The Royal Gazette published an article entitled “Character education pays off at pilot schools” on 24 January 2006. We were pleased to read: “Major improvements in student behaviour have been reported after a pilot scheme at three primary schools. Education Minister Terry Lister said staff at Harrington Sound, Somerset and Elliott Primary Schools had noticed a marked improvement in how students handled conflicts. Staff were trained intensively over two days as part of the ‘Living Values’ character education Programme, first introduced in September 2003. And, with the scheme due to be rolled out in another six schools from March, the Minister said he was pleased with the results of the trial. ‘This is what we wanted to see,’ he said in a statement last night. ‘The staff had begun to make the connections between role-modelling for students as they practised non-confrontational approaches. Each school recorded an 80 percent drop in student office referrals within the first year of the programme.’ Mr. Lister said the Ministry of Education and Development had decided to join a growing global movement towards character education, in an attempt to address declining standards of behaviour in society. Pointing to the ‘gradual erosion’ of behavioural standards in Bermuda over the last four decades, he added: ‘We need to return to the values which made Bermuda the unique community that it was. We all recognize there has been a change in attitude in Bermuda, and we have to do something about it. Thus, we have adopted a proactive approach by doing our part through public information.’ He said character education equipped youngsters with core values promoting responsibility and ethical citizenship. And he said parents also had an important role to play at home.” LVE Trainers Ed Wondoloski and Anne Rarich have been travelling to Bermuda twice a year since September 2003 to work with educators at these three primary schools. Congratulations to all the students, educators, the Minister of Education, and Ed and Anne!

Many thanks to Gilson de Souza dos Santos, a 15-year-old involved with LVEP’s Living Values Activities for Street Children Programme, who sent us this poem.

Mysteries of Peace

Black PEACE of the Negroes,

White PEACE of the Whites,

Green PEACE of the jungles,

Blue PEACE of the oceans,

Brown PEACE of the lands,

Yellow PEACE of the wealthy,

PEACE is all we have to have in our hearts.

It´s nonsense to say that the colour of PEACE is the white colour.

Hold PEACE inside you and the world will be grateful.

UNESCO’s Phnom Penh bureau decided to integrate LVEP in their education programme for the Koh Sla region, the former Khmer Rouge area which was the last one to surrender after the genocide, as Valerie Magnieux, the LVE Coordinator for Cambodia, reports:

“After more than 25 years of isolation, this area has become one of the poorest in the country. The level of illiteracy had reached an extreme. For example, in a village of 650 people, only one person can read. The deep desire of the people is to move forward as quickly as possible far from all the memories and fears connected with their involvement in the war and to live a peaceful life. But this is made difficult by the fact that the victims of the genocide often have to live in the same village as its perpetrators. Anger, fear and violence are deeply rooted as most people never really expressed their grief in a reconciliation process. The family structure has been deeply damaged and parents cannot convey a proper set of values to their children. The education system is slowly being rebuilt, yet many children still have to work as most parents don’t realize the importance of education.

“The Organisation for Peace and Development of Cambodia (OPDC), a local partner of UNESCO, started to facilitate trainings on education for a Culture of Peace. LVEP was first introduced to more than 80 members of the local Authorities, village chiefs, commune chiefs, village supervisors, all the commune council members, local police and soldiers. The positive response from the authorities opened the doors to series of trainings conducted for 23 non-formal education teachers, literacy teachers, ECCE teachers, about 100 youth from two communes, and the monks from two pagodas.

“Each target group received training in accordance with its role in the community. The monitoring of the trainings for teachers was very useful to assess their level of understanding of the concepts and their practical application, especially in this area without any facilities. During one year, the facilitators went to different classes and also visited people in villages, trying to understand their difficulties. It brought a warm and an encouraging feeling in villagers as they felt ‘people from the outside now come to help us.’ This was, for them, a sign of hope that they were coming out of their isolation.” 

In Estonia, the Estonian Society for Rehabilitation of Addicts (ESRA) and the International Catholic Child Bureau (ICCB/BICE) have cooperated in implementing LVEP for the last three years. LVE Coordinator for Estonia, Kalle Laane, sent us some reflections on her experience:

“In the spring of 2003, Audrey Harlaut from ICCB, Monique Liger, the LVE Coordinator for France, and I, started to prepare a seminar about LVEP. The initiative to do this came from ICCB. I translated some materials and we held a seminar on 8 April 2003. The participants were from Tallinn City social care institutions and the Social Department. The feelings during the workshop were good. But later I received the feedback that participants did not really understand why LVEP was needed and what benefits it would have. This is typical in Estonia. In my country there are a complicated mix of strange attitudes and norms. The western humanistic culture of working with clients is very new and strange here and often we can see that decision-makers in institutions for children do not understand the needs of children, nor their own responsibilities. Creating motivation for positive change is complicated, especially in ‘new’ countries where lack of experiences, understanding and a cooperative culture is much more common that we would wish.

