"It’s not time for another Revolution but rather Evolution.....evolution of humanity,
of our thoughts, our actions & deeds! And Paigaam is a step in that direction."
-Ufra Mir
UFRA MIR
Founding Executive Director, Chairperson, Peace-psychologist
Ufra Mir,
Founding Exec. Director
BACKGROUND
Ufra Mir, a peace-psychologist, social entrepreneur, peace scholar-activist, and a passionate positive changemaker, is a graduate of Luther College (USA) and the University of Nottingham (UK) with her double degree in Psychology and Mental Health-Wellness. She also holds a Diploma in Leadership Development from the Swedish Institute where she was selected as one of the 30 fellows from different countries in 2013. Originally from Kashmir, her experiences in and passion for positive peacebuilding & human rights, led her to formally redefine & pursue the field of peace-psychology along with founding Paigaam: A Message for Peace, Inc. on this concept. She is currently the youngest, and first and only peace-psychologist in the world and South-Asia, respectively. A review of her credentials will confirm that she has served as a successful leader, coordinator, mediator, facilitator, and volunteer. Currently she works as the Founding Executive Director, peace psychologist, and a certified peace-education trainer for Paigaam. Her main area of interest is working with young people in the context of peace-psychology, peacebuilding, empowerment, leadership, human rights and other social justice issues.
Born and brought up in one of the most conflicted regions of the world, Indian-Kashmir, she always yearned for positive peacebuilding, peaceful co-existence and respect for human rights especially for youth. It is essential but hard to make a positive difference in a place that is marred by extreme violence; innocent Kashmiri youth are constantly facing numerous atrocities and brutalities. But living in different multiethnic regions of the world including India, USA and UK strengthened her belief that understanding and acceptance of human rights and peace can create a wider space bringing people especially, youth together to work for the common good. The time that she spent at her peace-based high school in India (the United World College of India) gave a new dimension to her experiences of being a Kashmiri adolescent who constantly had to deal with the brutal consequences of living in a violent society. It helped her to change her fears into opportunities and struggles into passion to strive for a better peaceful future, not just for herself but for others too. Thus, it became her lifelong dream to work for the emancipation and empowerment of young people who lived in similar violent environments as her, facing atrocities and brutalities as a part of their daily lives.
Hence, using her own struggle and experiences, she developed an education based youth-health peace initiative over the past four years. This was designed to offer various peacebuilding skills and training-workshops to Kashmiri youth in order to empower them emotionally, socially and psychologically. Paigaam grew out of this initiative and is a growing international nonprofit today. Currently Ufra Mir is also incorporating eclectic peace-education programs in some schools in the Kashmir valley, redefining the traditional educational system there; and hopes to start the program in some colleges too including Luther College in USA.
SOME OF HER ACHIEVEMENTS
-The first Kashmiri to attend a UWC
-The first and only Kashmiri/South Asian to be a professional peace-psychologist and the youngest in the world from her field
-The first Kashmiri to get selected for the Swedish Institute Young Connectors for Future Fellowship
-Ms. Mir has been nominated for a few awards including ACR International Outstanding Leadership Award (Association for Conflict Resolution, Virginia, USA, 2014), El Hibri Peace Education Prize (Nonviolence International, Washington DC, USA, 2012) and Hawkinson Peace & Justice Scholarship Award (the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace & Justice, Minneapolis, USA, 2012).
While at Luther college, Ufra Mir also found an international dance organization called Ethnic Beats with its emphasis on promoting peace and diversity through intercultural dances. In June 2011, she volunteered at the former American President Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative America conference in Chicago after having participated in Clinton Global Initiative University conference in San Diego in April 2011. Furthermore, at Luther College, she was a part of various peace-promoting groups including being the facilitator of the interfaith initiative called Journey Conversations. Dr. Eboo Patel (Founder of Interfaith Youth Core) had helped to initiate it; she also produced and directed a promotional video for this initiative. Additionally, she had an opportunity to meet with Dr. Eboo Patel as she introduced him at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Luther College in March 2011 as well as the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Shirin Ebadi. Seeing their efforts for human rights, youth-work and democracy really inspired her to continue working for peace and other social justice issues. Ms. Mir also did a presentation and a peace-workshop at the 24th Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis. She has presented Kashmir, Paigaam and her research work on Kashmir-conflict at many international forums including the Nobel Peace Prize Forum (USA, March 2011 & 2012) and the National Campaign for the US Department of Peace (Boston, USA, 2007).
At present, Ms. Mir is expanding Paigaam's work to different parts of India, having successfully incorporated peace-education at a few schools in Kashmir, India.
HER TAKE ON PEACE
"I believe it is the inner peace which is the purest, most sustainable form of peace, and without it, the outer socio-political peace does not sustain. Some people think that achieving peace means to be in a place where there is no chaos, no stress; while its the opposite of that in reality: peace means to be calm, strong and still inside even when you are in chaos, disorder and stress. However, both our outer and inner peace and conflicts affect each other. Hence, while the outer/political conflict causes obvious physical harm and diseases including increasing rate of cardiac problems and cancer, it also causes many psychological issues such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, increasing rate in suicide and so on. Furthermore, in wellness, all the aspects of health (social, mental, emotional, occupational, etc) are interdependent and the awareness of the importance of mental health is very rare in most of the conflicted regions today. And while the outer-political peace at times feels only like a dream for people in conflicted regions, we could instead start with our inner freedom/peace; meaning, targeting our daily conflicts/stress and starting our healing process at interpersonal level, empowering ourselves with sustainable skills and stress management techniques, to deal with the ramifications of living in a conflicted region. This way, we start with peace at interpersonal level and the process in turns transforms us and leads us in the journey of achieving outer peace. This understanding of peace and conflict is the basis of Paigaam's peacebuilding and peacemaking strategies. My personal experiences as a Kashmiri made me realize that there is a great need for mental health awareness in Kashmir for the overall wellness of people. Unfortunately, people there don’t yet understand the importance of mental health or inner peace- what is seen physically is considered important, what remains unseen, is not given any/much importance which has led to a great increase in suicide rates, teenage depression, drug-addiction, and many other psychological disorders. Hence, Paigaam’s chapter in Kashmir is very much dedicated in taking effective steps in the mental health field which is important for the healing process. This realization is what led me to create the field of peace-psychology or redefine it according to today's needs, pursuing it in a formal professional way; being the youngest , and first and only peace-psychologist in the world and South-Asia, respectively ."
