Partnerships for the Goals: Approaching UN International Human Rights Day, Part 8
Updated: Dec 10, 2020
UN SDG #17 – Partnerships for the Goals
You probably won’t be surprised to find out that one of my favorite parts of every ESD Global training I’ve taken part in is the closing circle, when the instructors and the trainees stand united in their shared experiences, goals, and a piece of yarn connecting their wrists.
After everybody gives their final thoughts on the training, the yarn is cut, and everybody returns home wearing identical bracelets that stay on until they fall off on their own.
An ESD Global Level 1 training is only the beginning of a lifelong process.
An ESD Global Level 1 training is only the beginning of a lifelong process. When the trainees return home and start teaching the members of their community, they lean on each other and a provided mentor for support.
Many of them partner up with each other.
Here’s one of my favorite examples:
The one trainee from Costa Rica at the very first training in 2017 went home and started teaching. The following year, she sent us nine of her students.
Since then, many of those trainees have started their own organizations, which now fall under the umbrella of “ESD Global Latin America and the Caribbean,” an organization in its own right.
And some trainees show up representing organizations that already exist. Some of those organizations already provide ESD training.
But many don’t.
Take for example Youths for Peace Building & Development in Africa (YOUPEDA), an organization based in Nigeria focused on empowering communities.
Their specific brand of empowerment never involved self-defense training. Until February, when some of its members came to Jerusalem for a Level 1 training and the first international Violence Prevention Education Conference.
Their specific brand of empowerment never involved self-defense training. Until February, when some of its members came to Jerusalem for a Level 1 training.
They’re working hard, and even using the national radio station to provide violence prevention education.
Two heads are better than one? In this together? Stronger together? They’re all cliches because they’re true.
The goal of reducing and preventing violence feels huge. Because it is.
Which is why it’s important to remember how many of us are fighting the fight.
