The Little Star team of psychologists and support staff gathered in the Turkish Mediterranean town of Kiris, near Antalya from 14^th to 22^nd October together with Louis Greig (Honorary President) and Chris Hunter (Programmes Coordinator) from Peacebuilding UK, Janet Riley from Friends’ International Library, and interpreters Ismayil Khayredinov and John Coutts.

The main task of the meeting was to create a first draft of a teacher’s training manual to assist teachers in Chechnya in using the book Power of Goodness: Stories of Nonviolence and Reconciliation in schools. Janet Riley created this book project and has worked on it with many other people from around the world for over 15 years. The stories that will form the second edition of the book can be seen on the website www.fil.quaker.org.
Peacebuilding UK has applied for funding for the printing of the second edition and the teacer’s manual. Janet was moved and delighted to see how the Little Star team have taken the project to heart and found good use for it in their work with children in Chechnya, and to see them developing it further and creating the manual for use in Chechen schools.

Having created an outline structure for the manual, the group proceeded to work on individual lesson plans for each of the 25 stories. These and other sections of the book will be finished in Chechnya by mid-November, and then edited by an educator with experience of creating curricula in the US. Little Star will review the edited version before sending the manual to print.

John Coutts has translated many of the stories in Power of Goodness, and Ismayil Khayredinov not only interpreted tirelessly throughout the meeting but made many excellent suggestions for the teacher’s manual. Louis Greig was able to hear detailed reports and stories on the present situation in Chechnya and the work of Little Star, and the psychologists very much enjoyed renewing their connection with him. We were all impressed to hear from Little Star how their training work with teachers and school psychologists in trauma counselling and psychosocial assistance workshops is developing. The Ministry of Education is increasingly making requests to Little Star to conduct such seminars to help staff to better understand and deal with psychological trauma in schools throughout Chechnya. Little Star is preparing a mobile training unit to visit all of Chechnya’s 15 regions next year, to provide three-day training seminars in each regional centre.

Everyone greatly appreciated and enjoyed the banquet that Louis arranged in a nearby restaurant on his final evening, presided over by the newly appointed Countess of Kabardino-Balkaria, Janet Riley, and of course the evening’s hostess and Little Star accountant Zargan Isaeva. Staying in a resort near the Mediterranean meant that there were excellent opportunities for well deserved relaxation. Long lunch breaks and later afternoon/ evening sessions provided several hours for swimming in the sea and sunbathing in the middle of the day. The hotel’s evening entertainment had an extra attraction for the week we were there – Chechen dancing! This complemented the Turkish dancing well and was enjoyed by our group, our Turkish hosts and Russian holidaymakers alike. The group left for home in good spirits, happy to have spent the time together and to have made so much progress in creating the teacher’s manual. The completed version will be ready for printing in early 2010.

Previous retreats have been conducted in the UK, Norway, Azerbaijan and the Crimea. The visit will also include a training component to increase and deepen the range of skills of the Little Star team. A small team of UK-based specialists has agreed to work with the Little Star psychologists during their visit to support them in the writing of a teachers’ manual to complement the book ‘Power of Goodness: Stories of Nonviolence and Reconciliation’, which Little Star has been using in its work for over a year (please see ‘Psychosocial’ page).

A substantial part of the financial support for the Little Star project comes from the UK via Peacebuilding UK. The Little Star visit to the UK will therefore also provide the valuable opportunity for such contributors to meet with the Little Star team.

Finally, the visit will enable the Little Star team to meet with Peacebuilding UK friends and trustees. The team’s visa application attempt was unsuccessful in March, but we hope that discussions with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office will lead to successful applications shortly.