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Archive for category: News

Journeys

Journeys: The Heart of GCJ

 

bustogether

Each GCJ journey is a multilayered experience in cross-cultural communication, leadership development and community service. Participants discover new ways of thinking and living and learn to see the uniqueness of their own cultural gifts through the eyes of others.

Our destinations are on the road less taken. Part of our mission is to shed light on areas and issues that are not well understood in the U.S., enabling voices largely unknown outside their borders to be heard.

How Does a GCJ Journey Work?

GCJ Journeys are designed to form lasting bonds between delegates and the host country. Each phase of the experience is equally important, from planning for the journey to the spin-off projects that stem from individual delegates’ passion.

Before the Journey

Roughly 15 U.S. delegates are chosen to travel, live and work for 2.5 to three weeks with the same number of local and regional delegates. Participants represent a diverse mix of religions, ethnicity, gender, ages, socio-economic levels, lifestyles and professions. The planning and leadership roles are shared between the host country organizing the group and the U.S. organizing group, the result is that when the time comes to step onto the plane, delegates are excited to meet their new friends with whom they’ve already developed a rapport.

The Journey

Participants are housed in the host village, sharing meals and getting to know the local families, working daily on a community service project which is identified and organized by the host community. The project might be planting trees, wetland restoration, building homes or a community building, such as the library built in Nigeria in 2005.

townhall

Delegates also participate in daily workshops and dialogues to promote cross-cultural communication, conflict resolution and compassionate listening skills, leadership development and environmental awareness. (Read an overview of GCJ circles and workshops).

Additional activities to enhance learning and understanding include music, crafts and art, recreation, visits with local dignitaries, side trips to cultural sites, and the sharing of participants’ native music, holidays and favorite foods. We work with the local community to host a Town Hall meeting using World Cafe and Open Space processes, inviting 50 to 150 local residents to join in dialogue about their issues and ways to create a vision for their desired future.

After the Journey

Upon their return, many of our delegates stay in contact with the friends they’ve made and keep working on the issues they care about. Check out the Ghana and Nigeria pages for an idea of some of the spin-off projects that have resulted from those journeys.

It is vital for delegates to extend the journey into our home communities by sharing their experiences and learning before, during and after the journey. Many delegates are sponsored by a group or organization. Participants without organizational sponsors develop individual plans to share their stories in other ways, ensuring that their experiences also reach a wider network.

 

Have an idea for a Journey?

Find out what it takes to be a Project Director or an International Host.

Past Journeys:

Niger Delta
Ghana

GCJ Partners:

Nigeria

Burundi

Ghana

Liberia

February 24, 2007/by Susan Partnow

News and Links

Newsworthy Events

Oporoza, the site of our Nigeria Journey, suffered an attack in 2008 and fortunately the library was left unharmed. For more information and updates, follow these links to articles and interviews with Mary Ella Kebulsek and Joel Bisina. Look for mp3 files to hear the interviews.  These websites are also following the events in the Niger Delta closely:

www.stakeholderdemocracy.org

www.sweetcrudemovie.com

Earthbeat Radio: The True Cost of Oil

Voice of America News: Yar’Adua, Militants Trade Feelers for Niger Delta Amnesty

Voice of America News: Mounting Niger Delta Tensions Fuel Calls for Ceasefire

GCJ in the News

Global Citizen Journey Press Kit

November 6, 2008: The Skanner ran a story “Citizen Ambassadors Set Trip To Burundi.”

May 21, 2008: The Seattle Times ran a story “Crude Times in the Niger Delta” about the situation there, and Sandy Cioffi’s film, “Sweet Crude.”

April 1, 2008: The Ballard News Tribune ran a story “Group to help bring clean water to tiny central African nation” about our upcoming Burundi Journey.

March 30, 2008: The Bellingham Herald ran a story on Barbara Gilday’s journey to Ghana.

January 9, 2008: The Daily Guide, a prominent newspaper in Ghana, ran a story, “Hand-Washing Promoted in Schools,” which mentions GCJ and delegate Jeannie Birchall.

November 19, 2007: Prosper Ndabishuriye, the founder of Youth for a New World/JRMD, our partner organization in Burundi, was recently in the US presenting on the work that his organization is doing to help heal wounds caused by ethnic strife. Read what the Seattle Times had to say.

News From the Field

April 20, 2008: After being detained by the Nigerian State Security Services while filming in the Niger Delta, the Sweet Crude team has been returned home safely. Read more.

Take a look at the Ghana blog.

GCJ’s inaugural journey was a resounding success and the Niger Delta Friendship Library is now open for business. Check out photos and reports from our adventure.

Read the article in the Boeing Corporate Philanthropy Report (page 30). Boeing was a significant sponsor of the Nigeria 2005 journey. A group of alumni from the Nigeria 2005 journey are working to establish a microlending program to serve the women of Oporoza and surrounding communities. Read about the project.

