Creators of Peace, One day follow up report
Creators of Peace has conducted one-day follow-up workshops for those who have been through a Peace Circle. These workshops all took place in the month of July and were for, Nehemiah Restoration Home, PUSH (Push Until Something Happens), and the Noordgesig community. The purpose of the follow-up is to review how participants have been since they experienced the Peace Circles, how to support each other further into the new lifestyle and offer further training on topics they wanted to explore. We managed to reach 49 participants.
At the end of a Peace Circle participants are asked which topic they would like to explore further for their personal development. Nehemiah requested to explore and engage in the topic of Anger Management. We invited Anele Balabala, a guest speaker who is a former drug addict and ex prisoner. With passion and conviction to change others, he shared his life story. He grew up in a family where everyone had to find a way to survive from an early age and that developed anger in him because he did not have the privileges that other kids had. He then became involved with the wrong crowd that led to him smoking marijuana and later to being involved in serious crimes.
Whilst in jail he made a decision to change his life. The first step he took was to participate in an Anger Management course in prison which helped him after his release to be able to ask for forgiveness from those he had hurt. Anger, he told us, is dangerous because it destroys a person to the core. Participants were moved to hear about his transformation and were inspired and motivated to go back to their communities and live a life that can reflect change.
These were some of the participant’s comments at Nehemiah:
“I am no longer grieving for my losses., I now know how to look at life in a better way and I have found what I’ve been looking for, that is inner peace.’’
“I have progressed and changed. I’ve become much calmer, more focused, peaceful and less angry and I made the choice not to go to bed still angry.”
“I appreciate the skill I was given of living a reflective life. Since I started to apply it, my life has order and direction.’’
Thapelo Lekwakwe, a life coach, motivational speaker and preacher facilitated 'Personal Development' as a topic at Push. He emphasised the importance of self love, for example he mentioned that negative talk has a tendency of making one feel that one is not worth it. He said that some of our negativity is linked to our background and to the traditions we were taught. He continued to say that we need to be friends with 'silence', because it is in that space that we find direction on how to uproot some of the things that are weighing us down. When he finished there was silence in the room as participants pondered on what was said.
Participant’s comments:
“Suddenly I realise that I have been negative towards life because of the things that were said to me, but from today I will believe in myself because I am special.’’
“Being angry at people started to be normal for me because it was the only way I could get respect. However, I have now realised that (this anger) affects me more than it affects the other person. Today I am making a choice to express my feelings in a better way than to be angry.”
The Noordgesig participants requested forgiveness as the topic to be discussed further because during the Peace Circle they had highlighted that forgiveness is important yet the most difficult thing to practice.. There was honest conversation amongst some participants.One shared that Peace Circles has changed her life because she can now focus on her life, despite what other people say about her.
As the facilitator, seeing the 'before' and 'after' of participants, is the best outcome I can hope for each time I facilitate Peace Circles and one-day workshops. Having said that, Noordgesig still has a long way to go for a holistic transformation because they have issues such as drugs, broken homes and violence that can be stumbling blocks towards change. As Creators of Peace we will continue to support the community and work with them, helping them to be agents of change.
Reported by Cleo Mohlaodi and Portia Mosia