Coreself session, AVP Basic 14 – 16 October 2025 at Ma’had Darussalam Lil Tadrib Al Islami di kota Tay Ninh, Vietnam.Photo’s teams.
“In being a good listener, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) showed us how he would stop and not interrupt, face the speaker, and follow the conversation with enthusiasm,” said Ismail Indah during the Affirmation in Pairs session. His words came when I asked for his opinion on how to become a good listener. It turns out that the AVP-CCP practice truly aligns with Islamic teachings, as reflected in the Prophet’s example. This was a new insight for me, as I continue to learn how to become a better listener.
This reflection took place during the Ruang Damai (Space for Peace) Workshop: Building a Culture of Peace for Teachers, held at Ma’had Darussalam Lil Tadrib Al Islami in Tay Ninh, Vietnam. It was a basic training using the AVP-CCP approach, specially designed for the community of educators among the Muslim minority. The school is a special Islamic religious institution that serves as a place of study for Cham Muslims in the Land of the Lotus. So far, it is the only officially recognized Islamic-oriented school in all of Vietnam. The Cham people number around 78,000, with several thousand living in Tay Ninh Province. As a minority, they often face challenges in practicing their faith—this is why the school welcomed our offer to hold this training.
I came to Vietnam with one intention: to learn from the strength of the Cham people as a Muslim minority in Vietnam. From that intention, I applied for a grant program from Wahid Hasyim University, where I teach International Relations. Alhamdulillah, God granted this wish—our proposal was accepted, and we departed on October 13, 2025, with two facilitators: Wahyu Arif Raharjo, a facilitator at Peace Place Pati, and Nurul Azizah, an alumna who joined as an apprentice facilitator. Both are lecturers at Wahid Hasyim University, who, thanks to Peace Place’s dedicated efforts, have learned and shared the AVP approach at Unwahas and are now bringing it to Vietnam.
Coreself : Ustad and Ustadzah Ma’had Darussalam Lil Tadrib Al Islami at Tay Ninh, Vietnam on 14 October 2025 with Arif Amal, Azizah Amanah, Linda Love from Unwahas, Semarang-Indonesia. Photo’s teams
The training was attended by 14 teachers—5 women and 9 men—from the Ma’had. In the cooperation session, participants reflected on how collaboration cannot happen without mutual understanding. They looked together at the collage of our Core-Self drawings and saw how each was different. Forcing one’s own version of truth, they realized, would only lead to problems—consensus is needed instead. They then invited one another to find personal ways to ease cooperation, building a unified and harmonious community capable of working together to solve problems.
Four languages were spoken throughout the sessions: Indonesian, Malay, Cham, and Vietnamese. Indonesian was used by the facilitators from Indonesia and understood by the teachers at the Ma’had, where the language of instruction is Malay. To ensure understanding, the local Cham language and Vietnamese were also mixed in. In spite of the linguistic diversity, the sense of connection among all participants was clearly felt—especially when they reflected together on the Core-Self posters.
Coreself, AVP Basic Workshop at Ma’had Darussalam Lil Tadrib Al Islami di kota Tay Ninh, Vietnam. Photo’s Student