peacecamp 2014

This was peace camp 2014:
Peace camp for me was a new experience to get to know new people and learn about different perspectives. I’ve learned so many new things and met a lot of new friends in the process.

Every day there was something new that helped us bond and taught us new things whether it was discussions or fun activities like playing music or problem solving. In the evenings it was a totally different experience because we got to meet the other people personally and just have fun like teenagers at our age should.

Every single thing in peace camp forced us to meet the others, and I’m glad it did. We were divided into bedrooms with teenagers from different delegations and the activities that sometimes divided us into small group, so we really got a chance to know each other.

I am pleased that I was able to do this one in a lifetime experience and I will never forget the people I met and the perspectives I have learned.
So thank you for letting me have this amazing experience,
Omer Naveh
Israeli delegation

PeaceCamp 2014 was a great experience for me. I'm glad that i made new and awesome friends that i would never forget, and I'm also glad that i learnt about new cultures from dances to languages to traditions to history, We played, sang and danced, it was a fun experience that could not be forgotten. Also it was a chance for me and my palestinian friends to express our feelings of being not welcomed in our land, to express and show what our nation goes through everyday, to show the other side that palestinians are humans and should be treated like ones, and should get back every single right that was taken away, it was a chance to hear perspectives and opinions even if it was hard to hear, I was very glad how we represented our feelings especially when we came in a time where there was a war going on back in our country and it wasn't easy but a lot were supportive and tried to help us get through it and i appreciate that.
Natalie Tibi, Palestine.

A Palestinian, an Israeli, an Austrian and a Hungarian go to the bar. Well it seems to be a start of an awful joke, but it actually happened in Lackenhof.
Before we arrived at the Vienna Airport the Peacecamp for me had been making posters, cutting classes to practise for the culture evening, travelling by bus, so everything was so ordinary and Hungarian. But from the airport meeting the Peacecamp became new languages, new cultures, new people, new thoughts, new ideas and new perspectives.
I’d thought that the warming up & feel good would totally destroy me in one and a half hour but - after the artist workshop and the meals - it was my favourite programme. It made my body, muscles and also my nerves free and prepared my soul and brain for the large group. Of course it was also a great fun to watch the sleepy faces slowly waking up in a tired way.
The large groups were new lessons for me. In these sessions I realised that the wars I considered to exist only in history books are real and absolutely current. Here I could see that the world is much worse than it seems to be.
The most amazing experiences were the practising for the show4peace and the show itself (in Lackenhof and in Vienna). During this time I got a lot of essential virtues for life: courage, self-criticism, confidence and trust. I learnt how to stand in front of people and express myself. For the present I can do this only by singing but thanks to the camp (and Lukas, without Him I couldn’t do anything) I will develop myself.
Now, after I have seen teenagers’ pain, the truth, and the dark side of the world I can see things in a more realistic way. So thanks for my teacher Szilvia Kneusel who invited me to Peacecamp and thanks for all the participants and organisers who gave me a lifetime experience.
(Mónika Nagy, 17)