Afghan Peace Volunteers

In 2008, 50 university students participated in a 3-month Peace Workshop at Bamiyan University in Bamiyan Province, facilitated by a Singaporean medical doctor and humanitarian worker Dr Hakim (Dr Teck Young, Wee). 16 of the students from six different ethnic groups agreed to live together for a semester to demonstrate the possibility of ethnic unity. Youth from other villages gathered to raise their voice of peace. Their first actions was a tent vigil at Bamiyan Peace Park, which they established. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan promised to deliver their message to President Obama. Soon Afghan Peace Volunteers came in contact with international peacemakers, especially Voices for Creative Nonviolence in the US and UK, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 2011 APV moved to Kabul, and officially registered themselves with the Afghan Ministry of Justice as a civil society group. Members of APV have visited Australia an India at invitations from different NGO’s. They have also been nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize.
We realize that to address global warming, we need to address socio-economic inequalities, and to address socioeconomic inequalities, we need to address militarism and wars. People across all borders are awakening to the reality that their daily struggles over seemingly ‘separate’ issues have common root causes
~ Dr Hakim

Welcome to our Borderfree Community

Borderfree-Community-Centre-of-Nonviolence
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.
Our Journey to Smile (APV official webpage)


Borderfree Communities are ordinary people relating with one another locally and worldwide to build green spaces where the human family shares in life’s basic needs, and there is no war!
We’ll wear the Borderfree Blue Scarf to remind ourselves that ‘all human beings live under the same blue sky’!

International Partner Organizations

Voices for Creative Nonviolence (US)
Voices for Creative Nonviolence (UK)
Fellowship of Reconciliation (US)
Barefoot College (India)
Ekta Parishad (India)
South Asia Peace Alliance
Sardar Patel Farm (India)
Save Jeju Island (South Korea)

DONATE to the Duvet Project


IN THE WINTER OF 2013, 60 Afghan seamstresses – 20 from each ethnic group – saw over 3,000 warm duvets for Kabul’s poor families. By this growing project, the women gets an income och food on the table for the family.
DONATE to the Duvet Project – ORDER Your Borderfree Scarf and become a member of our Borderfree International Community! The seamstresses of APV make thousands of Blue scarves with the words “BORDERFREE” and “bedun-e-marz” (in Dari). Blue as a symbol for the same blue sky above us all. Borderfree, a response to Prof Noam Chomsky’s speech at (Beirut, Lebanon on June 14, 2013): “For decent human survival in a world that has no borders.”

 

SIGN The People´s Agreement to Abolish War!

 
We, the people of the human family,
agree to abolish war.
Like you, we are tired of wars.