (courage). This encouraged me in my calling to be a writer. I have lost count of the number of times I have visited India since then.

Returning to Caux over the years, I have met people in business and industry who run their companies with honesty and integrity, serving all stakeholders. I have written their stories in four books and in national newspapers. www.michaelsmith.iofc.org

 

Monica Mittag

Monica Mittag, Switzerland/Germany

It was not easy to decide what to write about Caux and me, because my life has been so closely linked with Caux. For five years, I lived there and went to school in Montreux.

One summer, as a young teenager, I was helping in the kitchen. It was the first time I had used dry, instead of fresh, yeast. Because of a wrong calculation, I ended up with eight times more yeast in my dough than the recipe asked for. Another girl and I filled the cake tins as fast as we could, racing to stop the dough pouring over the top of the tub it had been mixed in. Luckily three other desserts had already been made.

Over the years, whenever I have come to Caux, it has been a great privilege to meet old friends. For me, friendships, like my marriage vows, are ‘until death do us part’.

 

Monica and Folker Mittag

Folker Mittag, Germany

During the business conferences organized by Heinrich Karrer, one of the best team-building exercises was operating the big dishwashing machine. Two people fed it with dirty dishes at one end and the rest of the team emptied at the other.

For several years, I was a member of the same team as Frits Philips, CEO of Philips Electronics. As we worked together, we developed a personal friendship. I learnt how he had been treated by the German occupying forces during the second world war, and told him about growing up in East Germany and how I left it.

One year, Frits asked me to drive a young Japanese to Eindhoven and to stay in his home for a few days. He needed a trustworthy interpreter because he was preparing for a high-ranking Japanese delegation. The next morning the young Japanese and I set off from Caux. That relationship also is still alive.

 

Mary Lean

Mary Lean, UK

Among 60 years of memories of Caux, one stands out.

7.15 am. A small, diverse group gathers in the bay window of the meeting hall, to share the silence before the hubbub of the day. Today it’s my turn to offer a reflection. Picking my words carefully, I share my experience of God’s unconditional love. Then we are silent.

The sound of a reed pipe floats up from the terrace where a group of indigenous people from different countries are also welcoming the new day. The birds fly to and fro between the trees and balconies, as we look across the lake to the mountains.

I close the session with a prayer. One of the Muslims gets up and leaves the group. Have I offended him in some way?

Then I realize that, just behind our semicircle of chairs, he is prostrating himself. ‘I prayed in my own way,’ he explains later, and gives me a quotation from his tradition which speaks of God’s love.

 

John Bond

John Bond, UK/Australia

I believe in the future of Caux. These 75 stories tell of people who found the faith and hope and courage to be the change they wanted to see (like my parents' story), often with creative outcomes in their communities, sometimes even affecting whole nations.

One outcome was the strengthening of democracy, especially in Europe. Thirty years ago IofC launched Foundations for Freedom, a programme which focused on the moral and spiritual qualities in citizens needed for democracy to thrive. Thousands of young people from Eastern and Central Europe, newly freed from dictatorial rule, took part.

Now democracy is threatened in much of Western Europe, and we need a new focus on those qualities. This has always been the role of Caux, and I want to help this to continue.

 

Working with our international team was a reflection of that core value which is so typical of Caux: bringing people together, no matter who they are and where they come from!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

We are grateful to everyone who allowed us to share their experiences and to all who wrote, researched, commented, and contributed photographs.

Thank you to Yara Zgheib for her inspiration and to Franz Vock for his support.

Thanks to the hard work of translaters and proofreaders Maya Fiaux, Jean Fiaux, Claire Fiaux-Martin, Teresa Healey, Tatjana Horbenko-Enomoto and Sebastian Hasse, the stories are now appearing in French and German.

And we could not have done it without the For a New World website, a treasure trove of source material, images and videos.

 

DISCOVER ALL 75 STORIES

 

 

 

 
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2021: Initiatives of Change Switzerland – Opening Caux’s doors to a new chapter

31/12/2021
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As our series of 75 stories for 75 years of the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux draws to an end, the President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland, Christine Beerli, and its two Co-Director Generals, Stephanie Buri and Nick Foster, share their perspectives.

