Parents and kids pose for a photo at Joglo parents’ meeting. Photo by Tito
Building a culture of justice and peace is not an add-on at Joglo Preschool Rumah Damai (Peace Place) Pati, but an important
foundation for character building from an early age. Violence has a devastating impact on well-being, education and overall development. Many adults have experienced violence as children. Seeing these regenerating acts of violence, the commitment to stop violence starting with oneself becomes a strong motivation to do so.
Joglo Preschool set out to build an educational setting that embraces children and families with awareness of and respect for diversity in an effort to help families overcome violence within themselves, their families, and their communities. We work for this change through training in Alternatives to Violence, trauma recovery, the power of kindness, and parenting and early childhood activities to stop violence and create a just and peaceful society. The change is felt by the families, and by the therapists who assist them.
We focus on establishing active communication with parents and families. This is done by daily practice and also in Parenting group sessions. The materials we use are based on the Creating Culture of Justice and Peace (CCJP), developmental stages and Re-evaluation Counseling materials. At the end of the semester, we met to practice good companion groups. Each group chose one of the following topics:
- How do I experience transforming power in private and public life?
- What distresses do I need to notice, learn from, and discharge?
- How do love and conscience shape and guide my life?
At first some parents said “Please others, I can’t speak”, but after being in a group of 4 people, speaking in shifts of 5 minutes each, they even found it hard to stop. Even fathers, who are sometimes considered indifferent to their children, are very close to their children and pay attention to their development and try to support them. Emotional flow and grounding were done in between activities, and also in each group as needed. Two parents shared the following.
Kristiana: I am very happy with this activity. I felt heard and felt how love and conscience guided me to understand my son. He had a hard time conveying his thoughts. Now I am more gentle and make my child able to convey what he wants or reject what he does not want. The changes that happened to me brought changes to my child’s development. I am grateful, accepting, and recognizing his abilities.
Eko: I am very grateful to join Joglo. I feel we, as a family, are accepted, loved, and empowered. My grandson has a speech delay and my daughter, Dita (his mom), is speech impaired. Every day Dita takes him to school. Once home, using sign language, Dita tells me about the activities she does such as joining the children in the circle, helping the children prepare toys, and communicating with the children and the teacher using sign language. She felt happy to be involved. And I see that Dita is more confident and enthusiastic.
“Love, integrity, and compassionate justice orient people to this gift of life”. Nadine Hoover.
Practicing the Companion Groups session at the Joglo parents’ meeting.