For this year’s International Youth Day on August 12^th, we caught up with Sohini Jana – an alumna of the KAICIID International Fellows Programme, Director of the Jammu and Kashmir Policy Institute in India and a co-founder of the Online Circle of Compassion. An impressive and inspiring young person, Sohini is facilitating dialogue across communities at the local and global levels.

A trained conflict analyst and mindfulness practitioner, Sohini has worked in conflict-prone areas in Bengal, India, helping tribal communities improve inter-community relations through interreligious and intercultural dialogue. In the course of her work with religious leaders and journalists, Sohini developed specific recommendations for building more constructive engagement and cooperation between the media and religious leaders, which she later applied to her work in sharing information during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“My work has been about healing community wounds in trauma, particularly between the Hindu and Muslim communities in India where the scars of partition still live on silently transmitted across generations to shape our experience of coexistence”, Sohini said.

Currently Sohini works in Jammu and Kashmir and mentors youth to manage stress and build emotional resilience. As a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, last year in the team of dialogue enthusiasts from 17 countries, she founded a Zoom-based support group for youth named the Online Circle of Compassion. Seventy-one young people from all over the world attended the first session and found space for continuous support and encouragement in times of crisis.

“Our participants have given us all sorts of testimonies, so for some it has been an exercise in learning how to express their concerns, receive support and understand that their feelings matter. For some, it has been about making brilliant friends and building community through compassion”, Sohini said.

The online support for youth takes place every week, in different languages, and serves as a safe space for discussing issues related to youth wellbeing, stress, mental health, relationships, inner dialogue, gender justice and many more. Those who are interested in  joining the group can learn more here.  

All the work and projects carried out by our guest Sohini have become a reflection of the principles that she stands for and the ideals that shape her life’s journey. Listen to the podcast and learn more about Sohini’s experience of using dialogue and mindful communication to generate a positive change in her immediate environment and worldwide.

Listen to the podcast here.

To commemorate World Refugee Day, for this episode of “On Dialogue” we spoke with Hayat Amiree, a refugee from Afghanistan who is living in New Delhi, India. Hayat is a peace and conflict resolution trainer, a TEDx speaker and a trainer of the joint KAICIID and the World Organization of the Scout Movement Dialogue for Peace programme. As a dialogue and non-violence activist, Hayat has trained 3,000 young people in conflict resolution and helped improve their skills for finding peaceful ways to resolve conflict.   

Born during the civil war in the Parwan province of Afghanistan, the 28-year-old has been a refugee for most of his life. His family was forced to flee the country in 1999 and to relocate to the refugee camp in Karachi, Pakistan.

“When people ask me about my childhood and ask one good thing I remember about life back then, I always have to pause and think about it,” Hayat said. “All I remember is how people begged for food, how we walked for months and years to travel from one country to the other. All I remember is how we suffered during the civil war in Afghanistan.”

Despite the hardships and challenges (including being forbidden to attend school by his parents) Hayat managed to get an education. He later received a scholarship to study in India, where he was able to develop a career as a peace trainer and support his family. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put his plans for work and personal development on hold, compounding his already precarious life as a refugee.

“Before COVID-19, I was very hopeful. Although the challenges were still there, I had drafted a plan of how many people I would impact in the next 12 months. The moment the COVID-19 halted our lives, things changed.”

Though his career, personal development and refugee application in Canada are on hold, Hayat is determined to continue fostering a positive change in the people around him.

“I'm not changing the world, I'm inspiring my surroundings”, he said.

The podcast follows Hayat’s past, present and future aspirations and sheds light on the challenges refugees face while living, studying, and looking for work in the country of settlement. Listen and subscribe below.

Listen to the podcast here.