How can we face times of uncertainty as individuals and as an organization? And how can we confront our mental barriers to make decisions which lie at the core of the uncertainty we are facing?

These were some of the questions tackled during a webinar on Facing Uncertainty which took place on 25 July 2021 as part of the second online Creative Leadership conference. The webinar aimed to help participants from around the world explore ways of dealing with the unknown, both at a personal and an organizational level.

Anas Badawi from Y-Peer was one of four young leaders who presented their perspective on overcoming fear and responding to situations of uncertainty. Y-Peer is a youth network using an integrated approach to educate young people with the active participation of young people themselves.

Anas described his life in Syria from 2012, when he woke up each morning to different struggles and uncertainties, to 2104, when a personal turning point led him to come up with ‘the triple change’ concept.

2012

I wake up in the morning. I go to school, I find some bribes – commonly used to buy voter’s voices – and a voting ballot. Elections to parliament are taking place. It’s a perfect transient Syrian morning.

I wake up in the morning, I listen to the neighbours who are meeting in the guest room, whispering about a woman who left her home screaming because her husband was beating her. They are accusing her of being a whore. A perfect transient Syrian morning.

I wake up in the morning. My mother is convinced that the owners of fancy cars are thieves, my father believes that our country is ruled by corruption and nepotism. My family doesn’t take part in sport or cultural activities. Another perfect transient Syrian morning.

It doesn’t matter. All that matters to all Syrians at this time is migration.

2014

Three years after the war started in Syria, at 9 pm on a Friday evening, I am walking in the streets in Damascus with my friends after dinner. Suddenly, a loud noise nearby. The sound of a missile/bomb/rocket. There is death everywhere, everyone is running away.

I run towards the direction of the missile. My friends are screaming. I observe. I see victims. I help a wounded person. Another, extremely close missile. I flee home. On the list of wounded, I read the name of the person I helped – I recognize it because his brother screamed it during the incident. He is alive. I didn’t run away, I think.

I change my mind about leaving Syria. I make a decision: my presence makes a difference, I am not unneeded here!

As a result of these experiences Anas developed his concept of ‘the triple change’:

Step 1: Decision

Choosing the road, with the mindset that I have a choice between travelling or not travelling. A mental trial after which I choose the route I am walking, the conversations I am talking and the way I am following. This is the decision making.

Step 2: Belief

An absolute conviction and persuasion, from the bottom of the heart, which recruits my emotions and creates coherence between who I am and what I do. This a great source of power to support the decision I make.

Step 3: Attempts

I have made a decision. I believe. Now, I’ll work. Will I succeed first time? I don’t know, but what I do know is that I have failed tens of times. I failed at achieving, but I succeeded at trying. Failure here is not negative. It means the loss of a battle, but not of the war.

Anas explained that this personal roadmap to change has helped him take action and opened up infinite possibilities.

Who am I going to be now? I’ll break the rules. I’ll change my university studies. I’ll be a photographer, or a painter. No, a politician, an actor.

Wait, wait. Let’s take it easy. Let’s remember the triple.

I started to see positive people.

I started to study the behaviour of influencers.

I started to follow those who are capable of change.

I’ll try – that’s what I thought to myself: so I started participating in any workshops which were available,  whether I knew anything about their subjects or not.   

I am trying.

I am learning.

In 2017, Anas’s hope and faith grew when he joined the Youth Peer Education Network (Y-PEER) and started working for its team in Syria. He managed to get the Executive Board to approve a media team and was the first person with no prior certificate to be accepted by an advanced training centre in Amman.

He explained his journey to becoming a young leader within Y-PEER Syria, through first being a member, then a facilitator, a team leader, a coordinator and finally becoming a FPC (Focal Point in Charge).

I believed in myself, I made a decision, I tried.... I changed. The triple change became a lifestyle.

- Anas Badawi -

Anas concluded:

2021:

I wake up in the morning, I organize a campaign related to the parliamentary elections with the purpose of raising awareness and encouraging young people to nominate and vote. I remember the bribes when I was at school. I emphasize active participation. I smile. I persevere.

I wake up in the morning. I implement an awareness raising session about gender-based violence for a group of women. I remember our neighbour who was subjected to violence. I emphasize that she is a victim. I smile. I go on.

