My name is Shaloom Naeem. I am from Pakistan. I am Christian by religion. I participated in School of Peace – Nepal, 2023, a 2-month peace training program organized by the Interfaith Cooperation Forum (ICF). Currently, I am working with the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the USA as a Global Mission Fellow (GMF). This position comes under the missionary program of the UMC, which picks young adults from different parts of the world and deploys them to various countries and contexts.
GMFs work in any sector, including social development, human rights and advocacy, education, health, Church development, and youth capacity building. I am placed in Southeast Asia, working in the education sector as an English teacher. I teach underprivileged children, helping them expand their learning horizons through English.
My initial experience with ICF through the School of Peace (SoP-2023) was unique and diverse. During the SoP, I learned to systematically analyze peace, conflicts, human rights, and its violations. The training equipped me with the essential skillset to work as an agent of peace in my capacity. It helped me grow in practical and theoretical learning of peacebuilding and impacted my personality positively. I learned the importance of human connections both for personal and social development. SoP-2023 allowed me to develop lifelong human relationships that I cherish and celebrate.
SoP-2023 learnings made me realize that quality education is essential to building societal peace. The knowledge and values I learned in SoP help me carry out my educational work in for the less privileged children in a context that has been facing peace issues due to civil and political unrest. In this situation, I am utilizing the techniques and skills learned during my SoP-2023 training. I incorporate them into my lessons to promote critical thinking and peacebuilding attitudes in the young students. I am also working with young adults, training them to write constructively about their surrounding situations and promoting peace journalism. In the coming months, with the help of the local youth, we will initiate a quarterly bilingual newsletter, including local writing.
The two months of School of Peace-2023 transformed my life completely. It made me realize that peace is not just the absence of violence. It takes a lot more to construct a peaceful society. During my time in SoP-2023, I realized that the moment one learns the importance of positive peace, one also carries a responsibility to contribute towards establishing it. The training left me with the burden of working in whatever little capacity I must influence my surroundings to grow more peaceful. I am making my humble efforts by engaging with the local native youth to develop awareness and capacity building towards peacebuilding. Every alumnus and alumna of the School of Peace is a seed of peace that, after the right experiences, grows into a big tree that provides shade.
I plan to continue to learn more about peacebuilding, enhance my knowledge and skill set, and share this knowledge with others. The SoP-2023 experience will always be close to my heart, as it gave me direction and purpose.