GCJ Media Coverage

  • Read what the Seattle Times has to say about Prosper’s October visit
  • Environment, Conflict and Cooperation: Oil Firms Blamed for Niger Delta Crisis
  • Hear a radio segment on GCJ and the Niger Delta: KBCS “One World Report” 11.24.05
  • Daily Independent, Nigeria: Niger Delta Friendship Library: Oporoza’s Dividend of Peace
  • Daily Independent, Nigeria: Enduring Impact of Oporoza Library Project
  • Real Change News: Subtle Diplomacy
  • Real Change News: Diplomacy: Seattleites to Build Relationships in Oil-rich but Ravaged Nigeria
  • The Vanguard, Nigeria: Americans Break Wall of Jericho between Ijaw, Itsekiri
  • KOMO 1000 Radio News: Peace Group to Accomplish Volumes…Literally 
  • Magnolia News / Queen Anne News: Grassroots Group Seeks World Change
  • Everett Herald: Women Go on a Mission of Peace
  • Spiral Dynamics Newsletter: A Library, a Bridge to Peace
  • Evergreen Monthly: Evergreen Citizen Susan Partnow – Mercury Uprising: Healing Global Hotspots
  • Seattle PI: Around the Sound: Giving
  • South Whidbey Record: He Gives Them a Voice
  • North Seattle Herald-Outlook: Bridging the Cultural Divide
  • Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Newsletter: New Nonprofit Global Citizen Journey Builds Global Neighborhoods

Catch up on past issues of our newsletter

August 2010

March 2010

October/November 2009

August 2008

July 2008

April 2008

December 2007

August 2007

February 2007

November 2006

July 2006

April 2006

January 2006

November 2005

October 2005

September 2005

August 2005

June 2005

Learn more about oil issues in the Niger Delta

NPR series on the Niger Delta

NPR’s Steve Inskeep spent two weeks in the Niger Delta, destination of the GCJ 2005 delegation, and broadcast a series of stories focused on oil production and its ramifications. If you missed them on the radio, they are posted online along with many photographs and special web features.

More articles

  • Blood and Oil – NY Times editorial 4.16.06
  • Strangers in the Dazzling Night: A Mix of Oil and Misery – NY Times 12.9.05
  • Oil and Corporate Recklessness in Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region by Joel Bisina, GCJ Nigeria 2005 Host Country Director
  • Why Women are at War with Chevron: Nigerian Subsistence Struggles Against the International Oil Industry
  • Legal Action to Stop Nigeria Gas Flaring
  • Oporoza: Beckoning for Aid, by Tunke-Aye Bisina  

Read our news releases

  • March 2006: Grassroots Approach Makes Peace and Change in Volatile Niger Delta
  • October 2005: Puget Sound Residents Broker Peace and Partnerships in Oil-Rich Niger Delta: Grassroots Citizen Diplomacy Accomplishes What Governments Can’t or Won’t
  • March 2005: Global Citizen Journey To Build First Niger Delta Library and Bridges of Understanding

Get involved in the GCJ community!

Check out the latest Wish List for ways to help GCJ support our work and plan for future journeys.

February 12, 2007/by Susan Partnow

About Us

Building Peace — One Connection at a Time

 

Global Citizen Journey (GCJ) is a “living learning laboratory” designed to engage diverse individuals in a joint effort to bring forth a just, peaceful and sustainable global society. This effort often requires a change of mind and heart involving a shift and expansion of consciousness that is experienced through grassroots community action on a global level. Such action begins with a journey that generates knowledge and understanding, skills and first-hand real-world experience. These, in turn, inspire shifts in attitudes, values and feelings.

Journeys are carefully designed to create relationships that extend the connections between individuals, villages and organizations beyond the trips themselves. GCJ arises from the question “How can we create a culture of peace and world stewardship?” We believe the best place to start is with a simple network of grassroots connections: global citizens are in the making.

GCJ trips are journeys of discovery, where people meet heart to heart. Our delegates live and work with their host country counterparts, sharing unique cultural gifts, learning from each other and finding the joy of common human ground. Each journey involves working together to complete a project, but the heart of the trip is not the project, rather it is the human connection that comes from working together toward a common goal.

Want to learn more? Click here for GCJ’s History

February 3, 2007/by Susan Partnow

Welcome!

Who are we?

Global Citizen Journey joins hearts and hands across continents and boundaries. We are a nonprofit organization with a vision of deep, ongoing connections that build understanding and bridge cultural differences with bonds of peace.

Our Mission

Our mission is to answer the question: “How can we create a culture of peace and world stewardship?” We answer that by creating opportunities for this to happen, especially in places that are little known beyond their borders. Take a journey of discovery:

  • Become a citizen diplomat
  • Be an active peace-builder
  • Meet your global neighbors
  • Develop your leadership skills
  • Learn what’s really happening in our interconnected world from the grassroots perspective

Philosophy

GCJ fosters journeys of discovery, where people meet heart to heart. We are dedicated to BEING the change – so we the way we work together is as important to us as the work we do. We invite and treasure the energy and passion of all who join us. We aspire to work in ways that help us each learn and grow, generating new ideas, choice-creating, and transformative – passion, joy, and interconnectedness are guiding principles.

As a delegate, you’ll live and work with your host country or community counterparts, sharing your unique cultural gifts, learning from each other and finding the joy of common human ground. Together, you’ll complete a community service project and you’ll take part in dynamic workshops on compassionate listening, conflict resolution and other topics to promote cross-cultural communication and leadership development. As a GCJ sponsor or volunteer, you’ll be actively involved in the planning, the learning and the stories that emerge.

Our next international Journey is emerging for India 2017. Other Journeys will emerge as dynamic new volunteer Project Directors step forward (perhaps you?!). As global citizens it is important to “Think globally… act locally.”

January 31, 2007/by Susan Partnow
News

Workspace

This is a private workspace for GCJ. You may post documents here, and then use the discussion pages to post revisions, etc.

January 30, 2007/by Susan Partnow
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