The Bridges Are Being Built!

So, it’s been a while since we last wrote up how our Israel/Palestine project was going so here you go – this is where it’s at…

We have a name: The Bridges Project.

How we got there:

Well the project has been in the pipelines for nearly 5 years when District Fellows first became concerned about the conflict in the Middle East and began fundraising for a project. This money lay largely untouched within the DF bank account, as sadly some projects can get lost in the transient nature of our movement, until the conflict erupted again in Gaza and the West Bank especially prompting fresh discussion and igniting passions.

The passion was there but it lacked people and propositions. Thanks to a hugely useful trip to Prague for the IFM Congress (International Falcon Movement: Socialist Education International tri-annual meeting – see http://www.spanthatworld.com/ifm-congress-report), Bridget our International Representative came back with a sack full of amazing opportunity for the project, bringing the project forward a year with a sort of recce to suss out was needed and achievable for all those involved. This June (9 days to go!) five of us budding DFs are travelling to Palestine to meet with Palestinian and Israeli IFM groups along with our Norwegian counterparts, the Framfylkingen.

Who we are:

We realised we had very little time to act, so the message went out to email groups and DFs who had already expressed an interest and commitment to the project in previous workshops. Following this quick advert the initial pioneers for the still unnamed ‘Bridges’ were selected. Heading up what will be a project reaching over 12 months are Eppie Garton, Kieran Ford, Ben Raw, Bridget Holtom and Misha Franklin!

What we’ve got planned:

Well, first of all we have the trip this June. This is in many ways a study trip. Studying what? Well, we’re going to be meeting with loads of organisations and people and exploring the ways that young people in IFM live and explore their IFM lives in different contexts.

We will also be starting to create our documentary film on IFM within the Arab-Israeli Conflict and joining a seminar in which we hope to form another separate project with Framfylkingen and Independence Youth Union (a Palestinian group) around the same core issues. We will be developing workshops and ideas for seminars to bring back to the UK camps this summer in order to exchange knowledge and awareness of the complicated and confusing conflict.

Then what?

From then on, we are embarking on a year-long workshop programme exploring many of the themes that embrace this project: the Arab-Israeli conflict, lives of young peoples across the globe, international opportunities for young people in Woodcraft etc. This may involve drama based workshops, or debates via PARTY or demonstrations in solidarity – the choice is open and the action available to all.

Then, next June(ish) we will be travelling to visit the region again, completing the documentary film which will form the focus of our trip, and securing what we hope will become a ‘global exchange project’ where young people across different IFM organisations can spend extended periods of time in a cultural exchange in each other’s environments.

Want to get involved?

The Bridges project will really hit the ground running from this summer and we hope to have a presence at all the major camps over the next two summers – from Vcamp to Co-camp where we hope to have delegates from Framfylkingen, IYU and other organisations from the region to bring the project to a close with the presentation of our film.

So, if you want to get involved – watch out for the project over the next twelve months because we’ll be needing more people to get involved when we look to head back out to the region next year to build the Bridges needed for peace…