“Coexisthink”

Description of the tool

The activity is run according to six phases:
1st: Energizer
2nd: Wise man speech
Introductory activity. It starts with “stop thinking”, it’s a moment in which participants are invited to, literally, stop thinking, not to let any thought get inside their brains. They close their eyes while a soft and slow music is played in the room. It lasts three minutes.
With their eyes kept closed, the participants listen to one of the trainers talking about what thinking is and evolution of thought”.
3rd: Exhibition
Wall exhibition on main thinkers of the three monotheistic religions, promotion for freedom of thought, belief …etc. The participants are invited to go through the exhibition and learn. A Questionnaire can be as well used.
4th: Table activity
“Theatre forum” activity, consists on a conflict situation to be solved by participants. 5 members of a family (mother, father, grandpa, grandmother and little daughter) are seated talking about the kind of education they should give to their little daughter of 15 years old, to which school she should go after primary school… etc.
The peculiar thing here is that each member of the family has a different religious belief: Father is atheistic, mother is Jew, grandfather is Muslim, grandmother is Christian and the daughter doesn’t know. She just wants to be with her friends.
The first 5 minutes of discussion are introduced by the trainers generating the conflict, establishing each personality and, after that, with a clap of hands every 5 minutes, each participant, one by one, takes the role of the one character he chooses.
The aim is to discuss about the issue of education in the three cultures and to see different points of view trying to confront and manage the conflicts between religions.
5th: Group activity “Building the city of Jerusalem”
The participants are split into three different groups according to religions: Muslims, Jews and Christians.
They are using papers, glue, scissors, markers, carton to make little constructions (houses, churches, synagogues, schools, Mosques, playgrounds…) On the floor lies a big carton where they are asked to place their achieved constructions (four big cartons together with another one placed in the centre, above the others).
After 25-30 min. all the groups gather together and one group starts placing their buildings wherever they want (but always inside the carton in the middle) till they finish. Then the next group makes the same and finally the third one. Soon they realize they don’t have enough space to place everything they’ve built, but they have to put them inside anyway.
They can negotiate with other groups, place things above others or even “destroy” constructions to place theirs. After all buildings are placed inside the carton, trainers put a simulated wall made of paper around the “city” and a debriefing starts (all together) to analyse how was the process of construction, negotiations, conflicts between cultures, feelings etc…
The trainers decide which group starts placing their buildings.
6th: Evaluation activity “Pizza”
Finally the activity is evaluated by the participants using a simple method. A carton circle divided in six parts, one for each part of the activity: energizer, wise man speech, exhibition, table activity, group activity and the pizza itself. It is placed on the floor and each participant puts a personal mark to state how he/she evaluates it.
The lowest evaluations are located at the middle of the pizza and the best at the extreme.