I wake up in the morning. My mother knows that her children will soon be buying cars. My father holds a high judicial position. My brother is studying acting, my sister is learning to swim. I smile. I smile. And I continue.

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Interested in more? Read the report on Creative Leadership 2021 and watch Anas speak at the webinar on Facing Uncertainty (25 July 2021).

Compiled by Hajar Bichri

25 January 2022 - Christine Beerli will step down as President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland in April 2022, after four years in the role. Jacqueline Coté, former Director of Public Relations at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, will take over from her. 

‘It’s been a pleasure to serve the Foundation,’ says Beerli. ‘Our team and Council have worked closely on establishing the financial sustainability which will allow us to concentrate on fulfilling our mission of building bridges across the world’s divides. I am very pleased to have Jacqueline Coté as my successor in this important task. She is an outstanding professional with solid experience in advocacy, conflict resolution, external relations and partnerships, and is exceptionally passionate about creating safe spaces for dialogue. She brings an amazing array of qualities and creative ideas. Her specialization in mediation, communications and law, along with her previous knowledge of the Foundation, bring a unique mix of skills and experience to its leadership.’ 

‘I am deeply honoured to have been appointed as the next President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland,’ says Coté. ‘In this world of profound disruption and uncertainty, IofC’s work of breaking down barriers and helping to build trust across divided societies is more relevant than ever. I intend to capitalize on Christine Beerli’s enormous achievements during the Covid-19 pandemic to expand the reach and impact of our programmes, particularly with young people, and bring life back to the Caux Palace. I look forward to leveraging our network of IofC Members, strategic partners and friends who – along with our enthusiastic team – are all united in the desire to make a contribution to a just, peaceful and sustainable world. I also look forward to working closely with Stephanie Buri and Nick Foster, our dynamic co-directors, as well as our dedicated Council members.’

Jacqueline Coté was the Director of Public Relations and, before that, Head of Communications at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva from 2009 to 2021. She was instrumental in building the Institute’s new campus, the Maison de la Paix, as a vibrant centre for conferences and seminars, thus solidifying the reputation and outreach of the Institute in International Geneva and beyond.

Prior to that Coté was the Permanent Representative to the UN of the International Chamber of Commerce and also served as Senior Advisor Advocacy and Partnerships to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. In her early career, she practised as an international lawyer in Canada and Switzerland and held management positions in the multinational companies SGS and DuPont.  

Jacqueline Coté believes that the global agenda can best be tackled by linking the public, private and non-profit sectors, and that dialogue and empathy are essential tools in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals. She recently trained as a mediator at Harvard Law School and joined the board of several associations to continue her engagement with International Geneva.

She has Swiss, Canadian and British nationality, is a member of the Bar of Quebec and has two grown-up children who share her passion for tackling today’s global challenges in their areas of work.
 

How did Sofia Syodorenko become involved in the zero waste movement, and what does it mean to her? Now Chair of Foundations for Freedom, she is also a representative of the Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine, and moderated an online workshop on plastics and single-use consumption during the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security in 2021.

What triggered your change to a zero waste lifestyle?

To be completely honest, I was always a kind of zero-waste person, thanks to my mother. She always pointed out when resources were being used irrationally – water running without a purpose, lights left on, food thrown away.  This upbringing led me to get involved in environmental and waste issues.

Zero waste is not about a tiny plastic jar that cannot be recycled; it is not about giving up most of the things we love. Zero waste is about being mindful – mindful of things we do and don’t need, mindful of resources that aren’t limitless, mindful of nature that we are a part of. Based on this core idea, we can build many wonderful approaches to such routine things as waste management.  

How do you practise that in daily life?

Let me walk you through my day. I wake up in the morning and wash. I use a bamboo toothbrush which I later put in the compost. My toothpaste is in a glass jar which I can return for refilling. I use a simple bar of soap instead of shower gel. I then go to the kitchen, make coffee in a French press, and eat whatever I feel like eating (most of the foods I eat are grown locally: I eat them not only because it is an environmentally friendly thing to do, but also because Ukrainian food is insanely tasty).

After that I walk my dog, use paper bags to collect its ‘presents’, and come back home to work. In pre-pandemic times, I would walk, cycle or take a local bus to work, but now I work from home, so that’s easier. In the evenings I usually read something, or watch something, or go for a great local beer in a glass jar.

