MasterPeace Clubs Blog

AnneMarie put up a lovely blog post about the Dutch Afghani community's work in Afghanistan, and how they came together with MasterPeace in The Netherlands and in Afghanistan to continue this work.

This is the beauty of a global, grass-roots movement. People with common values and common goals have been able to make contact simply through their own initiative and the platform that MasterPeace is creating. Stories like this are so amazing because they teach us one thing: movements work. Our movement works.

Check it out!

Open Source Ecology is working on making every aspect of civilization available and open-source through the Global Village Construction Set. Basically, they're developing 50 machines--the idea being that with these 50, you can make, do, or develop everything you need to run a modern civilization, from an oven to a tractor to a 3D scanner. The 50 machines are all designed to be manufactured by the user (that is, the whole thing should be doable on a do-it-yourself basis) and maintained and repaired by the user, all at a lower cost than the traditional way of doing things. The schematics and instructions for building these machines are all being shared online, for free, in the project's wiki.

Aside from the fact that this just sounds really cool, why do we care? What does this have to do with us? Well, take it from founder Marcin Jakubowski himself:

"Our goal is a repository of published designs so clear, so complete that a single burned DVD is effectively a civilization starter kit. I've planted a hundred trees in a day; I've pressed 5,000 bricks in one day from the dirt beneath my feet; and built a tractor in six days. From what I've seen, this is only the beginning."

Marcin consistently refers to "unleash[ing] human potential." He means that a lot of the way our systems work now doesn't allow us to do everything we can, as well as we can. Taking all the tools we need to make our lives happen in a very physical, real-world sense and putting them into the hands of anybody who's willing to do some DIY building projects could help us remove those obstacles. For example: we're aware that electricity generation is an issue for many of the Clubs. They're still working on it, but pretty soon Open Source Ecology is going to be telling the world exactly how to build an electric motor that can also act as a generator. (Seriously, guys, I for one am going to be watching that page. For your information, here's what a completed how-to-build page looks like.) 

Whether or not the Global Village Construction set is directly relevant to us, regardless of whether you or I will ever build a wind turbine, the ultimate goal here--unleashing everyone's human potential--is exactly what we believe in. What's more, the approach--choosing to be open, to be 2.0, to put the tools in our own hands and decide for ourselves what to do with them--is exactly what we're trying to do. Even if none of us ever implements any part of the Open Source Ecology program, we can still learn from their vision and their methods.

I'll leave you with a few more words from Marcin:

"We know that open source has succeeded with tools for managing knowledge and creativity, and the same is starting to happen with hardware too. We're focusing on hardware because it is hardware that can change people's lives in such tangible, material ways. If we can lower the barriers to farming, building, manufacturing, then we can unleash just massive amounts of human potential."

Does that make you guys get all shivery? It makes me get all shivery.

MasterPeace's director of Fundraising, our own Klaartje Spijkers, put together a great list of simple fundraising ideas that anyone can pull off. This is a great reference for the future (there are a ton of ideas here, more than anyone could use in the short term), so bookmark this page or copy and paste!

A - Auction, Arts and crafts sale, Apple bobbing (a perfect fundraiser for Halloween, but you can do it anytime).
 
B - Bad ____ Day (bad hair, bad sweaters, bad ties, bad hats--anything simple and silly!), barbeque, bungee jumping, Beat the Goalie, or a Book Group – you can get members to make a donation every time you meet to discuss a book. Why not try price matching and give the same amount of money that you  paid for the book?

C - Car wash, Coffee Morning (set up a coffee station, stall, or even delivery service as a limited-time option and charge a little extra for the added convenience), cake sale, Clothes Swap (charge a fee to be part of the swap), concert, Comedy Night, Carol Singing (go house to house and sing local traditional songs; ask for donations when you're done), Come Dine With Me (take turns to cook up a delicious dinner, and then give each other a score in money instead of points. All your scores combined should come to a lot of money!).

D - Dress-Down Day, disco, dog wash, dog-walking or dog-sitting, dinner party, Dance Marathon.

E - Exhibition (there are lot of kinds of exhibitions! You could get a group together to take photographs for a day around a certain theme and exhibit the photos; you could partner with one or more local artists; you could give the kids in your community an inspiring theme, ask them to draw, and exhibit their artwork), Easter Egg Hunt, errands service (offer to do errands for friends and family in exchange for a small fee).

F - Fair Trade Tea Party (making sure everything you use is as fair trade as possible), Film Night, fashion show, fancy dress, face painting, football tournament

G - Gig, Garden party, Global dinner (make a dinner whose food takes you around the world!), Global Giving, Guess the… height, weight, name of, number of – the possibilities are endless.

