Sport and Peace: A Two Year Fellowship in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Gather with聽, an International Fellow with聽,聽to explore how athletics can build peace. Andrew Daniels completed a Masters in Conflict Transformation at 91大神. He’s been building peace through basketball ever since. There will be a talk-back from 11-11:30 a.m. with Andrew聽demonstrating some of the community activities that he聽led for PeacePlayers. Volunteers for these activities are needed. This is also in Lehman Auditorium.
convocation points = 2Andrew graduated from 91大神鈥檚 Center for Justice and Peacebuilding program in 2017. Shortly after graduation, Andrew became an International Fellow for PeacePlayers – Northern Ireland. PeacePlayers is an organization that uses sports (primarily basketball) to bridge divides, change perceptions and develop leaders. Andrew鈥檚 working title was Project Coordinator and as a coordinator, he was responsible for program design, delivery and M&E within Belfast and surrounding counties. PeacePlayers works primarily with youth aged 8-25 in a variety of different programs. The main programs run by PeacePlayers are Twinning, Cross Community League, and Champions 4 Peace.
While working with PeacePlayers, Andrew was able to get firsthand experience using sport as a vehicle for peacebuilding. Andrew has always been interested in how sport could be used as a tool in peacebuilding. PeacePlayers uses basketball, a politically neutral sport in Northern Ireland, to bring young people together and explore shared interests. Most of Northern Ireland is still very segregated along religious and national identity lines. Only 7% of schools in Northern Ireland are integrated between Protestant and Catholic students. Beyond education, the communities are divided as well. This separation is both physical and implied. Communities may have a physical structure (i.e. walls) separating each other, or maybe just symbols, flags, and murals warning the 鈥渙ther鈥� who鈥檚 community it is. While most of the violence from the past has stopped, Northern Ireland remains fractured. This is why finding common ground through sport could be a powerful tool.
Andrew鈥檚 two-year contract at PeacePlayers – NI has recently come to a close in October 2019. Andrew is currently looking for his next opportunity!