I am not a fan of shopping. I don’t have many things or clothes. If I don’t use something, I donate it; if I need something, I ask the reuse community or my friends first, and buy it only if they can’t help. When I shop for groceries, I use my own reusable bags, jars and containers.

Don’t get me wrong, I do produce trash, but the point is to see where we are wasteful and deal with the causes not with the consequences. So we ask producers to change the way they sell goods to us and challenge municipalities to create policies which will stimulate businesses not to be wasteful.

Tell us about the initiative you started.

We started by creating a local NGO, working with the local community, businesses, producers and the municipality. Then we got together with like-minded NGOs from other Ukrainian towns, and created the Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine, which is now a part of a great European network, Zero Waste Europe, and a great global network, Break Free from Plastic.

We are continuing our work on the local level, and we also support other NGOs which work on waste management. We hope that we are changing the system for the better, case by case.

Why this should concern us all?

Zero Waste is not about reusable cups and reusable bags. It is about being respectful and mindful. There is this beautiful place called planet Earth. It has multiple extremely useful resources which we are welcome to use. But if we use these resources greedily and thoughtlessly, we will face the consequences – and they can be unexpected and fatal. We have a chance to change things:  it is up to us whether to use it.

Can you give some tips for zero waste beginners?

First of all, don’t take the ‘zero waste’ concept literally, and don’t think that zero wasters don’t produce trash. We do. Start with noticing the things that you are surrounded by. Do you need them? Do you use them? Do you wear them? Do they make you happy?

Second, take a look into your trashcan, it’s a great source of information. You will probably see a lot of organic waste and packaging. Can you change this somehow? Can you start a composting site with your community? Can you buy your food with less single-use packaging? Can you substitute some single-use things you use everyday with reusable ones?

Last but not least, think of the things you truly love. Most probably they will be non-material things – people, laughter, adventure, sunny/rainy weather, getting cosy with a blanket and a good book. There is no need to believe those loud advertisements that tell you that you need to buy this or that to be happy. Nope, you don’t. The day you accept this will probably be one of the most useful days of your life.

How did you get involved with Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security (CDES)?

Good question. There are so many wonderful things in life that happen because of the words: ‘Hey, here is an idea!’  Nick Foster emailed me and a friend with these words, and that’s how we ended up organizing an online workshop as part of the CDES 2021. Its theme was ‘Plastics and Single-use Consumption: inspiring systematic change through personal transformation’. We were joined by Justine Maillot, from the Rethink Plastic Alliance and Break Free from Plastic, Jack McQuiban from Zero Waste Europe and Anna Ponikarchuk, the co-founder of Ozero, the first zero waste shop in Ukraine.

I really love intersectoral connections. They produce many wonderful out-of-the-box ideas. The workshop was a wonderful opportunity to create intersectoral connections. In a few years, we may see the impact.

Find out more about the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security

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Watch Sofia speak at the workshop "Plastics & Single-use Consumption: Inspiring Systematic Change through Personal Transformation" during the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security 2021

Photos: Sofia Syodorenko

Former President of the Council of IofC Switzerland, Antoine Jaulmes, interviews Andrew Lancaster from Australia, who has just stepped down from the Council.

For the last 16 years, members of the Council of Initiatives of Change Switzerland have appreciated Andrew Lancaster’s listening skills and friendly support. The last three presidents of the Council of IofC Switzerland (I think I can speak without risk on behalf of my predecessor and successor) have valued his efficient and ever available help.

Andrew is also the convener of the Silvia Zuber Fund Committee, which over the last ten years has provided grants to people from Asia and Africa who have needed help to finance their visits to Caux and/or for IofC programmes in their own regions.

But this is only a slice of his much longer association with Initiatives of Change. So let’s hear about that directly from him.

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Andrew, how did you meet Initiatives of Change and engage in your lifelong commitment with it?

Let me use a few snapshots to capture my early experiences with Initiatives of Change:

From almost as early as I can remember my parents followed the discipline of an early morning quiet time.

There were always folk from Moral-Rearmament (MRA/now Initiatives of Change) staying with us, often for prolonged periods. They related numerous and telling examples of lives being changed.

