The Project
"The human decontamination project, or leadership with community responsibility as we define it in Israel, originated in a MASHAV course in which Dr. Gladys Estela Pérez participated. Dr. Pérez is from Bello, the city with the highest index of civil violence in the entire world," says Sergio Gryn, Director of the Latin American Department of the Institute and responsible for the Project.
"For us, a course in itself is only a preparatory stage for realization of projects in the country of origin." Gryn expands: "We are treating a universal problem of the highest priority: marginal youth. The hope of social reabsorption of these youngsters into the education system and into society in general has generated a tremendous demand for the Institute courses: 200 candidates registered for 30 places. The second group from Bello was in Israel in April-May of this year. There is a great impact. We have already been approached by other Colombian cities, such as Cartagena and Bucaramanga, and countries such as Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Spain, and various projects have reached the stage of financing by international organizations.
"Our Director General, Dr. Ofer Bronshtein, who is known for his activity in peace-making processes, espoused the project from its beginning and continues to accord it the highest priority. Our academic counselor is Dr. Eran Landau, a professional, highly experienced 'street worker,' originally from Uruguay, and director of the Department for Youth Advancement in the nearby town of Kfar Saba. He also has extensive experience working with juvenile prisons and residential schools for youth in Israel."
The Stages
The first stage of the project is the forming of the group, which takes place entirely in the country of origin. The condition for participation is to be a leader who influences other young people. The concept is to create a pluralistic group of leaders, both "positive" and "negative," that is 15 from positive backgrounds and 15 from negative backgrounds. One of the course participants came to Israel directly from a Colombian prison. Before leaving, all sign a kind of contract, undertaking to work for their communities after returning to Colombia.
The second stage takes place in Israel and includes not only classes and academic work, but also the experience of living in a group with intensive dialogue, in a distant country with a culture differing from their own, in a pluralistic, tolerant, productive society, imbued with a transcendent historic, religious and spiritual significance.
The third stage is the community influence, in which the participants assume their roles of peace volunteers, agents of change, leaders who redefine the perspectives and objectives of the groups that they lead. In the case of Bello, the first group continues to function as such, and has created an organization of peace volunteers, with its special program and its symbol - the sunflower, and with their own means of communication. The group has launched a process of change at the municipal level.
The Secret
We asked Dr. Eran Landau the secret. The secret, he said, is that there is no secret. "Shalom" implements the lessons learned with difficulty with the street gangs of marginal youth on the streets of Israel. "We learn that it was better to integrate 'positive' leaders with 'negative' leaders in the same framework, and this has become a common Israeli practice. Contrary to the prevalent idea that a rotten apple spoils the whole crate, in Israel we believe that the opposite is possible. The lack of contact of marginal youth with young people from other circles constitutes a limitation, a problem, since this social isolation prevents them from assuming their criminal conduct is a passing phase in their lives and from aspiring to positive roles in society. In Israel there was a very serious problem of integration between the different sectors.
"The young people from the marginal neighborhoods have had no opportunity to get to know 'positive' youth, nor did they imagine the possibility of anything different from their own reality. We brought together 'positive' leaders, for instance prominent sportsmen, outstanding students, leaders of community movements, with leaders of neighborhood gangs, running groups of street kids. We proved that the encounter produces positive results."
Sergio Gryn: "This is also Israeli high technology. Not of computers but of people, social technology. It is practical, neighborhood street work.
Dr. Gladys Estela Pérez, from whose final work the Shalom Project resulted, relates: "Everyone said that the idea was madness. You cannot let those high risk youngsters come together and leave the country. Who knows what illicit acts they might commit there. And what are 20 days to rehabilitate them? And why so far away? If you want to decontaminate them, people said, take them bathing in the Cartagena Sea. But Israel is something else. It is different when you go bathing in the Dead Sea. You can't sink." (Because the salt content is so high, everyone floats on the Dead Sea.)
These youngsters are not familiar with their city, have never left their small territory. Bringing them to Israel shows them the existence of a different world. Paradoxically, when they come herthey can maintain a dialogue with others who live in a neighboring street. Nacho and Freddy are leaders of rival gangs in Bello. Freddy has permanently in his body a bullet fired by Nacho. They relate that the visit to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem had an effect on them. A cold feeling swept over them, they were moved, enraptured, as if they had been born again. They decided to make peace with each other. A small, personal peace, still shaky, a little tentative. "I am a man of few words," says Nacho at the end of the course. "It is an honor for me to be Freddy's friend. I feel honored by his friendship for me." The great peace, the "Shalom" is made up of hundreds of small "peaces."
According to Dr. Eran Landau, the problem of marginal youth is the same everywhere. "I am not trying to smooth over the contrasts, which are enormous," he hastens to say. "But really there are no differences between human beings." In Israel, marginal youths do not have problems of a roof over their heads and food, and they can find work fairly easily. On the other hand, the problem of the marginal Colombian is how to find food for the day, the "market" as they say there, not to mention the fact that the probability of their finding work is infinitesimal.
And there is the drug traffic, which leaves thousands of Colombian youngsters armed to the teeth and accustomed to handling large sums of easy money. And the presence of the guerrilla and the paramilitary. However, there are also differences that are not material. For young Israelis adolescence ends at 18, when they commence three years of military service. In Colombia, the adolescent stage continues sometimes until the age of 30. There is no definitive break marking the passage to the stage of maturity and responsibility.
We leave the International Institute with the feeling that something important is happening there. Leaders of street gangs arrive and peace volunteers emerge with the sunflower symbol. Young people who show that they feel changed, different, as if they had changed their skin. Yes, something is happening here.
In the words of the course participants:
"Before the course, I was someone with many problems, very anti-establishment, I did not give a fig for the lives of others. I was depraved and had only participated in violent groups. Perhaps this is why the Holocaust Remembrance Museum had such an effect on me. The number of people murdered in World War II is terrifying. There I learned to place a value on my life and that of others," murmurs Alejandro Murillo.
"It was a beautiful, productive experience. I was a young lout who had no love of life. In Israel I learned how to live with people and that I was needed. My life changed completely," says Hugo Dario Raigosa.
"It is not we of the Shalom group who will save our town. But we are indeed a special peace force to make it a better place to live in," adds Bernardo Ruiz.