Drive For Peace Archive

Drive for Peace volunteers have enged in projects all over the world working with vulnerable children and adults in a wide variety of asetting from schools, to deserts, to street corners and football stadiums. Much of this work has been unfunded and many volunteers have put in their own money as well as their time. See below for details of past projects.

In 2014 Drive for Peace worked with Orang Asli(aboriginal) children in Malaysia. These children have been suffering recently from lack of resources including running water, electricity and access to education. In addition many villagers have been cut off due to landslides and flooding. Drive for Peace used a creative storytelling project to engage with the young people exploring and sharing their histories and ancient cultural practices. The groups then explored how old practices could be used with new, fusing together the ancient and modern.

In 2013 Drive for Peace worked with Street Children in Romania called the 'Railway Boys'. These chidlren lived in the railway station at Brasov. We used theatre, games, mask-making and performance to explore their lives on the streets and how they might be able to access accommodation and jobs for themselves.

The Railway Boys were not just boys but had a few girls in their ranks too. Despite their tough and difficult lives, the children engaged well within the project and we were able to help several of them into work and housing. To date many of the Railway Boys still live in and around the station in Brasov.

In 2013 Drive for Peace worked with two small groups of street children in Rio (Brazil) utilsing theatre and storytelling techniques. Many children live on the streets in Brazil, estimates include sevral million. here are many reasons including death of parents, drug misuse, AIDS and poverty. We engaged the young people in an attempt to explore paths out of glue sniffing and drug misuse with the possibility of living life out of the city and in to the amazon or countryside.

In 2012 Drive for Peace volunteers toured Zambia working with street children. We engaged with these children in Lusaka and Kitwe utilising a range of creative story telling, theatre, sports, and qualitative interviews. Many of the children we worked with lived close to open sewers and suffered from malnutrition, lack of education, disease and poverty. We explored with them how their lives could be improved; without exception they wanted to go to school and have a roof over the heads. We worked with a few local charities to assist in this process.

In 2012 Drive for Peace linked up with Actionwork to help tour the National Anti Bullying Roadshow across the UK, Isle of Man, Italy and Malaysia. This award-winning production has succesfully toured to thousands of schools across the UK and many countrie abroad. The shows are interactive, high energy, fun, educational and accessible.

The Anti Bullying Roadshow is an annual event in which Drive for Peace volunteers have provided assistance with. All shows are complimented and followed up with creative workshops where the students get to explore and examine the issues of bullying and how to deal with it in more detail. Time is also given for practical sessions where students can try out strategies in real time with out fear of retribution or ridicule.

In 2011 Drive for Peace embarked on a major overland tour to Mongolia to work with street children in Ulaan Bataar and with a small school in Siberia (Russia). This 4-month tour saw us drive 24,000 miles through 12 countries. Once in Mongolia we worked alongside an Ulan Bataar based children's charity and escorted 20 street children to the edges of the gobi desert where we ran creative activities including, theatre and performance, sports, craft, games, dance and storytelling. We assisted in the development of the children's confidence, empowerment, schooling and withfinding ways out of alcohol dependancy.