At an MRA conference in 1965 Peter Howard’s play, We Are Tomorrow, was produced. I had the only non-speaking part. It went on to be performed in various venues in Victoria and Tasmania.

I then felt a sense of calling to defer my civil engineering studies in order to serve as stage manager. This, and similar decisions by others, enabled the play to be performed further afield in Queensland, and then in New Zealand.

In 1966 a large international MRA conference took place in Canberra during which a new, rough-hewn, musical, Sing Out Australia, was performed for the first time. The next morning Rajmohan Gandhi invited us to bring it to India for six months to support him and his colleagues in their bid ‘to build a strong, clean and united India’. The boldness of his vision captured our attention and four months later an intergenerational group of 52, mainly Australians and New Zealanders, arrived in India.

A group of young Indians were in the midst of developing their own production, India Arise. A number of us joined them as they toured India. Within a year India Arise arrived in Caux, soon moving on for performances in various European countries. This was my introduction to Caux.

At the end of that year’s Caux summer, I was invited to the MRA centre in the north-west of England to recuperate from a bout of hepatitis I had caught in India. I joined a small but very active community there for what extended to two years. I then based in central London for the next four years. That is when I got to know, became engaged to and married my wife Margaret.

Immediately after our wedding we went to Canada for eight months to engage in the ongoing work of rebuilding the MRA team there. In 1981, we returned to the UK for 18 months, this time with our two older sons, and once more based in Tirley Garth. Apart from these spells overseas we have lived in Canberra, Australia.

I also co-edited with John Bond the monthly MRA/IofC World Bulletin from 1991 for 12 years.

So this takes you very far from Caux….

Absolutely. Our home in Canberra has been one of the hubs of IofC activities in Australia. Among other things we built friendships with federal parliamentarians and with members of the diplomatic corps as well as providing accommodation for IofC colleagues visiting from other parts of Australia and abroad. We were also involved in the planning of a series of international IofC conferences in Australia.

When did you work in Caux and in which capacity?

In 1996 Yukihisa Fujita from Japan conceived a Caux conference with the theme Agenda For Reconciliation (AfR) for Caux’s 50th anniversary. One outcome of this was a proposal from a senior Japanese politician that there should be a political round table in Caux, running parallel to part of the AfR conferences. I was asked to coordinate it, which I did for five years. The AfR conferences then morphed into the Caux Forum for Human Security under Mohamed Sahnoun’s leadership. Concurrently Margaret and I joined the Caux Allocation Team.

In 2005 I was invited to join the Council of the Caux Foundation (now IofC Switzerland). In 2008-2009 you, Antoine, and I steered the so-called Caux Review. The Silvia Zuber Fund (SZF) assignment came some time after that. Having known Silvia, it has meant a great deal to me to implement her visionary bequest to the Foundation. Over ten years we have made nearly 650 grants. One enormous satisfaction of this was to meet face-to-face in Caux any number of people – mainly Caux Interns and Caux Scholars – who would not have experienced Caux but for the support of the Silvia Zuber Fund.

So, to do all that, how much time did you spend in Caux? 

On average, we have been in Caux for three weeks, every year from 1996 to 2019.

Which people or events made a lasting impression on you?

There are so many over the years since that first visit in 1967. I was deeply struck by the passion of William Nkomo and Philip Vundla from South Africa. Also from Africa was Didacienne Mukahabeshimana who spoke of her experiences during the Rwandan genocide.

Assaad Chaftari from Lebanon, a former phalangist commanding officer, told his story alongside a Lebanese Muslim.

Kevin Rudd’s account of his decision as prime minister to publicly apologize, on behalf of the government and the country, to the Indigenous people of Australia for policies which led to the Stolen Generations, was unforgettable.

The full list is very long, but I cannot omit Philippe Mottu’s stirring account in 1996 of how Caux was acquired and why ‘Caux is the place!' had been his guiding conviction.

Thank you Andrew for sharing these memories and important moments.

I wish you a good continuation of your service for IofC in Australia and happy times with your children and grandchildren. You must be relieved to conclude your online participation in Council meetings at exotic times (because of the 10-hour time difference between Europe and Australia)!

All the best!

• Photos: Initiatives of Change