Global Peace Volunteer Training Challenges University Students with Service Learning

Eric Olsen
May 25, 2011

 

The official Global Peace Volunteers' T-Shirt, worn during the Global Peace Festival 2010 Southeast Asia.

Participants of the Global Peace Volunteer workshop held in Bandung, Indonesia.

The Global Peace Volunteer (GPV) 2.0 workshop, held in Bandung, Indonesia, May 14-15, 2011, drew more than 30 GPV alumni, challenging participants to strengthen their minds and hearts to build a culture of service on their campuses.

The GPV 2.0 program went beyond the lectures and discussions of earlier workshops.  Following presentations on core values of living for others and moral and innovative leadership, university students were put to a “service learning” test by raising funds to purchase a wheelchair for a Down’s Syndrome child who also is afflicted with polio.  Participants were sent out for the activity without anything, with sometimes struggling and unwilling hearts, yet they found the motivation to raise the funds in excess of the goal given.

Global Peace Volunteer 2.0 Workshop exercises.

These exercises, designed to teach through experience, not only challenged the physical body but also internal limitations. “It is obvious that this Global Peace Volunteer 2.0 workshop demands more than understanding only,” said President University student and GPV alumni Alfredo Ferdireza. “The  workshop is designed to truly pull out the desires of participants to live for others, to spread the experience, and finally, to express One Family under God in action. ”

Later in the workshop, participants were grouped together by their universities to discuss proposals to advance a vision of One Family under God on their campuses. Through the workshop experience, students came to realize that One Family Under God is not just a slogan, but a seed of love and peace that can be planted through GPV clubs and workshops, and through campus activities such as the Power of Rupiah campaign to teach a culture of giving among young people.

“There are so many things that I’ve got from these events, I can’t mention them one by one,” said participant Mutiara Intan Permata. “I haven’t found words that describe them. Yet, I believe this memorable event has great power to change young people. It flows in our heart, mind and blood.”

“I believe that I am not above or beneath any individual. And God is in every human being,” added Halim Miftahul Khoiri, a participant from Paramadina University. “The measurement of a great and successful leader is whether he or she can influence others to do good, and then raise up other leaders to that standard.”

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