March 26, 2014

International House students make peace child’s play

Global Game Days’ forms part of a successful bid by students at International House participating in the 2014 Davis Projects for Peace.

A team of students has been awarded US$10,000 for their submission, ‘Making Peace Child’s Play’. The successful team members are Dylan Berkrey, Melchizedeck Bett, Emma Hart, Adam Hunt, Tom Large, Maddison Jones, Su Lin Lee, Sophie Lumsden and James Walsh.

The Davis Projects for Peace (which International House students have won in previous years) is an invitation for undergraduates at the American colleges and universities in the Davis United World Scholarship Program. Students design projects at a grassroots level with the intention of implementing them during 2014. The objective of the Davis Projects for Peace is to encourage and support today’s motivated youth to create their own ideas for building peace.

International House Student Residence Manager, Alison Hemsley, said the project success was certainly not a “sure thing” with the submission assessed against some 25 other Australian projects.

The Davis Projects for Peace was made possible by international philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, who chose to celebrate her 100^th birthday in February 2007 by committing US $1 million for one hundred Projects for Peace. She died last year aged 106.

International House team members highlighted how Professor Tina Bruce of the London Metropolitan University described “play acts as a forward-feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood”.

“It is our opinion that it is only through such a mindset, so often developed in childhood, that any notion of peace through intercultural understanding and dialogue can be attempted.,” team member Sophie Lumsden said.

“In any year International House boasts up to 35 different nationalities and this project will use the cultural experiences of our residents and the wider community in a mutually beneficial exchange, expressed through the cultural games of their region,” she said.

The project will be broken down into three main objectives: Increasing the understanding that play is essential from a young age and can promote intercultural dialogue and the vision for “World Peace”; Enabling the Illawarra community, in particular local school children, to interact with International House residents through the medium of games in a healthy, fun based setting. Compilation of an instruction book (Global Games Guide) for sustainable use will be a co-created initiative; Giving International House residents the opportunity to experience a range of games from other cultures. This will be brought about both through the fulfilment of the above objectives as well as extra events held at the college including the holding of Global Game Days, giving residents the chance to participate in and learn different games; and through information sessions run by residents about the games of their heritage.

In order to complete and meet the objectives, the International House team will seek expressions of interest from local schools wanting to participate in the project and obtaining approval from the schools and UOW.

“We would also require close collaboration with the International House residents in order to gather volunteer demonstrators and to compile the Global Games Guide. Through scheduled events at International House, we will be able to facilitate regular positive game nights,” Sophie said.

The project is seen as a perfect fit with the UOW International House mission of promoting global well-being by enabling UOW students living at International House to be intercultural leaders.