H - Halloween party, Homemade – set up a stall at your school, work or community's center and ask people to bring in crafts and home cooking or baking to sell.

I - Indian Night, ironing (press your friends' clothes for a fee), It’s a Knockout (come up with a series of silly contests that people can do in teams), Inspired ideas – think of new and exciting ways to raise money based on your own interests.

J - Jumble sale (got anything lying around that you don't need? Put it all out front and sell it! You can do the same for your friends, too, and accept a fee for taking care of it for them), Jell-O eating contest

K - Karaoke evening, Kite-flying contest, Knitting, Keep fit – take on a sponsored sporting event or hold a fitness themed day at your work or school

L - Lawn-mowing, Litter-picking, Lent Lunch – organize a simple meal of bread and soup one day a week during Lent and ask people to donate their lunch money.

M - Masquerade ball, Murder mystery night, Marathon, Magic show, Massage – offer a relaxing massage service in exchange for donations.

N - Netball tournament, Non-Uniform Day, Name the … doll, teddy bear, tortoise (a time-honoured, fool-proof fundraiser. Assign a name to your chosen object and get friends to guess for a small prize.)

O - Orienteering, odd jobs, obstacle course – set up a crazy course full of  twists, turns and surprises and ask competitors for a donation in exchange for taking part.

P - Pancakes, a party, put on a play, pantomime, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, pram push (like a marathon, march, or walk, but pushing strollers or prams!), Penny Collection (save up all the 1, 2 and 5 currency coins you get in your change. You might be surprised how fast it adds up.)

Q - Quiz night, quiet time – have an official day, hour, or moment of silence in honor of an issue you want to promote.

R - Run, races, raffle – If you’re holding a concert, disco or fete, why not tag on a raffle and raise even more money?

S - Sponsored event, swim-a-thon, Sumo wrestling, Santa’s Grotto, Strictly Come Dancing (put on a homemade version of the popular TV dance contest).

T - Treasure hunt, talent show, tug of war, Teddy Bears Picnic, Tombola – ask local shops and businesses to donate prizes

U - Ultimate Frisbee tournament, University Challenge, Unwanted Gifts Sale, Upside-Down Day.

V - Variety Show, Vegetarian dinner party, Valentine’s Day – hold a love-themed party, make cards to sell and charge for hand delivery, or if you’re feeling brave start your own singing group and deliver singing Valentines.

W - Wine tasting, World Cultures Day, Window cleaning service, Walk for MasterPeace, Who’s That Baby? (Get together photos of your teachers, friends or colleagues as babies and then charge people a small fee to match the picture to the person).

X - X-Factor Night, Xylophone Orchestra – make xylophones by collecting together old glass jars and bottles and filling each with a different amount of water so that they make a different sound when hit with a wooden spoon, then compose a tune and charge friends and family to come and see your orchestra play.

Y - Yard sale, Yoga session, Yo-yo contest, yoghurt stall – buy tubs of natural yoghurt and add fruit, nuts, honey and other goodies to order. You could even make your own frozen yoghurt to sell.

Z - Zoo party, Zip-Slide, Zebra Dinner or Dance (a sophisticated evening with a black and white theme), Zorbing – If you’ve always dreamed of raising cash by rolling down a hill inside a massive, inflatable plastic ball, then this is just what the doctor ordered.

MasterPeace Uganda led by a true peace hero. Moses Kyamakya lost his brother to the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group in Uganda when they attacked his home town in 1996. In his own words, the attack “left homes and property destroyed, lives lost, children orphaned and homeless. Many youth dropped out of school, their future compromised, and girls were forced into early marriages and unwanted pregnancies, all in the name of armed conflict.”

In an inspiring display of compassion and positivity, Moses has used this personal experience not as a spring board for violent retaliation, but as motivation for committing his life to peace building and conflict prevention. MasterPeace is honored to embrace this outstanding individual as the National Coordinator of our first official MasterPeace Club – MasterPeace Uganda.

“I am a peace loving citizen, committed to community peace building; a human rights activist who believes in connectivity, collaboration, innovation, positivity and walking the talk,” says Moses. With an attitude like that, how could we resist partnering with Moses and his network of Ugandan peace makers? For the past three years, Moses has worked as head of Ray of Hope Africa (www.rayofhope-africa.org), which conducts community peace building activities like community dialogue, conflict resolution workshops, and awarding peace building prizes to make peace happen in Uganda. To create his MasterPeace in Uganda, Moses and the rest of the MasterPeace Uganda team have plans to reach out to individual households and villages with conflict resolution training for daily life. They are collaborating with other NGO’s and government institutions to spread the message, and co-creating dialogue and reconciliation with community partners. The global MasterPeace Community is really looking forward to celebrating the International Day of Peace with MasterPeace Uganda and many other MasterPeacers around the world on September 21st!

