Peace

I was asked to write about “Peace” for this month’s edition. And for two weeks I have been thinking about what to write. I’m a Notre Dame graduate from the Peace Education Department, so am I supposed to explain what “peace” is. I’m a person living in an occupied country where we are deprived of so many basic human rights and living in a conflict zone. So how can we live peacefully?

We only get water three days a week, the electricity is cut off, we cannot move freely from one area to another due to check points and road blocks. So many people, young and old, are detained by the Israelis on daily basis and others are killed. It’s all painful and tiring. When we hear fire crackers, we panic instead of celebrate as we think it’s a new attack or Israeli incursion. This ongoing feeling of insecurity and instability is dominant. Yet, we are people who love life and would love to live in peace. Therefore, despite all the stress we live in resulting from this situation, we are hopeful and always seek and find coping mechanisms for our survival.

And as educators at the Friends School, we try to create a safe haven for the young generations who suffer from what I call an ongoing traumatic stress. We develop their skills to live peacefully. We teach them problem solving skills, communication skills to practice as an alternative to violence. We try to create a new and different mindset and help these kids see the other side of the coin; there is something other than violence and humiliation in this world. So, they learn how to express their feelings and have some inner peace.

We instill hope to keep these people going.

By Frieda Dahdah
Lower School Principal