We at FAF believe that the best way to end the violence and despair that trauma, displacement and poverty brings is to add meaningful cultural exchange programs to humanitarian, relief, and reconciliation efforts. Our goal is to counteract such tendencies through adapting our complex cultural programming, and applying it extensively in all conflict areas of the world – both as a post-traumatic healing asset as well as a means to prevent future conflicts. Our initiatives foster sensitivity to cultural values, differences and similarities; encourage non-violent conflict resolution, creative problem solving, cooperation, volunteerism; and equip people with practical tools, skills and knowledge for creating a sustained culture of peace in their own communities.

While a number of valuable conferences and seminars exist that share the same goals – reconciliation and peace building – most, if not all, are academic or policy-oriented, and rely basically on two formats: lectures and discussions. Friendship Ambassadors Foundation, Inc. has developed programs that rely primarily on the universal language, common to all, but owned by no one: arts and culture.

Arts can play a critical role in leading groups of people towards greater understanding and healing. A wealth of studies and decades of experience have shown that the use of arts in education and therapy is one of the most

effective methods for tapping a person’s natural curiosity, fostering self-expression and self-control, and promoting pro-social behaviors and interpersonal relationships. The visual and performing arts provide a sustainable means to social progress by providing a safe environment for physical and emotional expression. Arts allow individuals to express both their uniqueness and their connection to all that is universal in humanity. They can serve as an outlet for post-traumatic stress, and a release from the recurring images of traumatic experience. They also allow for a wide spectrum of possibilities for communication, mediate across cultural boundaries and allow for the development of empathic awareness of multiple perspectives. Interactive workshops with both children and adults develop self-confidence, communication skills, teamwork, creative problem-solving and provide the tools for positive conflict resolution.

These psychosocial exercises can be immediately and effectively applied to people with emotional injury as a result of war or disaster. Artistic programs provide them with opportunities for community involvement, group cooperation and motivation, and the means to rebuild their society; they stimulate positive thinking and open minds to envision their full potential - and prepare them to tackle the challenge of rebuilding their culture and their society – the centerpiece of global development.