Humanist projects of popular initiative The extreme manifestation of violence- physical aggression- like war, is possible because violence exists everywhere, in every country, in every city, even inside our own homes. It manifests itself in different forms like economic exploitation, political coercion, religious and ideological intolerance, racial, sexual, cultural and generational discrimination,  and the imposition of one´s ideas and values on others.

As long as we justify its necessity and permit it to exist, even applaud it, there will be wars and destruction.

Violence is based on fear and the opposite of fear is faith in oneself, others, in the future.

Violence is possible in an atmosphere of in-communication. Real communcation with others, with oneself,  prevents violence from arising.

Social violence is but a manifestation of  violence among people and that in turn reflects the violence harboring inside each individual.

At the root of personal violence are contradictory actions where thinking, feeling and action do not work hand in hand.

Unitive actions are those where they do so and when these actions are also for others, not just for oneself.

So, doing things for others, helps free the individual of the bondage violence has placed him in. Therefore, actions of solidarity, break the chain of violence.

The Humanist Movement in its projects of popular initiatives in 120 countries where it is active, tries to change this violent background through concrete actions in education, healthcare, and community action always emphasizing that this is possible if people have faith in themselves and others and when they work together as a whole.

One of these projects is “Communities for a Non-violent World”.

The Project

This a project that encompasses a region, a city,  town or a neighborhood. The objective is to diminish violence significantly within the boundaries of the project, but a larger objective is that it be present everywhere in a country, and eventually, in the world.

For this project to function an organization of a minimum one hundred people, divided into ten groups is needed. As the intention is to change the ideological foundation of a city, a region or a country, one starts with ten projects, instead of one.

An essential element for the beginning is individuals with an organizational capacity to form the initial structures, individuals that commit themselves to carry this out.

When the first 100 member structure is in place, an orientor of Council 15 will visit for two days to help configure the structure, attending a meeting of the first100. In this meeting the functions within the structure are explained in detail, the ways of working, both of the structure and also relating to the project itself..

During the first 3 months a trainer from Council 15 arrives monthly to give seminars and retreats for two days at a time for the people of the structure, passing on information, experience and ways of working already proven in other places.

The objective of the project is to create more human relations in the communities where the participants live.                   

The members of the structure hold a weekly meeting where they do personal work and plan their activities, furthermore each structural member communicates with 10 adherents that he/she sees once a month and tries to see to that violence in their environment diminishes, giving them concrete objectives for actions of non-violence.

These are people in the environment that would like a world without violence. They dedicate their life to non-violence.

The adherants in addition to trying to live their lives more coherrently, also contribute monthly a small sum( e.g. E 5) that goes to a development project, (like to the 300 plus elementary schools in Haiti, with 90 thousand pupils), thus showing their solidarity in practice.

To achieve the objectives of the projects, concrete work needs to be carried out in workshops, meetings, forums, and dialogues and above all with a lifestyle in daily life.

The workshops usually have duration of 4 – 6 hours, carried out in one day, with ample participation (members of the structure, adherents, their friends and family and other people from the community). This is a day of spending time together,  where the participants carry out specific personal work and interpersonal work; they study materials and in general participate in a human atmosphere very different from their daily relations.

These meetings are for the structure and consist of personal work and the planning of activities.

Each member of the structure as well as the adherents, try to live according to the principles of non-violence, treating others as human beings and not as objects, strengthening their faith and their actions of solidarity.

The next steps

The short-term objective is that the project exist everywhere in the country.

In the long term we hope there will be societies where the background will not be fear and violence, but rather faith and human warmth. This longing may seem utopic to some people but it is surely achievable because this is what nearly all of us want.

Well then, if all of us want a different world, there is nothing to wait for but to build it.

The time has come to act!!!!!!!