 

Christine Beerli: Timeless challenge

 

Christine Beerli

‘Building bridges over the world’s divides’ – this timeless challenge is the programme of Initiatives of Change Switzerland. All the moving personal stories that we have published during our anniversary year bear witness to people who reached out to each other in difficult situations and built bridges.

Bridgebuilders are needed everywhere!

In our lives today, the pandemic has forced us to communicate mostly by digital means and our nerves are often on edge. Listening, trying to understand and creating connections are of the greatest importance. IofC will not run out of work in the next 75 years – bridgebuilders are needed everywhere!

 

 

Christine Beerli Opening Ceremony Caux Forum 2021
Christine Beerli speaking at the Opening Ceremony of the Caux Forum 2021

 

Nick Foster: Work together

 

Nick Foster

My first real encounter with Initiatives of Change (IofC) was in London in 1992, through a weekly gathering of young people, called Making Britain a Home. We discussed what was happening in our lives, shared food and quiet, and discovered what did, and sometimes didn’t, make Britain a home.

The group was incredibly diverse and our discussions were life-changing and perspective-altering. I began to understand how privileged my experience of life was. The systemic prejudice others in the group met every day had played little part in my understanding of my country. 

I went on to discover more of the world, and myself, through taking part with Erik and Sheila Andren in the Foundations for Freedom programme which was just starting in post-perestroika Europe and Russia. I grew more through these experiences and the resulting friendships than through all the formal education I had received. I felt a sense of belonging I hadn’t experienced before: even when I met new people in the IofC network it was like pulling on a familiar and comforting piece of clothing.

I am convinced that building trust across the world’s divides is the only way in which a viable future is possible.

In 2012, I started working with IofC Switzerland. I am convinced that building trust across the world’s divides, connected to individuals’ sense of purpose for their lives, is the only way in which a viable future is possible. The pandemic has shown us that that the written word, digital communication and the bubbles that form through social media all too readily breed mistrust and poor social and mental health.

I hope that in 2022 and beyond we can throw open the doors of Caux again, for deep exchange and personal transformation to take place. We really need each other – and our planet needs us to work together.

 

Stephanie Buri and Nick Foster Opening Ceremony Caux Forum 2021
Stephanie Buri and Nick Foster launching the Caux Forum 2021

 

Stephanie Buri: The next chapter

 

Stephanie Buri

75 years of stories, 75 years of encounters, 75 years of conferences, addressing the key issues of their times and bringing together people from all corners of the earth and all walks of life. Seventy-five years of rich, sometimes life-changing, interactions. 

During this anniversary year we have told the stories of people whose lives were touched by Caux, one for each year. They include far-reaching encounters, such as those between French and Germans after World War II or between Somalis of warring communities in 2005; heart-stopping moments, such as in 1981, when Agnes Hofmeyr spoke from the stage with a man who had sanctioned her father’s murder; and stories from the corridors, offices and kitchens  of the many volunteers who have made the conferences possible.  

It is now up to all of us to write the next chapter of Caux and of its encounters.

There’s new love, a wedding and a marriage reborn. There’s the moments when new initiatives took flight – Hope in the Cities, addressing race, poverty and alienation in American cities; Creators of Peace, empowering women as agents of change; and the Caux Round Table, bringing together industrialists from Japan, the US and Europe. Young, old and middle-aged describe how an experience or encounter at Caux have changed the course of their lives.

It is now up to all of us to write the next chapter of Caux and of its encounters, which in the last two years have mostly been online. People have brought Caux home, and there is a real thirst for meeting again in new and sustainable ways. I look forward to writing this next chapter with you.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

This story is the last in our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through our conference centre at Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021.

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 top: Cindy Bühler
  • All other photos: Initiatives of Change Switzerland

 

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2020: Aad Burger – Struck by a virus

23/12/2021
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Aad Burger young man
Aad Burger in the 1960s

In 2020, the Caux Forum went online in response to the pandemic. Its organizers found that this made Caux accessible to people all over the world who could not have taken part in normal circumstances. One of these was 91-year-old Aad Burger from the Netherlands. He writes:

I went to Caux almost every summer between 1946 and 2010. Then, aged 82, I realized that the travel and the programme were becoming too much for me in my wheelchair. So when I read that the Caux conferences were going to take place online, I saw it as a great opportunity. Because of my deafness I couldn’t understand everything, but it was better than I expected.

