In September, Rosa Hopkins took part as a facilitator in her first Journey of Understanding (JoU) programme, accompanying 16 Israelis and Palestinians to Turkey for a two-week workshop. During these two-weeks she would aid in the facilitation of intense group discussions and activities, challenging the participants perceptions of one another, as well as their understandings of truth, dignity, morality, and justice.

Beyond her work with Encompass, Rosa works for an organisation called Aik Saath. Translated as “Together as One” in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, the mission of Aik Saath is to work with people from all communities, faiths and backgrounds to promote and encourage conflict resolution and community cohesion through training, campaigns and projects. Rosa also has a Masters in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford. 

Last month, I caught up with Rosa to find out a little bit more about her role in this year’s JoU programme, as well as her learnings and highlights from the trip: 

“The aim of the Journey of Understanding programme is to break down barriers and stereotypes and also, for me, was about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. For a lot of the participants it was the first time that they’d met someone from the ‘other side’ and so they all came with their pre-existing ideas so it was just about challenging those ideas and putting a human face on the conflict. A lot of it was about bringing people together and working out what we actually do have in common. There were a lot of differences and a lot of difficult conversations but at the heart of it, it was about engaging in dialogue that brings people together”. 

As a facilitator, Rosa was involved in the pre-planning of discussions and activities, deciding on what topics were to be addressed and how. Working with co-facilitator Tareq Jarred, this process was fluid and flexible as ideas were exchanged and merged. This process remained fluid throughout the programme, with plans being adjusted and moulded to the participants needs. While other facilitators addressed topics directly relating to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Rosa’s role was to generate discussions on topics encouraging participants to question their own identities and values: 

“One of the first things we did was about identity and I think that’s so important in everything we do. To be confident in our own identities and to talk about where we can express them. It brought the participants together in a lot of different ways. We also did a discussion on values and it was clear that some of the participants from the same side actually had different ideas, whereas cross-border values struck across a couple of people. It was also really important in terms of building trust between the participants… We wanted to make sure that they were comfortable in sharing their view but it took us a while to get to that point.”

As a new member of the JoU team, the workshop was also a learning experience for Rosa as she was confronted with the complexities of the conflict: 

“I was working with Tareq and I was supposed to be mentoring him as he’s a facilitator in training but honestly I would say that I learnt so much from him about the conflict and about his experiences, but also how to facilitate a group in that context, the places where to push a bit more and also the importance of silence… The silence is uncomfortable but actually you can see that they’re thinking and sometimes people say something after a while, sometimes they don’t, and that’s fine. That’s something that I really learnt from the experience. I also learnt a lot about the conflict, everyone knows how complicated it is and this kind of just enforced how much more I want to learn and want to know.” 

While the two-week JoU workshop may have come to a close, the participant’s journey, as well as Rosa’s, is far from over. Following the programme, Rosa, alongside the other facilitators and coordinators, got to work writing up a report, while participants started to think about how they could share their experiences and learnings with their community through awareness-raising initiatives: 

“After the programme we write up a report where we get across our learning points and get the reflections of the participants as well. We have our own thoughts about how the programme went but it’s also vital to get the participants input as well.” 

“Once returning home, the idea is that the participants will have the opportunity and will be encouraged to carry on the work in their communities. A couple of the Palestinians living in Israel have an idea for an NGO and they approached us as a facilitation team on the last day to ask about the best way to get that set up. So I think that’s something really positive that’s come from it. We’re going to see that we can support them in as many ways as possible.” 

“The facilitators that have been part of the project before said that the programme doesn’t end after the two-weeks in a sense that a lot of reflection happens afterwards. Some participants said they were nervous about returning home and telling people they did this but have said that they’ve started to open up and tell people about what they learnt from the other participants. They‘ve met these other people now and shared their lived experiences which they can now pass this on to other people in the community.”