Uganda is not the only country involved in the just do it campaign for peace. Peace Day Celebrations and MasterPeace Clubs are in the works for MasterPeace in Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Colombia, United States of America, the Netherlands, Egypt and many more to come soon. All of these countries and more came together on this September 21st to speak with one voice for the creation of peace. We have enjoyed so much working with all of the soon to be National Coordinators in those countries and hearing their amazing ideas for community projects that are going to make a tangible impact for peace in our world.

Success can be a difficult thing to pin down. It turns out that some recent scientific research suggests that the best way to prepare yourself for success is--wait for it--positivity. Sound familiar at all? 

"If you want to be more successful you need to prime your brain to be positive. That’s right. Happiness must come before success. Staying stuck in a negative rut, dwelling on problems versus being solution oriented will not help you succeed...."

Irene Becker, life and professional coach, has written up a list of 10 simple ways we can all be more positive and, hopefully, more successful. My personal favorite is number seven:

"7. Help others. Altruism makes us happier and stronger. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, hospital, or shelter."

Positivity? Altruism? I guess we must be on to something at MasterPeace!

Doing something in an unconventional way, such as fixing breakfast in the “wrong” order, [changes] an expectation of how the world usually works and how actions usually unfold. When someone personally and actively experiences…unconventional events, she is…pushed outside her comfort zone and thus “learns” a lesson: “The world can be different. I can do things differently.” –Radica Damian

Guerrilla marketing is the idea of finding new, unexpected, exciting ways to publicize something without using a lot of money or resources. While companies selling products do use it, it’s especially well suited to trying to promote an idea, and getting people involved in that idea—so it’s a perfect tool for MasterPeace Clubs.

Before we talk more about why Guerrilla marketing is useful for MPCs, here are a few examples to help you see what we’re talking about.

1. “I wish this was” stickers. Candy Chang made large, removable stickers that said, “I wish this was…” followed by a blank space, and posted them all around her city on abandoned buildings. Over time, her neighbors started filling in the stickers with their hopes and dreams for their area: “a bike shop,” “a community garden,” “a place to sit and talk.” She also put free boxes of stickers around so people could place them where they chose. The stickers helped people start thinking about how their communities could be better, and invited them to share their ideas.

2. Stop War sign: Someone spray-painted the sidewalk so that a typical U.S. traffic sign saying “STOP” seemed to cast a shadow that said “WAR.” The overall effect was to take something people in the area see every day (“stop your car”) and suddenly give it a different meaning that raised awareness of a social issue (“stop war”).

3. Symphony Crossing: The Symphony Orchestra in St. Louis (USA) painted a crosswalk to look like musical notes. This was a simple, but very effective way to remind ordinary people that the Symphony is there and they should go! The fun, cool idea also helped change the common perception of the Orchestra as old-fashioned.

4. The Kids Who Can Fly: To promote a new book about kids who can fly, the publishers covered part of the street (below a couple of steps) with an image of the city from high above. The illusion gave kids and their parents the fun, exciting experience of standing on a tall building and jumping off! The name of the book was put in a noticeable place so that people who encountered this ad would connect the experience with the book, and hopefully look for it later.

After exploring these examples, you’ve probably gotten a sense of what Guerrilla marketing is like. It’s unexpected and attention-grabbing; it provokes an emotional response; it has a simple message that can be understood quickly; it plays with people’s everyday environment; and at its best, it’s interactive. Guerrilla marketing is also practical for any organization, because it requires an investment of time, energy, and creativity instead of loads of money.
Note: Some of these examples come from bigger organizations with more resources. Don’t think that means you have to do something as big and expensive as they did! Guerrilla publicity comes from creativity: if your idea is good and your message is clear, you’ll be fine.

This kind of publicity is perfect for MasterPeace Clubs for a few reasons. It’s about ideas; it’s about making people’s everyday environments cooler, happier, more interesting. It’s fun, just like us, and when it’s used to deliver a positive message like ours, it makes everyone’s day a little bit better.

In particular, Guerrilla publicity is an excellent addition to the work your Club is already doing through social media, because it is directed to the people who are near you. Social media is great for spreading the message to people both far and near, to potential funders, and to partner organizations, but it won’t necessarily involve the people in your community—and you need them! Your Guerrilla campaign can help get your neighbors interested in what you’re doing.

