Graines de Paix is the winner of the first Smart Peace Prize of the Leaders for Peace Foundation!
The first Smart Peace Prize was awarded on May 13, 2019 to the Swiss NGO Graines de Paix, during an evening in the French Senate in front of an audience of 200 high-ranking officials, including Mr. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former Prime Minister and Founding President of the Leaders for Peace Foundation, and Gérard Larcher, President of the French Senate.
The Graines de Paix team, composed of Delia Mamon, Founding President (center), surrounded by Tiemele Kouassi, National Coordinator of Graines de Paix in Côte d'Ivoire, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, President of the Leaders Foundation for Peace, and Sorana Secasiu, Head of Graines de Paix's Programs in West Africa.
Launched in January 2019, this prestigious award recognizes Graines de Paix (Grains of Peace) for its innovative and replicable educational work. Of the 30 applicants, the NGO Graines de Paix stood out as the one with the most developed pedagogy to promote peace and to prevent violent behavior, including for early childhood. The awarding jury was composed of prominent members of the international board, including Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former French Prime Minister and founding President of the foundation, Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Tertius Zongo, former Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, and Assia Ben Salah, Goodwill Ambassador of King Mohammed VI Morocco. Other members included experts in education and impact assessment.
"Integrating peace education into basic education appears essential to changing attitudes and making future generations more skilled in peace competencies and concerned with the stability of the world," states Leaders for Peace.
Delia Mamon, President and founder of Graines de Paix, and co-designer of its pedagogical principles, accompanied by the Head of Programs in West Africa, Sorana Secasiu, and the National Coordinator in Côte d'Ivoire, Tiemele Kouassi, were all three applauded at length following their acceptance speeches. The Smart Peace Prize is symbolized by a meaningful work of art by sculptor Anilore Banon during the ceremony (to the left in the picture below).
Delia Mamon, President and Founder of Graines de Paix with the Smart Peace Prize
The award recognizes the work of Graines de Paix for its innovative educational pedagogy and its implementation, as well as for its proven ability to replicate it, as it already does in several countries in Africa, Switzerland and France. In the Ivory Coast, Graines de Paix's pedagogy has served to reduce violence in schools and to provide quality education for all students. The program has been evaluated by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Their study clearly shows the positive results from changing teachers' attitudes toward their students.
Graines de Paix is the technical partner of the Ministry of Education for the training, respectively of student teachers and of practising teachers. It has been mandated to embed the peace culture education methodology into the curriculum and the initial training of preschool and primary teachers. It develops educational resources that provide effective, practical guidance to teachers for nurturing the positive development of their students, for preventing violence and radicalization, and for fostering societal peace.
Graines de Paix by the numbers...
- 23,500 teachers trained in the Ivory Coast between 2012 and 2019 in teaching with the values, contents, postures and practices that foster the culture of peace.
- More than 1,000,000 children have benefited from the program in the Ivory Coast between 2012 and 2019.
- 500 teachers in Switzerland trained in Graines de Paix's methodology integrating the values, contents, teaching postures and practices that foster a culture of peace for the academic year 2019-2020.
- 80,000 primary school students in Switzerland and neighbouring France who have benefited from Graines de Paix's learning exhibitions and workshops.
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT GRAINES DE PAIX
