All of Ukraine is currently in a state of war after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, which followed Russia’s invasion of two Eastern regions in 2014. While aggression by Russian forces, including bombing and missile attacks, is concentrated predominantly in the east and south east of the country, missile strikes regularly hit cities far from the front lines, such as the capital Kyiv, Odessa on the Black Sea and Lviv in the west near the Polish border, where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people are temporarily housed. Travel to Ukraine for foreigners carries obvious risks and holding events is challenging due to the insecure situation and lack of spaces for group work. However, it is possible to meet with Ukrainian friends in neighbouring countries and also in more peaceful regions of western Ukraine. The Carpathian mountains close to Slovakia and Hungary is the venue for our Cultures of Justice and Peace training with tools for trauma counselling in Spring 2026 for teachers, psychologists and social workers from smaller, remote towns all over Ukraine. We plan to build a team and support network of facilitators across Ukraine, to meet each year for a retreat/ workshop to share experiences, have some respite and learn new tools for trauma relief in our communities.

Russian interactions with foreigners are restricted. Therefore, we typically meet the Chechens outside of Russia. They appreciate the connections, since isolation breeds fear and distrust. Since English is quite limited, we rely on extensive interpretation and translation.

In 1995 the Russian version of Lighting Candles in the Dark was taken to Grozny. By 2005, they had added Chechen and Russian stories and illustrations to the collection, which began The Power of Goodness Global Story Pool. Power of Goodness came under the care of Friends Peace Teams Asia West Pacific in 2013 when Friends International Library closed. The North Caucasians and Ukrainians continue to lead the way in developing this story collection to support a broad-based peace movement that works to create cultures of peace and justice. The Chechen Little Star psychologists founded a Power of Goodness teacher training program that has already reached hundreds of teachers and continue to support its expansion. Friends Peace Teams supports the development of new stories, and shares in-depth training on nonviolence and reconciliation to strengthen the facilitators’ experience and skills.

In 2014, the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) was introduced to a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Sulaymaniyah, a city in eastern Kurdistan close to the Iran border, by a Quaker living in Iraq. Local facilitators from Syria, Federal Iraq, Kurdistan, Iran, Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) members, and other international NGOs were trained to bring the workshops to school children, camp refugees and their teachers, prison inmates, human rights defenders from Iran, and displaced families during the Syrian conflicts and the ISIS invasion. In 2015, other cities and regions of Kurdistan started getting involved in AVP.

In October 2023, two members of the Sulaymaniyah AVP team were introduced to Friends Peace Teams approach to the Creating Cultures of Peace and Justice (CCPJ) workshop in Poland, thanks to financial support from the Charlotte Lyman Fund, Northern Yearly Meeting, and other Friends. Skills from CCPJ were brought back to facilitators in Kurdistan, followed by a Zoom program shared with Madison Monthly Meeting and Northern Yearly Meeting.  These new skills are being integrated into their AVP workshops.

In December 2023, the Sulaymaniyah AVP team decided to formally align with Friends Peace Teams Europe, who then changed their name to Friends Peace Teams Europe and Middle East. At this time, the Sulaymaniyah team members now attend FPT monthly meetings, are linking to other Teams internationally and are looking forward to creating another regional workshop for Creating Cultures of Peace and Justice (CCPJ).

Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshops are 20 hour experiential happenings devoted to helping participants experience the non-violent resolution of conflicts.  In Kurdistan, we implement AVP in 3-day, or sometimes, 6-half-day workshops, adjusting to the needs of students, teachers, and employed family members.

Our Basic-Level AVP 20 hour workshops focus on creating opportunities for deep personal change.  They encourage participants to safely explore and express how they have been affected by violence personally and socially.  Our Advanced-Level 20-hour AVP workshops provide a deeper, 20-hour exploration of themes such as fear, anger, social cohesion, stereotyping, power, and forgiveness, tailored to participants’ needs.  Kurdish AVP facilitators create a learning environment where workshop participants learn to understand and then change their relationship to conflict as well as their relationships to other people through non-violent strategies.

AVP also helps participants to look at how they may contribute to creating conflict by making poor decisions, by taking advantage of others, or by judging and rejecting others who are different than themselves.  AVP workshops give participants opportunities to practice non-violent communication, empathy, and problem solving using role plays, games, and other creative activities.  The participants learn to build genuine community and relationships in the workshops, often among individuals from very different backgrounds.

AVP is a community-building program, offering a new approach for families, community groups, women’s organizations, religious communities, schools, social services agencies, youth organizations, prisons, government entities, members of NGOs, and all who would like to work non-violently against conflict, oppression, and abuse. It builds upon the strengths of our common human spirit to learn to live together in mutual respect.

AVP started in one prison in the USA in 1975 at the request of the inmates and has since expanded to 42 US States and over 22 countries, including India, South Africa, Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Russia, Bosnia, Serbia, the UK, Nigeria, Sudan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Iraq, and many more settings. Nearly all programs are run on a volunteer basis with local community support, which speaks to the resiliency and spirit of the AVP approach.

There have been inherent challenges in conducting AVP and related activities in the Middle East because of the Israeli-Hamas war and the war between the US, Israel and Iran. Military activity and difficulty traveling within and between the countries have hampered the work. Finding adequate funding has been difficult. Yet, planning continues to be made to hold some workshops and provide humanitarian aid in both the West Bank and Gaza.

There has been a ceasefire in Gaza since October 2025, which has allowed some much-needed, although inadequate, humanitarian aid to flow with Israeli’s help. The current war between the US, Israel and Iran has stopped that aid from entering Gaza. Unfortunately, the preparation to offer AVP workshops at the Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank has been postponed because of that war but should be going ahead in the fall of 2026.

In 2007, Lancaster(Pennsylvania) Friends Meeting Alternatives to Violence Project facilitators began introducing and helping to develop AVP in Palestine, having been invited by Ann Ward to join her in this much-needed work.

This work has relied on building relationships with organizations and individuals that are based on trust, credibility and the long history of Quakers around the world. The strategy called for training organizations and universities that could promulgate AVP in Palestine.

Trust and belief in the Alternatives to Violence Project has led to the growth of AVP in Palestine, including the formation of the AVP Palestine NGO. This is helping sustain the project and the leadership of local Palestinian organizations.

AVP Palestine has received financial support from Lancaster Friends Meeting, other Friends Meetings, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and various local US donors to support AVP workshops, as well as purchase and supply food and personal items to internally displaced people of Gaza. The goal, post war, is to revive the Alternatives to Violence Project in Gaza and the West Bank.