Stand Up: Non-Violence Project

The Stand met with Jan Hellman and Rolf Skjöldebrand, founders of the Non-Violence Project.

How did NVP Start?

The knotted gun symbol was created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd – originally out of a real gun. We went on a world tour with the bronze sculpture. The first place was Berlin. On the day the wall was officially taken down, we went into East Berlin with a visa, and came out without a visa. Then we were at Red Square, then Venice Beach during the Los Angeles riots. Coming home, we wanted to do something more with the sculpture so we decided to focus on education and youth.

What do you do?

We are active in 15 countries around the world with a life-skills program for young people. It deals with conflict management, communication, and self-esteem, touching on the themes of violence and non-violence. There’s a connection the whole time between personal relationships and conflicts and world peace. We work in class and in after school activities, as well as sports. Sport is about being a good team member.

In schools we have been active in for a long time, they have reported a drop in violent incidents of between 20 and 70 percent, they also reported improved grades.

What is the Billion Faces for Peace project?

The idea is to create a platform for young people to become engaged in creating a better world for tomorrow. The first step is to sign up! Once we have a critical mass, we can start to act with a “non-violence army” to push politicians and decision makers to do something concrete. We’re working on fun, engaging digital content. It’s a user-led platform for discussion and awareness. Once it has developed into a force, we can develop a structure to make the ideas happen.

You’re inspired by the ideas of John Lennon; do you think the baby boomers lived up to those 60’s ideals?

When they were young, yes. But as they grew up and had jobs and families they became like everyone else. Today I think the awareness of young people about social issues is much higher. Young people don’t trust government to change things, they take responsibility for change themselves.

Politicians have a four-year perspective, which can’t deal with things like social exclusion, which is a lifetime problem. Short-term, band-aid solutions don’t work.

What are your plans for Scotland?

We are in St Andrews because we think that young people are much more receptive to these ideas. Collaboration with the university sector is an exciting new thing for us. We have worked with UNAM [Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México] and they came to the conclusion that it was important to support the teachers in Mexico regarding peace issues. Over the last month teachers from the university have started rolling out our program across the Mexican school system.

St Andrews is going to be the pilot for our developing ‘Universities for Peace’ program.

What is your relationship with DONT WALK?

NVP is the DONT WALK charity this year. We’re thinking about setting up a new program, ‘Fashion for Peace’. We’ve been looking at new logos, and possible merchandise lines that could give the talent in Dont Walk an opportunity to get involved.

How can students get involved?

We’ve set up a St Andrews Non-Violence Project and we’re offering training towards an NVP diploma, for voluntary work as well as implementing the program in schools across Fife. There will also be internship opportunities with NVP. Check out the NVP website for inspiration!