“After this seminar I had the opportunity to participate in the LVEP Train-the-Trainer (TTT) seminar in Oxfordshire. It was a great experience for me and after this I started to use the LVEP principles and materials in the daily work of our centre. In July 2004 we started an Estonian Society for LVEP and later organized a few information meetings for teachers and school psychologists about LVEP. By the end of 2004, with ICCB, we began preparing a project for using LVEP in Estonia. We organized a three-day seminar on resilience and LVEP in April, a two-day seminar with Maie Kotka in May, and began preparing for a TTT in October. Feedback from the seminars was good and constructive, but now I know that the participants had many difficulties in putting their plans in practice. What reasons do I see for this? Wise people tell us that our country is in a deep moral/ethical crisis and that values development is very flat. The general value is money. During the last 14 years of independence this tendency has grown all the time.

“We held a three-day TTT in October 2005. This seminar was very successful; all the participants were active and happy. However, after this seminar, people again gave us the feedback that they had problems using this knowledge in practice. I can declare after using LVEP with children, youth and parents during the last two to three years that this Programme works very deeply. With all participants we had good results – their self-esteem grows and they develop more balance and empathy. Some of the participants have meaningful transformation, but of course, not all. We do not have feedback from all participants.

“In the end of last year we started to use these principles in client work with pupils with problem behaviour from a secondary school and there were good results. We did not use the entire Programme as our work with them was for a short time, but some elements of LVEP, such as active listening and values-based thinking, was very positive for them. We told the youth and their parents that they could solve conflicts if they tried to understand each other. And we showed the emotional needs from the LVEP Theoretical Model; children need to be understood, loved respected, valued and safe. We showed this to both the youth and their parents. We never heard even one negative response. My personal opinion is that that message was “right on” – and was healing. All of the people in our centre who used LVEP with children and youth felt it was healing, not only for children, but for themselves as facilitators too.

“My wife Estelle and I are probation officers in the probation service in Estonia. We discussed LVEP with leaders of this organization and I feel that they are interested. We plan to do a little introduction in a few weeks and follow-up with trainings and a seminar. I am translating now Living Values Activities for Drug Rehabilitation. I hope that after some time we can start implementing this Programme for people on probation.”

A LVEP pilot project “Developing and Sustaining a Values-Based Curriculum and Educational Programme” began on 1st December 2005 at Barracks Road Primary School in Jamaica. Co-coordinators Chirya Risely and Sharon Chambers report that the school community of 1,600 children, 42 teachers, the Principal and the guidance counsellor have taken up different aspects of the subject of values every day since the teacher training. At the beginning of the school day, after lunch, and at the end of the school day, soft, peaceful music is played. A reflection point is shared about the value during morning assemblies and/or in individual classrooms. Students are currently writing about the value of respect and designing values banners and flags that are displayed in the school and community. In class, assemblies and reflection times, students contribute to teaching values. Several classes have nine “Angels of Values” each representing a value Jamaica has chosen nationally.

The staff have been asked to reflect on their own modelling of values, using a checklist from Dr Neil Hawkes’ book. They have also been asked to watch out for children who are not receiving breakfast and/or lunch in order to ensure that all the students are receiving adequate nutrition. The Programme will culminate with Dr Hawkes’ visit on 7th March 2006. The students are planning a Programme that will include song, dance, skits and a values fashion show.

Thirty childcare providers from eleven centres belonging to the Murni Childcare and Development Centre, based in Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, attended a two-day intensive Train-the-Educator workshop on 15th January and 12th February. Mrs Shahida Abdul Samad, Malaysia’s LVE Coordinator, reports:
“Being an organization whose main objectives are to mould children so that they excel academically and develop good character, the workshop provided these childcare providers with the necessary skills and knowledge to do so. Based on the feedback received during the course of the session, the participants found the Values-awareness Sessions, Skills in Creating a Values-based Atmosphere, Value Activities and Active Listening sessions very beneficial to their own personal development as well as in carrying out their duties in the classrooms. Many of them shared how they applied their classroom learning in their day-to-day lives, and were amazed at how positively people around them responded. Many reported that they now didn’t shout and scream at the kids and as a result they themselves remained calm and in control of the situations.

“The owner and operator of Murni Childcare and Development Centre, Mrs. Rozita Kamil, who herself is a firm supporter of values education, has encouraged all the parents also to attend the LVEP parenting workshop. A short briefing was held on 11th February for 125 parents where they experienced for themselves what LVEP is all about. They understood why it is important for parents to complement the activities carried out in classrooms, at home. The facilitators, Zahara, Hamidah and Shahida, went all out to share their knowledge and personal experiences, to make this workshop another resounding SUCCESS!”  

Living Values Education has come to Mozambique through Samantha Frazer and Rodrigo Brito. Ms. Frazer has been involved with LVE since its beginning. As she has travelled from England to Botswana to Mozambique, LVE has travelled with her. At Ms. Frazer’s invitation, Rodrigo Brito, the LVE Coordinator for the street children programme in Brazil, visited Mozambique from 25th to 27th January, as she then reported to us:

“A half-day introduction to LVEP was organized in Maputo. We had representatives from UNICEF, the Dutch Embassy, organizations that work with street children, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Catholic Church, private colleges and the Scouts Association. Twenty-five people participated. The Programme began with an inspiring introduction by Rodrigo who spoke about the importance of applying values in our daily life. This was followed by a brief overview of the Programme and experiences from Rodrigo, Samantha and Mario.

