International NVC Workshop
Ruhpolding, 12th – 20th November 2007
The NVC Project in November 2007 in Ruhpolding, Germany came about the connection with Father Heinz Kulüke who is working on the Philippines, on the islands Mindanao and Cebu.
There is extreme poverty in the countryside. Many people move to the big cities, hoping for better living conditions — and end up on the streets, in slums, or collecting garbage for waste deposits.
The work of Father Heinz and his team extends over four project-areas (garbage dumps, the streets of Cebu City, Red Light District, and fishing villages) to continually improve the living conditions of people staying in these areas.
Father Toni Salas, staff member of Father Heinz, compiled the list of participants for the workshop in Ruhpolding 2007. The participants came primarily from the Philippines.
They all were people — like in the other workshops — who are working with street children and / or have been grown up as a street child themselves. Meanwhile most of them have successfully integrated this kind of communication into their work and every day life.
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The Karl Kübel Foundation kindly supported us with the organisation, preparation and refinishing works (and did in some of the further workshops, thank you very much!). In their Annual Report they write about the NVC Project in 2007: “The course is set for the intensified focusing and expansion of our development cooperation concerning conflict transformation and peace keeping. Even on the Philippines, and especially in the crisis region of Mindanao, NVC is to be introduced and used as the basic instrument for having a lasting effect on reconciliation and a sustainable development and shall provide a real chance for a peaceful future for families and children.”
Amina, a participant, writes about the NVC Project 2007: “With the Peace Workers and advocates participants in different areas, NVC is an eye opener for them because many times they believe that they are nonviolent because they are working for peace but then they found out that they are judgmental of others believing that it is only their actions which are important for peace. Majority of the participants admitted that they do not have connections with themselves and with others because they are activity oriented considering the nature of their work in the war affected areas in Mindanao. Some of them expressed their sadness and teary eyed when they admitted and realized that the way they deal with the Internally Displaced persons especially the children and young people at evacuation centers are violent. With the training on NVC given to them, participants said that it will help them further as they continue to work for peace and learn to give more empathy to themselves and others. Thus, in order to be effective, NVC is to be integrated and to be lived with not only in theory but in practice.”