


ARTS, SPORTS, & CULTURE
Since September 11, 2001, our world has become increasingly divided. The escalation of religious, ethnic, and cultural conflicts is having a profound impact on the hearts and minds of the next generation. The arts are language-independent media for building bonds of friendship and communication among the world's children. Collectively the arts are a powerful catalyst for promoting peace, freedom, and cooperation. Likewise, sports are also a powerful tool for building peace. NHF-GN implements arts, sports and cultural activities across the world for peacebuilding, these activities are meant to bring people together for them to live in peace. Arts, Sports and Culture activism is key to bringing people together.
What is Arts For Peace?

Arts For Peace involves carefully facilitated arts-based activities, such as theatre, dance, painting, yoga, and music to foster positive behavioural change. As with sport, art is used as an entry point for peacebuilding. The purpose of Arts For Peace is not art itself, but rather the means through which to convey conflict transformation objectives. NHF-GN uses art activities in its community social clubs to build communities across the world.
Why Arts For Peace?

Arts For Peace involves carefully facilitated arts-based activities, such as theatre, dance, painting, yoga, and music to foster positive behavioural change. As with sport, art is used as an entry point for peacebuilding. The purpose of Arts For Peace is not art itself, but rather the means through which to convey conflict transformation objectives. NHF-GN uses art activities in its community social clubs to build communities across the world.
The Role Of Arts In Peacebuilding

Arts offer a voice to the disempowered: Art forms such as drawing and sculpting grant individuals a canvas upon which to express emotions that they are unable to express with words. Thus, those who are reluctant to verbalise their thoughts and fears can do so through art. Art can act as a non-verbal language that is accessible to all regardless of gender, social standing, political affiliation or religion. For example, individuals who have suppressed traumatic experiences may feel safer expressing their emotions with paint. Also, dance and theatre allow individuals to use their physical bodies to communicate. NHF-GN works through community social clubs implementing art-based activities for peace.
Sports for Peace

Sports activities have been valued as a powerful medium to help with reconciliation between conflict-torn communities. It helps build relationships, which increases tolerance and bridges divisions between groups. Sports also facilitate a meaningful dialogue between rival groups or victims.
ports as a powerful tool to strengthen social ties and networks, and to promote ideals of peace, fraternity, solidarity, non-violence, tolerance and justice between the different ethnic groups. The current conflict and problems can be eased as a sport has the ability to bring people together and to provide an important and strong building block for peace and sustainable development. NHF-GN uses sports in its community social clubs to build skills and careers for children and young people
Why Sports?

It promotes universal values and is not limited to language or cultures. It plays a crucial role in improving the welfare of the planet and its people. For instance, sporting icons, who are idolized by the youth, become global ambassadors of peace and unity. Sport, therefore, has the power to unite people beyond borders.
At the grassroots and community level, sports are increasingly becoming a part of the peace builder's toolkit worldwide. Sports can bring people together towards a common goal while promoting respect and community with others. By building relationships between different groups, conflict can be transformed. NHF-GN builds peacebuilding skills among its communities through sporting activities
The Role Of Sports in Peacebuilding

Sport is not simply a unifying platform; it can be divisive too. Recent articles on basketball in the Balkans and cricket in India/Pakistan shed light on how sport has sometimes exacerbated cultural divides. On many occasions in the last few decades, there has been violence at football matches or at international tournaments when opposing fans come together. This side of the sport can be damaging to its reputation as an inclusive part of society. NHF-GN's work is sport-based and helps communities learn how to unite their communities using sport.
The Role Of culture in Peacebuilding

Culture is a powerful force that bridges across differences, culture brings people together, and thus underpins social cohesion, peace and security. Notwithstanding this unifying function, the past 20 years have witnessed a growing instrumentalization of culture for divisive purposes. This negative exploitation of culture has not only contributed to more protracted crises and relapses into conflict, but also the denial of human rights, including cultural rights. NHF-GN promotes cultural activities as a means of bringing people of different nationalities together.
Why Culture?

Culture is integral to who we are and where we come from. From heritage to creative expression, culture contributes to identity, belonging and meaning. As a resource for community vitality, well-being and expression, it shapes peaceful societies through the recognition of and respect for the diversity of cultures and freedom of expression.
However, by virtue of its significance and deep-rooted connection to people, culture has increasingly been brought to the frontlines of conflict as a tool for division. NHF-GN uses cultural activities to build peace in communities.
Culture in Conflict

During the past two decades, culture has increasingly been instrumentalized to stir division. Attacks on cultural heritage bear witness to how heritage can be used – and abused – by non-State armed groups in attempts to obliterate cultural diversity or to impose their own symbols and identities linked to a specific community. Attacks on cultural heritage often target significant areas of rich cultural diversity, where communities of different cultural and religious backgrounds have coexisted and forged unique cultural expressions. These attacks on culture can also be part of broader and systematic strategies.
The Role of Art Activities in Reconciliation
Whether community-based, artist-based, or collective in form, arts-based peacebuilding that engages with the arts as a way of knowing provides opportunities for close affective engagement with broad systemic dimensions of social, political, and cultural practices and power.
Arts have as much potential to build peace and facilitate processes of reconciliation as they do to fuel cultures of violence and conflict.
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“Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one’s imagination − perhaps more importantly − creativity is the power to act.”
− Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist
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However, if strategically harnessed with the goal of rebuilding a just and peaceful society, art and culture can indeed contribute to lasting peace and reconciliation. Arts have always played a social role within our world.
Artists are the voices of some of the most marginalized groups within societies− they mirror the social, cultural and political realities of their time and propose new and alternate imaginings for the future.
The Role of Sports and Culture in reconciliation
Sports play a big role in reconciliation and can be used to promote social inclusion, breaking down barriers and creating bridges between opposing groups. Sport can help the process of reconciliation by building confidence and trust among diversity, advancing the healing process, encouraging resiliency, and giving a sense of normalcy.
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Culture is particularly vulnerable to collateral damage, looting and intentional destruction, which is often paired with the persecution of individuals based on their cultural, ethnic or religious affiliation, the violation of their cultural rights and the denial of their identities. Because of the strong connection between culture and peoples’ identities, the intentional destruction and misappropriation of cultural heritage and the violation of cultural rights are aggravating factors in armed conflict and represent major obstacles to dialogue, peace and reconciliation.
While sport plays a big role, culture will also come to play, culture is part of the heritage and creative expression, culture contributes to identity, belonging and meaning. As a resource for community vitality, well-being and expression, it shapes peaceful societies through the recognition of and respect for the diversity of cultures and freedom of expression.


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