In 1946, when I was 17, I was invited to help prepare the Caux Palace for its first Initiatives of Change (then Moral Re-Armament/MRA) conferences. My father worked for the Dutch Railways so I was able to get my train ticket and visas to leave the Netherlands and to enter Switzerland. We were not allowed to take money out of the Netherlands, so the Swiss MRA Foundation paid all my expenses.

While I was at Caux, I decided to give my life to God and to work with Moral Re-Armament to build a new world. I apologized to my father for cheating him. Sometimes I asked for an advance on my monthly pocket money, to be deducted the next month. If he forgot and paid me the full amount, I didn’t remind him.

I apologized to my father for cheating him.

I paid him back with money I had earned by growing tobacco on a small piece of land belonging to the family. I should have been growing vegetables, which we needed during the ‘hunger winter’ of 1944-1945. I apologized for that too!

 

Aad Burger in Caux early years
Aad (second from the right) with his parents and Jap de Boer (second from the left) and on the train in Caux, 1946

 

After university and military service, I began to work fulltime with Moral Re-Armament. In 1952 I went with an international team to Africa, and stayed on in Ghana and Nigeria after they went home. Two years later I was travelling to Onitsha in Nigeria with a colleague, when I became more and more ill. The doctors we met did not know what was wrong.

 

Aad Burger rehabilitation after polio
Aad (sitting) at the rehabilitation centre in the Netherlands after he got polio, 1954. The older man standing behind him worked as a doctor in Nigeria and had come from the UK to visit him.

 

One night I dreamt that I might be paralyzed for life. I prayed that this wouldn’t happen, but also decided that if it did, I would accept it and that I would continue to seek God’s guidance for my life.

I prayed that this wouldn’t happen, but also decided that if it did, I would accept it.

The next day, at a small hospital in Enugu, I was diagnosed with polio. I told the doctor that I felt God had warned me. ‘This will help you recover as much as possible,’ he said.

After three months immobile in bed, I had recovered a bit, but my legs remained partly paralyzed. I was flown home to Amsterdam.

 

Aad Burger 1985 in Caux with Hari Shukla, Gursharan Patang, Tom Jones
At a meeting in Caux with (left to right) community leaders from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, Hari Shukla and Gursharan Patang, and Tom Jones, 1985

 

Back in the Netherlands, I continued to work with Moral Re-Armament, mostly with workers in the port of Rotterdam. In 1968 I married Josienne De Loor. During this time I joined the Labour Party. I became its chair in Utrecht and served as a member of the city council from 1977 to 1998, with two interruptions.

Ever since my first time in Caux, I have started every day with quiet reflection.

Ever since my first time in Caux, I have started every day with quiet reflection, seeking God’s inspiration and direction. This has helped me to put into practice what I learned at Caux.

 

Aad and Josiette Burger
With his wife Josienne

When the pandemic began, it reminded me of being struck by the polio virus. Completely unexpectedly, at the age of 26, I found myself paralyzed. I survived but with increasing dependence on a wheelchair. Was I going to die now, in my 90s, because of another unexpected virus? Of course, I hoped it would not hit me. But if one of my family was going to be hit, I hoped it would be me rather than my son or daughter, their partners or my four granddaughters.

What is my advice to young people today? Just as we did after World War II, let them take up the challenge to build a new world and experience the changes in their lives that will equip them for this.

What is my advice to young people today? Let them take up the challenge to build a new world.

Aad Burger
Aad receiving a decoration as Member of the Order of Orange-Nassau for his service to the city of Utrecht

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

 

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.

 

  • All photos except 1985 and 1960s: Aad Burger
  • Aad Burger in the 1960s: copyright Roel Troost Utrecht
  • Meeting in Caux 1985: Initiatives of Change

 

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