Third edition of the Servas Peace School in Georgia

Building Peace Stories: Experience Sharing
3rd Georgia Servas Peace School

By: Mehmet Ateş, founder and coordinator of the Servas Peace School Team

It happens in an unknown, remote village surrounded by beautiful hills that have provided a good living for people, animals, and plants for generations. It is a dancing village—but dancing comes only after food and water. The mountain people are resilient, with hearts as gentle as jasmine, broad smiles, and a wonderful sense of humor.

How do Servas people find their way into people's hearts? Quite easily. They travel from all over the world to villages to learn about people, appreciate differences, and share what they know about life. They bring colors into people's worlds. They touch, hug, and help transform ordinary moments into beautiful ones. Through friendship, they make the world feel a little more borderless. On the other hand, they appreciate the local beauty, cultures, ways of life, and lands.

Villagers are not often visited by outsiders. It is natural for them to be skeptical at first, just as they were when we first arrived for the Peace School in 2024. Their eyes silently asked us—volunteers from Korea, Türkiye, the Netherlands, and beyond—"Why did you come here?" We came carrying seeds in our hands and minds, searching for the right soil and the right moment to plant them. The people of Lamovani gave us that opportunity. In return, we leave the village carrying new seeds in our pockets and minds—seeds of ideas, friendships, and hope.

Soon, people from neighboring villages heard about the Peace School and joined us. Children and young people discovered that life in rural areas could be filled with new activities, new colors, and friendships with people from different parts of the world. We realized once again that it is people—not villages, towns, or regions—who make life beautiful.

Connections between villages became stronger through the children. Children remove borders. They connect everything with everything.

Khachapuri and khinkali, wine and chacha—these are the joys of life and the pride of the people.

Strangers remind us that there are many different ways to live on Earth, while local people remind us of the strength of close-knit communities and the values that much of the modern world has forgotten. When these two worlds meet, they create a rich exchange of experiences, emotions, ideas, and positive surprises. Servas and Servas Peace Schools make these encounters possible.

Travelers question their lives, their ideas, and the paths they are following. Servas travelers and Peace School volunteers go even deeper because they share the homes of local people and build meaningful relationships through countless opportunities for exchange. What seems like wealth can become poverty, and what appears to be poverty can reveal unexpected richness. At the same time, local people welcome new colors into their gardens while rediscovering the invisible flowers and diversity that have always existed there.

Bobo, 12, said, "We are like chickens surrounded by borders. We are not free. So it is normal that we keep chickens in cages." After an energetic chasing game that the children absolutely loved, we asked a simple question: Who is right? The owner, who feeds the chickens and collects their eggs? Or the chickens, who constantly try to escape? The discussion that followed was endless, thoughtful, and entirely led by the children.

Foreign volunteers come to your school and paint flowers on the walls with you. Why do they do this? Why not? Sometimes creating beauty and breaking routines is surprisingly simple. Volunteers do it not only for the children but also for themselves. They, too, step outside their routines and experience the joy of creating something meaningful together.

Lily, 10, said, "Peace School is different because we have fun, and there is no homework or punishment. I hate my own school." Annarosa gently asked, "How could we turn your school into a Peace School?" Lily's expression suggested that she believed it was impossible.

Games melt the toughest ice. They bring bodies, minds, and eyes closer together. They make people talk, laugh, discuss, negotiate, disagree, compromise, and accept one another. Games are the remedy for distance.

Servas Peace School takes games very seriously, and the rewards come quickly. Parents who had been sitting quietly and separately under a linden tree in the school garden suddenly became excited when they saw the Mikado sticks. They began to play, talk, shout, tease one another, sometimes even cheat, and laugh just as they had when they were children. This is often the turning point at the beginning of a friendship.

Meanwhile, children play active games while naturally learning to cooperate and socialize. Games are little miracles. Don't you think so?

Why do games become less important as people's level of education increases? Why are streets, nature, and gardens gradually taken away from children? Servas Peace School is, in many ways, a movement back to the best parts of the past—bringing together the people of the world through play, curiosity, and shared human experiences.

Games, working together, facing challenges, cooking, eating, and dancing create strong friendships and inspire people to do more together. This is exactly what happens among the Servas volunteers—Franca, Loriana, Lorenzo, Tamara, Vitt, Fatma, and me. Our desire to create more and dream bigger grows every day, and new plans for the future naturally emerge.

Together with the local organizers—Teacher Gaga, Professor Levoni, enthusiastic young volunteers, and devoted parents—Georgia Servas Peace School has been growing consistently. Every year it becomes stronger, richer, and more deeply rooted in the community.

During and after each Servas Peace School, volunteers feel inspired to do more, change more, and create more—not only with children, but also with parents and young people. Servas people change while they are trying to bring about change. Servas Peace School does not simply talk about peace—it practices peace.

Perhaps it is time for all of us, in Servas and beyond, to spend less time talking about peace and more time creating it.

დიდი მადლობა, ლამოვანის ხალხო! დიდი მადლობა, საოცარო და გიჟო ბავშვებო! 💚

Didi madloba, Lamovanis khalkho! Didi madloba, saotsaro da gizho bavshvebo!

Thank you, people of Lamovani. Thank you, wonderful, crazy kids.

Mehmet Ateş