Note: You can also use your Guerrilla campaign for social media. If it’s going well, document what you’ve done by taking pictures or filming people’s reactions, and put it online for your followers to see!

As you start thinking about your own Guerrilla campaigns, keep in mind what you can learn from the successful examples above. The principles we took away are:

Create an experience. Whether it’s setting up a tiny park in a parking space, putting a living room inside a bus stop, or making the flat ground look like a view from the top of a skyscraper, creating an unexpected experience in a familiar place gets people’s attention. The right kind of experience will get them to react positively and want to know more; a negative or confusing experience will only upset people. Think carefully about how a viewer will actually react to whatever you do, and keep in mind MasterPeace’s positive tone of voice.

Note: this can be especially effective if you take advantage of places or times when people are typically waiting or bored, like a bus stop. They want to be distracted, so get their attention!

Invite the viewer. Once you have someone’s attention, invite them to interact with you. This could be a part of the Guerrilla tactic itself—in example 1, Candy Chang gave the viewers a chance to answer the question themselves and then physically write it in. Getting people to physically become part of your Guerrilla marketing gets them more involved and makes them feel a part of the message and the organization. If your Guerrilla idea can’t include interaction, don’t worry—either way, make sure you make it easy for the viewer to find out more or get in touch with you. Contact information never hurts!

Be visible and consistent. One great campaign is not enough. The goal is for everyone in your community or your online networks to know about your Club and know what it stands for. You want to become a normal part of the environment, so that people think of you as a resource and as an effective, trustworthy organization that they want to work with. This means you need any publicity you do to be focused and consistent—if you change your message all the time, people won’t understand who you are. It also means you need to keep publicizing and advertising your Club, both through Guerrilla and conventional tactics: don’t let people forget about you.

Walk the talk. Never promise anything you can’t deliver, or pretend to be something you’re not. The coolest campaign in the world won’t get you anywhere if it’s not based on reality. If you’re promoting an event, make sure to highlight the things you are 100% sure you can deliver. If you’re promoting a project, make sure that project is already underway, and make it easy for people to find out more.

Now that you’ve been introduced to Guerrilla marketing, go ahead and try it out! If you want to do some more research, there is tons of material online: Web Urbanist and Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits are good places to start. Get creative, and let us know what you do! We love seeing what you come up with, and sharing it with the rest of the world.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to be uploading, organizing, and sharing as much of the content from Boot Camp 2012 as we can: everything from candid photos to Mo's PowerPoint presentations. In the meantime, we thought we'd present you with some quick highlights! Those who weren't there can get caught up on what we did, and those who were can reminisce a little.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the MasterPeace Clubs completed their first ever Boot Camp! Reps from Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, France, Gambia, Kenya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe gathered on the Red Sea in Ain Sokhna, Egypt to learn, share, and bond. (Unfortunately, our friends from Iraq, Indonesia, Ghana, and the Philippines couldn’t make it due to visa issues, but we held you in our thoughts! Hopefully our next gathering will be more complete.)

Boot Camp was a busy mix of all kinds of content. We listened to Ilco’s experiences for wisdom (and entertainment!), and came back down to earth for a lecture on project management from Managing Director Mohamed. We went outside with Mohamed Sehrawy to learn a thing or two about photography; we talked among ourselves about our localized visions and dreams and shared our work with one another. Bob and Alice Evans, professional mediators from the Plowshares Institute, honored us with their presence for a couple of days, and we spent a full day learning from them about mediation, listening, and conflict intervention.

In between these and other workshops, we shared with one another. Ezekiel, who was representing MasterPeace Kenya – Maasailand, told us a moving story of a girl who ended a war, and how the story inspired him in his work with MasterPeace. We spent long meals together discussing the challenges we face, and the accomplishments we’ve achieved, across our diverse range of situations. This sort of sharing extended to workshops as well: a highlight was when Ilco and Mohamed presented MasterPeace’s new vision statement to the Clubs reps and asked them to use it to come up with individual mission statements for their own Clubs. After working in small groups, several of the Clubs presented their visions and potential projects, and the sheer diversity of what they had to offer was a beautiful testament to how the MasterPeace model is already being adapted to local contexts around the world.

The whole gathering was gracefully and cheerfully managed by Mark Dodsworth of Red Zebra, who moderated our discussions, led us in song, dance, and drum circles, and generally managed to keep everyone happy (if not always on time).

