LAHORE: The five-day youth conference, organized by Formation Awareness and Community Empowerment Society (FACES), aims to target students of college and university ages, to bridge cultural and religious differences among communities, and nations.
The students were from Afghanistan, Peshawar and Lahore institutes. Indian students had been invited but did not get visas so they could not be present for the conference.
Though the session consisted of experience sharing among students, the highlight was a lecture given by Dr Bernadette Peters who spoke about conflict, its management and its resolution.
Conflict, she stated, was present in four major forms: intrapersonal, interpersonal, inter-group and international, while responding to these conflicts was what determined whether the resolution could prove to be constructive of destructive.
“Conflict resolution is significant for a democratic society, since expression and freedom came from being able to accommodate differences of opinions while attempting to positively solve the conflicts gave way to growth,” she said.
Dr Peters gave some exercises to the students to build their analytical power for conflict situations, and also told them to come up with resolutions. The conference will last till November 26, 2010, including a tour and cultural night set aside especially for foreign students. The Bishop of Lahore also gave a message of solidarity and peace on the occasion.
Other guests include Dr Theresa Chaudhry (Lahore School of Economics), Dr Martin Axmann (Hans Seidel Foundation), Dr Moiz Amjad.
