Keeping peace alive.

SHEHNAZ CASSIM, Joey Hasson and Junaid Moosa are sitting on the same couch and are jumping in on each other in their eagerness to tell me about Keeping Peace Alive (KPA). They each have their own idea of what it is and they find that amusing. 'Difference isn't bad in itself,' says Hasson, 'the problem is the approach you have towards it. Some people tried to control differences in South Africa, and they created apartheid.'

The project promotes dialogue between teenagers from different backgrounds in Cape Town, South Africa. KPA leaders come from different backgrounds themselves; Cassim and Moosa are Muslim and Hasson is Jewish. Although they do not take the solution of the world's problems for granted, they prefer 'to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem'.

They organised their first camp in May 2004 in Hermanus, a seaside village near Cape Town. 'Our mission was to create a space for young people to engage with each other and explain their religion, so as to increase understanding,' says Moosa.

Once the participants had gathered, the organisers invited them to create their own rules, taking into account different needs, 'They had to take responsibility for their own decisions and this made them realise that some of them had specific praying times, or were vegetarian or that they celebrated Shabbat,' says Cassim. As the participants were between 13 and 16 years old they also had to decide which spaces were for boys and which were for girls and at what time the lights had to go off. At the end of the camp a Christian girl said: 'Despite what my parents told me before, I realised that Muslims and Jews are normal people.'

The second camp took place in June 2005 and dealt with such issues as freedom and the new South Africa. The three leaders of KPA feel fortunate to live in South Africa today. 'Since 1994 everyone has the concept that we are living a new beginning where everyone has a place,' says Hasson. 'However, while the constitution promises a roof over everyone's head, we're very far from that; 40 per cent of South Africans are unemployed. We also have problems with education and a recent UN survey has shown that we have the highest rate of AIDS in the world.'

At future summer camps they want to educate teenagers about different issues that cause division, such as socio-economical position, race or sexuality. Their mission is to capture young people's imagination so that when they go back to their homes, they bring new ideas and perspectives about the world they live in.

EDITED BY ANDREA CABRERA LUNA