“The values awareness session was very well received as participants realized that it is important that we model and live the values. Rodrigo gave an overview of LVE’s programme for street children and led participants through an activity that is used in this programme called a circle of peace. Participants sang a beautiful song entitled Ser Feliz (Be Happy) which generated a lot of enthusiasm and happiness. An introduction to LVE’s programme for street children was also given to Wana Sanana, an organization that works to meet children’s needs in Mozambique. This will be followed up with a training for people working with street children later this year.

“Rodrigo was also interviewed for 90 minutes on a popular television talk show called ‘Dialogos’ and spoke in detail of LVE’s Programme for street children, displaying the Living Values Activities for Street Children books and giving a detailed account of each book and its purpose.

“The Ministry of Youth and Sports has offered to help us form an Association for Living Values Education.”

We were pleased to receive news from Paraguay where Living Values Education has the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the National Secretary of Support to UNESCO, the Education Department of the newspaper ABC Color, Brahma Kumaris and the network of institutions that are involved with the “National Values Project for a Better Paraguay.” Since 2003 the LVE Team in Paraguay, with the support of its patrons, has offered LVE trainings free of charge to more than 3,000 teachers of primary schools, secondary schools and training institutes all over the country.

Three intensive trainings were held for street educators in June 2005, to help them implement LVEP’s street children programme. The trainings were supported by the National Secretary of Support to UNESCO, the National Secretary for Children, the Secretary of National Emergencies, INDI, CODENIs, and the Department of Education of ABC Color. LVEP’s Programme for street children is now implemented in two street children facilities in Asunción and three facilities in the interior of the country.

This year, Universidad del Cono Sur de las Américas, in Asunción, is initiating an educational programme on values inspired by Living Values Activities for Young Adults. Mirian Ginzo, LVE’s coordinator in Paraguay, will lead a project to create new tools for professors and youth at the university level. She, and the team she is working with, have said that they would be delighted to hear from any others willing to share their experiences of values education at the university level to help formalise this and give more life to their vision of excellence in education and a caring, empowering culture. She has invited those interested to email her at mginzo@ucsa.edu.py

“In South Africa the year has already started on a busy note” reports Dipty Naran, the local LVE Coordinator. “The Programme for the year is already in full operation. The girl child programme has started with a focus on the twelve values in attempt to address teenage pregnancy and the issue of HIV/AIDS. The leadership programme has started in one province with about ten schools using Living Values Activities for Young Adults to help the young adult lead from within. In five schools a special workshop is held for educators to explore the values for themselves; each month they explore a new value. For the month of February the value has been respect. Transitioning to value-based discipline has been a popular session. This session is held in different schools according to their needs and the availability of staff and time. LVE’s Programme for street children is scheduled to begin soon at ten sites. Meanwhile, the University of Johannesburg will be researching the effects of implementing Living Values Activities for Street Children as part of a UNITWIN/UNESCO values education research project.”

Miss Naran also reported that trainers with the South African LVE Team recently went to Lesotho. “The three-day training was attended by very special educators who seemed committed to making a difference through values. Amongst the participants were members of the media and a representative from the Ministry of Education. Lesotho is certainly a new country we can put on our list for Living Values Education.”

The Binh Trieu Drug and Counselling Center in HCM was the first centre to complete and implement the new Living Values Activities for Drug Rehabilitation (LVADR). They hold regular classes, with 20 clients in each class. Binh Trieu reported the following in regard to the effects of implementing the Programme: “LVADR helps clients release their psychological pressure when they could look back and talk about what happened; compared to the normal LVEP, LVADR provides clients with the basic knowledge (and tools) to think and share; LVADR helps clients find out the deep reason why they became involved in drugs; LVADR helps clients explore and understand the negative effects of drugs on their lives; and LVADR helps clients release their inside pressure. The challenges of the new programme were requiring more time and effort for clients to really change their lives, and the lack of the staff to circulate the programme widely.”

LVEP Vietnam has just been notified of the acceptance of their application for funding from AMCHAM Vietnam. These funds will support a pilot training and subsequent implementation of LVADR in ten drug rehabilitation centres in the North of Vietnam, and possibly an additional ten Drug Rehabilitation Centres in the South of Vietnam.

LVEP Vietnam is to begin a project with PLAN International to train school teachers in LVEP. They will be facilitating LVEP with students and groups of parents in five communes in the North of Vietnam. The Hanoi Institute of Psychology will research the effects of implementing LVEP with these groups of students and parents as part of a UNITWIN/UNESCO international research project on values education entitled: “Learning to live together and learning to be: A multi-faceted evaluation inquiry of an international values education programme.” The Hanoi Institute of Psychology will also be researching the effects of implementing LVEP with street children.

Please also send us:

• your success stories in using Living Values for the Impact section of our Web site;

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• students only, your stories, experiences, feelings and inspirations about Living Values for the Children Participate section of our Web site.

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