Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre in Afghanistan

The Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre in Afghanistan was launched on the 7th of August, 2014.
From one of the persistent foci of wars, a group of young Afghan Peace Volunteers at the Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre want to work nonviolently with the human family across all borders to abolish the socioeconomic, environmental, educational and military wars that are being waged in Afghanistan and the world today.

Mission  : Nurture local communities that connect with the human family worldwide to build green spaces where we share life’s basic needs with all, and where we agree to ban war, weapons and all forms of violence.

Areas of work and service

This is the first Centre in Afghanistan that is dedicated to nonviolence.

The five areas of nonviolence that the Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre focuses on are:

1. Non-violent Economy ( to build a sharing economy that meets the basic needs of all human beings )

–          Women’s tailoring cooperative

–          Winter duvet project

2. Non-violent ways of conflict resolution ( to abolish war and weapons and practice restorative justice )

–          Different campaigns ( direct actions ) to abolish war and weapons : ‘No to Weapons in Afghanistan’ Campaign,

–          Non-violent conflict resolution practice and training

–         Community stress and trauma management

3. Non-violence towards the earth and environment ( to address global warming )

–          Use and promotion of non-fossil fuels and renewable energy to eliminate the human causes of global warming and climate change eg solar power, solar ovens

–          Tree planting and reforestation programs in Afghanistan, building gardens or parks

–          Establishing a permaculture farm in Kabul in 2015

4. Non-violent education and awareness ( to nurture humane, pacifist persons who are engaged with serving humanity and building a better world )

–          Courses, conferences, training on non-violence and its practice

–          Borderfree Nonviolence Library with resource material on nonviolence and peace-related topics

–          Borderfree Nonviolence Literature describing vision, values, principles and practice

–          Global Awareness Sessions and Discussions

5. Non-violent self and relationships with the earth and all human beings ( to build relationships of equality across the borders of class, race, gender, language, religion, nations and others )

–          Building relationships among worldwide Borderfree Communities that build green spaces where we share life’s basic needs with all, and where we agree to ban war, weapons and all forms of violence.

–         Borderfree Blue Scarf Team

–          Global Days of Listening and other Skype connections

–          Multi-ethnic live-in communities of nonviolence, as practicum to build unity in nonviolence across the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan

–          Afghan Street Kids’ program

–          Ad hoc local and international exchange trips

6. Borderfree Media

–          Borderfree Theatre : this group was established in December 2014 and has been having weekly training sessions

–          Borderfree Radio : to be launched on Sound Cloud in Feb 2015.