It sounds counter-intuitive, even cruel, but when the participants leave in tears, I know our program is working.
I'm writing from Kyrgyzstan, where I just spent a week with 43 young people and their teachers at one of our Youth Theater for Peace [12] camps. For the first time, we had two regions of the country represented – half the participants came from Chui region, which surrounds the northern capital of Bishkek, and half from Batken region, which borders Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and is relatively close to Osh, the southern city devastated by ethnic violence last June. After a brief initial adjustment period, the group bonded tightly—no small feat considering they come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. When it came time to say goodbye, all the young people were crying, with the Chui teens threatening to sabotage the bus as it loaded up to take their new friends back to Batken.
Kyrgyzstan is a diverse country – our participants identify as ethnic Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Tajik, Dungan and others – and has two national languages, Kyrgyz and Russian. Most of the young people from Batken are more comfortable in Kyrygz, while in Chui, most are more comfortable speaking Russian. Our three talented translators helped facilitate conversation, but after breaking the ice during training sessions, the young people found a way to communicate, staying up all night talking, singing, playing cards and drinking tea.
As Kyrgyzstan's people begin to move beyond the recent bloodshed, transformative, trust-building experiences like this camp are incredibly important. Conflict between youth may seem like a minor issue, but what goes on in schoolyards often reflects larger problems: like ethnic and regional discrimination, that can polarize communities. A few years ago in Iskra, one of the villages we work with in Chui, a fight between Kyrgyz and Dungan teenagers [13] at an internet cafe sparked retaliation attacks on property, perpetrated by adults. Their homes destroyed, many Dungan simply left Iskra to start over elsewhere – likely bringing with them traumatic memories and a heightened wariness of their new neighbors.
One of the youth camp participants from Batken remarked that for diverse groups to live together, they must not only trust one another – they must know how to trust others. The theater camps create a safe space that allows youth to develop trust as a skill – a vital one that they will nurture, share and apply in their communities as they help Kyrgyzstan rebuild.
Susie Armitage [14] is a Program Officer at IREX