In the end, we came away with new skills and ideas, but just as important, we left feeling like a community. Knowing the names and faces behind so many of the Facebook pages we follow—how tall they are, what their voices sound like, which desserts they like and what makes them laugh—has made our community and our sense of purpose so much stronger.

To put it into the community’s own words: During our closing ceremony, we were asked to say briefly how we felt after our time together. Almost everyone said something along the lines of “inspired,” “energized,” “motivated,” or “thankful.”

Keep an eye out for more on Boot Camp!

Just after our successful boot camp in Ain Sokhna (more on that coming soon!), one of MasterPeace The Gambia’s projects came to fruition. MPGambia facilitated a connection between two organizations, Budapest Banjul Cultural Bridge and Food First, to initiate an exchange of art between the children of Gambian and Hungarian schools.

Budapest Banjul Cultural Bridge is a Hungarian group promoting cultural exchange across international boundaries through art; Food First is a Gambian organization focusing on food security, women’s roles as economic producers, promotion of cultural diversity, and sustainable agricultural development. MPGambia brought these two organizations together to initiate a beautiful program of connection.

Children in three Hungarian and two Gambian schools produced artwork on the themes Happiness, Music, Entertainment, and Friendship. Then a two-person delegation from Hungary brought the Hungarian children’s artwork to the Gambia, where they toured four schools. On their visits, they delivered the Hungarian artwork, collected the Gambian children’s art, and left school supplies behind. Finally, they returned to Hungary with the Gambian artwork in hand. Throughout the week of visits, MPGambia was a part of hosting and touring the Hungarian delegation through its partnership with Food First.

The Gambian children’s artwork will be featured online at crazy4foto.com (scroll down to read in English and see some of the artwork!), but it will also be exhibited at the three Hungarian schools. The strongest pieces will also be featured in the Museum of Kids’ Art.

This exchange was the first step in what all involved hope will be a long-term project with greater scope in the years to come. The aim is to develop it into a student exchange program in addition to sharing students’ art.

Congratulations to MasterPeace The Gambia for this wonderful accomplishment! This program shows us how much can be achieved through smart partnership and starting small.

The Deutsche Welle International Blog Awards, or the BOBs, are a contest supported every year for the best blogs and online campaigns. After the international jury selects a group of finalists, participants vote to distribute awards for everything from Best Blog in Bengali (the BOBs cover eleven languages) to Reporters Without Borders. The contest is a great way to get attention for positive online action that still places the choice of who gets the awards in the hands of ordinary people.

I got particularly interested in two inspiring categories: Best Social Activism Campaign and Best Use of Technology for Social Good. These contests are showcasing some fantastic examples of putting technology to use building a better, more peaceful world. It turns out there are tons of amazing sites doing amazing things out there, if we just take the time to look! Remotely tutoring South African kids in math, offering a chance to anonymously report government corruption, and informing the public about what banks are doing with our savings are just a few of the fascinating nominees. Check out the finalists for some inspiration, and vote if the spirit moves you!

Who knows? Maybe next time, the MasterPeace online platform will be nominated too.

The Philippines is a nation of 7,107 individual islands, but geography is not the only thing separating the citizens of this beautiful country. On the island of Mindanao, religious, tribal and political conflict is widespread. It is here on Mandanoa that Primitivo III Ragandang has boldly chosen to initiate the first MasterPeace Club in the Philippines.

We asked Primitivo what led him to dedicate himself to peace-building. He answered, “Growing up, working and studying on the most war-ridden island in the Philippines might explain my desire to get involved in peace building. For some time, I have longed for an organization that would advocate peace through youth mobilization. MasterPeace is the actualization of that longing.” The first MasterPeace Club in the Philippines is hosted at the Tagoloan Community College where Primitivo is an instructor in political science.

The members of MasterPeace in the Philippines have wasted no time coming up with innovative and exciting ways to promote the International Day of Peace on September 21. There were three main pillars of their celebration. The first is called “ReciPeace” – a competition in which students prepared creative international recipes to promote the dual concept of peace and nutrition. Another activity was “RocKalinaw” – a concert of progressive music that will capture the attention of the youth and promote the idea of peace. And finally, the “Peaceturesque” competition showcased some of the community’s finest photographers as they try to capture local photos that encapsulate the message of peace. 

In the picture above, you can see Primitivo holding a sign that reads “Peace is not just the absence of war, but it is the presence of intercultural understanding towards a united and international cooperation and a sustainable development.” The Peace Day Celebration at Tagoloan Community College was a tremendous effort to create those elements of a true peace. Primitivo sums it up nicely when he says, “I am a Filipino. I will do this for my beloved country. But I am also a citizen on Earth. I will do this for the entire community.”