This project aimed at fostering a culture of peace and tolerance in communities across Jordan.
By leveraging the power of Interactive Theatre and hands-on learning, this initiative empowers individuals, especially youth, with the skills to address and resolve conflicts constructively while promoting civic responsibility and long-term social change.

Overall Objective

Cultivate a culture of peace and tolerance within communities by equipping individuals with the skills and mindset necessary to address and mitigate escalation of conflicts constructively using Interactive theatre as a platform to engage audiences in an immersive experience that promotes dialogue, empathy, and understanding and build the capacity of students to implement community-based projects to promote peace building and civic responsibility through hands-on learning experiences to create sustainable, long-term impact on communities by addressing underlying causes of conflict and promoting positive social change.

Specific Objectives

OC1. Support dialogue facilitation, mediation and confidence building activities between conflict affected societies and communities.

OC2. Build the capacity of students aimed at reducing potential drivers and sources of conflict.

Target Groups and Outreach

Public Schools

1. Training in Conflict Resolution:
   • 12 public schools in the North, Middle, and South regions of Jordan, including UNRWA schools.
   • Approximately 420 students trained in essential conflict resolution skills.
2. Interactive Theatre Performances:
   • 28 performances for 980 students across public schools.
      
   • 8 performances engaging diverse audiences to foster community-wide impact.
      

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs)

• 8 performances engaging diverse audiences to foster community-wide impact.
   

Universities

• 12 performances across cities, reaching an estimated total of 1,640 students.

Methodology

This project adopts a two-tier approach to engage both youth and adults using creative methods and interventions to promote peaceful conflict resolution.

1. Conflict Resolution skills for students.
   
   The first tier focuses on developing a Conflict Resolution Activity Guide Book (CRAG) based on using drama activities for teachers and students in cooperation with the Ministry of Education (MOE) so that it can be formally adopted by the MOE as a reference for public schools. CRAG will be based on two activity guide books on peacebuilding and peaceful conflict resolution.
    

    

   Key activities include:
   

   1. Intensive drama workshops for students (grades 9–11) in 12 schools, ensuring gender balance.
   2. Training in conflict resolution techniques, nonverbal communication, active listening, and project management skills.
      
      Through this training, students will gain the ability to:
      • Use communication techniques that positively influence others in a conflict situation.
      • Effectively use nonverbal communication skills (body language, physical position, expression and posture);
      • Use tone to appropriately convey feelings and emotions;
      • Demonstrate the skills and behaviors of active listening;
      • Demonstrate the ability to involve others through open and probing questions.
      • Demonstrate the ability to identify and separate the differences that are preventing agreement.
       

   Each school will implement small-scale peacebuilding projects with support from NCCA trainers and small grants. These initiatives will promote practical learning and community impact.
    

2. Theatre for Peace Building
   
   The second tier of the project is based on collecting stories of refugee women residing in Jordan; their experience, hardship, resilience and aspirations and making their perspectives a part of the public discourse on conflict.
   NCCA will produce an interactive play based on real stories of conflict survivors, to raise awareness and empathy about the plight of refugee women and provide an outlet for expression, healing, and dialogue among affected communities.
   The use of theatre broadens peacebuilding beyond the parameters of existing approaches, and has the potential to express local complexities and encourage context specific solutions.
   Theatre for peacebuilding can act as a bridge between performance and politics. As such, it is on one hand a form of art and thus aims to entertain, while on the other hand it carries forth a clear political agenda of contributing to creating a peaceful society.
   NCCA produced a play resembling a real-life situation based on the stories of women refugees providing a space not only for ‘discussion and reflection’ but also for ‘rehearsal for real action toward change.
   From a peacebuilding perspective, Interactive Theatre can offer a context-specific approach rooted within and driven by the local community that is particularly suited to express local complexities which are key in articulating sustainable peacebuilding 

    

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