|
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today
we tell about the process of Sustained Dialogue that is being used in
Africa and at American colleges.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Last week, we told about the work of the International Institute for
Sustained Dialogue. It is helping people involved in long term conflicts
begin new relationships so they can deal with issues that affect them all.
Harold Saunders is president of the organization.
Sustained dialogue is a continuing series of meetings among citizens
outside government. It involves the same people meeting again and again.
Mister Saunders says that when the same people meet many times they
develop a trust in each other and learn to cooperate to solve their own
problems.
VOICE TWO:
The Sustained Dialogue process is being used for an
Arab-American-European dialogue. Individuals from some Arab countries,
from the United States and from Europe are beginning their third year of
meetings. The aim of this dialogue is to work together to find ways to end
conflicts and move toward better relationships.
The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue is also helping
citizen groups in Tajikistan, Russia and Puerto Rico. It often works with
other organizations that want to learn to use and teach Sustained
Dialogue. The IISD is also helping develop dialogues in South Africa and
at American colleges.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Teddy Nemeroff has been working for two and one-half years at the
Institute for Democracy in South Africa, known as Idasa. His job is
Sustained Dialogue Coordinator. He is organizing the dialogue program at
Idasa to be used as a tool for building democracy and peace throughout the
southern African area.
Mister Nemeroff explains he was attending Princeton University in New
Jersey when he first became involved with Sustained Dialogue. He met
Harold Saunders at that time. After he finished at the university, Mister
Nemeroff continued work with Sustained Dialogue programs. In two thousand
three, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa decided it wanted to
start a Sustained Dialogue program for southern Africa. Mister Saunders
suggested Mister Nemeroff could help.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Nemeroff has designed and helped organize a number of different
projects since he arrived in South Africa. He says the ideas came from
either local organizations or individuals who recognized the need for
dialogue and requested help in organizing them.
One Sustained Dialogue project involves young people in Harare,
Zimbabwe. It helped these young people who are in opposing political
parties begin to talk to each other. The aim was to reduce youth
involvement in political violence. Fourteen Zimbabwean non-government
organizations and an Italian organization are in charge of the project.
Mister Nemeroff helped design the project and provided training in the
Sustained Dialogue process.
Mister Nemeroff says young people who took part in the Sustained
Dialogue now are helping mediate conflicts in their communities. He says
people who took part in the organized dialogue groups are developing plans
for more Sustained Dialogues in their own communities.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
The Institute for Democracy in South Africa began another Sustained
Dialogue project in January, two thousand four to help farming communities
in South Africa. Mister Nemeroff says it is helping overcome past
political divisions so community members can cooperate in developing plans
for economic development. About thirty local leaders from nine villages
are now trained to organize their own dialogues. The dialogue groups have
worked together to establish new economic development projects in
agriculture and home crafts.
Idasa also is involved with the South African Council of Churches to
help organize dialogues in local churches to discuss race relations.
Mister Nemeroff says they have established six dialogue groups and held
two conferences to help improve relations among people of different races.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Nemeroff says people he has worked with identify the process of
Sustained Dialogue as a way to solve problems. He has learned that African
cultures believe it is important to reach common agreement when making
decisions. Yet, he says, South Africans find the dialogue method very
different from the usual way decisions are made in official meetings.
He says it takes a while for people to see the value of Sustained
Dialogue’s unofficial method of problem solving.
In the future, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa is hoping to
use the Sustained Dialogue process to improve relations between the
citizens and the government. Mister Nemeroff says that Idasa also wants to
establish working ties with other organizations in the rest of Africa to
help deal with local conflicts.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Another project of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue
involves students in colleges and high schools. It is called the Sustained
Dialogue Campus Network, known as SDCN. The organization began in two
thousand two to connect students across the country who are involved in
Sustained Dialogue. SCDN provides training for students interested in
organizing dialogues and for moderators who will keep the discussions
going. There are about fifteen universities and high schools connected to
the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network.
VOICE TWO:
The first student dialogue took place in nineteen ninety-nine at
Princeton University. Some students went to the university officials and
said they were concerned about race relations. The officials called Mister
Saunders, a Princeton graduate. He helped the students organize Sustained
Dialogue groups.
In the nineteen eighties, Mister Saunders and Russia’s Evgeny Primakov
were chairmen of the longest continuous dialogue between Soviet and
American citizens, the Dartmouth Conference. In the nineteen nineties,
Mister Saunders helped organize Sustained Dialogues in places of conflict,
such as Tajikistan. His book, ?A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue
to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts,?is based on his experience with
the Dartmouth Conference and in Tajikistan.
Mister Saunders believed the Sustained Dialogue process could be a tool
to help students understand individuals who were different from them. He
thought that small groups of students meeting several times a month would
be able to build new relationships that could have a lasting effect.
VOICE ONE:
Clark Herndonbegan working with Sustained Dialogue when he was a
student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He says the
university has a very active dialogue program. In two thousand four, more
than three hundred students took part in twenty dialogue groups led by
thirty-five trained student moderators. The groups discussed issues that
divide students such as race, ethnic origins and religion.
Mister Herndon now is a program director for the Sustained Dialogue
Campus Network. He says SDCN is pushing to create organizations at
universities and high schools that can operate on their own. He says there
is no limit to the possible growth of the Campus Network if it has enough
financial support.
VOICE TWO:
Tessa Garcia discovered Sustained Dialogue as a student while trying to
find a way to improve race relations at the University of Notre Dame in
South Bend, Indiana. Now she is a program director for the Sustained
Dialogue Campus Network. Miz Garcia says every fall the two SDCN program
directors visit all universities and high schools with Sustained Dialogue
programs to train student moderators. And in January all schools with
active programs send new people to the SDSN headquarters in Washington,
D.C., to be trained in the process.
The Sustained Dialogue Campus Network is working to develop ways to
measure the success of the dialogues. Mister Herndon says evidence now of
the success of Sustained Dialogue is when a student says, “I used to think
this way. Now I have a new way to think about people around me.?/P>
For more information about Sustained Dialogue for students, go to the
Web site, http://www.sdcampusnetwork.org/.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario
Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA
Special English.
| 
Listen & Learn