More on Peace-psychology
http://www.peace.ca/peacepsychology.htm
Ufra Mir, a peace-psychologist, social entrepreneur, peace scholar-activist, and a passionate positive changemaker, is a graduate of Luther College (USA) and the University of Nottingham (UK) with her double degree in Psychology and Mental Health-Wellness. She also holds a Diploma in Leadership Development from the Swedish Institute where she was selected as one of the 30 fellows from different countries in 2013. Originally from Kashmir, her experiences in and passion for positive peacebuilding & human rights, led her to formally redefine & pursue the field of peace-psychology along with founding Paigaam: A Message for Peace, Inc. on this concept. She is currently the youngest, and first and only peace-psychologist in the world and South-Asia, respectively. A review of her credentials will confirm that she has served as a successful leader, coordinator, mediator, facilitator, and volunteer. Currently she works as the Founding Executive Director, peace psychologist, and a certified peace-education trainer for Paigaam. Her main area of interest is working with young people in the context of peace-psychology, peacebuilding, empowerment, leadership, human rights and other social justice issues.
Born and brought up in one of the most conflicted regions of the world, Indian-Kashmir, she always yearned for positive peacebuilding, peaceful co-existence and respect for human rights especially for youth. It is essential but hard to make a positive difference in a place that is marred by extreme violence; innocent Kashmiri youth are constantly facing numerous atrocities and brutalities. But living in different multiethnic regions of the world including India, USA and UK strengthened her belief that understanding and acceptance of human rights and peace can create a wider space bringing people especially, youth together to work for the common good. The time that she spent at her peace-based high school in India (the United World College of India) gave a new dimension to her experiences of being a Kashmiri adolescent who constantly had to deal with the brutal consequences of living in a violent society. It helped her to change her fears into opportunities and struggles into passion to strive for a better peaceful future, not just for herself but for others too. Thus, it became her lifelong dream to work for the emancipation and empowerment of young people who lived in similar violent environments as her, facing atrocities and brutalities as a part of their daily lives.
Hence, using her own struggle and experiences, she developed an education based youth-health peace initiative over the past four years. This was designed to offer various peacebuilding skills and training-workshops to Kashmiri youth in order to empower them emotionally, socially and psychologically. Paigaam grew out of this initiative and is a growing international nonprofit today. Currently Ufra Mir is also incorporating eclectic peace-education programs in some schools in the Kashmir valley, redefining the traditional educational system there; and hopes to start the program in some colleges too including Luther College in USA.
SOME OF HER ACHIEVEMENTS
-The first Kashmiri to attend a UWC
-The first and only Kashmiri/South Asian to be a professional peace-psychologist and the youngest in the world from her field
-The first Kashmiri to get selected for the Swedish Institute Young Connectors for Future Fellowship
-Ms. Mir has been nominated for a few awards including ACR International Outstanding Leadership Award (Association for Conflict Resolution, Virginia, USA, 2014), El Hibri Peace Education Prize (Nonviolence International, Washington DC, USA, 2012) and Hawkinson Peace & Justice Scholarship Award (the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace & Justice, Minneapolis, USA, 2012).
While at Luther college, Ufra Mir also found an international dance organization called Ethnic Beats with its emphasis on promoting peace and diversity through intercultural dances. In June 2011, she volunteered at the former American President Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative America conference in Chicago after having participated in Clinton Global Initiative University conference in San Diego in April 2011. Furthermore, at Luther College, she was a part of various peace-promoting groups including being the facilitator of the interfaith initiative called Journey Conversations. Dr. Eboo Patel (Founder of Interfaith Youth Core) had helped to initiate it; she also produced and directed a promotional video for this initiative. Additionally, she had an opportunity to meet with Dr. Eboo Patel as she introduced him at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Luther College in March 2011 as well as the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Shirin Ebadi. Seeing their efforts for human rights, youth-work and democracy really inspired her to continue working for peace and other social justice issues. Ms. Mir also did a presentation and a peace-workshop at the 24th Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis. She has presented Kashmir, Paigaam and her research work on Kashmir-conflict at many international forums including the Nobel Peace Prize Forum (USA, March 2011 & 2012) and the National Campaign for the US Department of Peace (Boston, USA, 2007).
At present, Ms. Mir is expanding Paigaam's work to different parts of India, having successfully incorporated peace-education at a few schools in Kashmir, India.
HER TAKE ON PEACE
"I believe it is the inner peace which is the purest, most sustainable form of peace, and without it, the outer socio-political peace does not sustain. Some people think that achieving peace means to be in a place where there is no chaos, no stress; while its the opposite of that in reality: peace means to be calm, strong and still inside even when you are in chaos, disorder and stress. However, both our outer and inner peace and conflicts affect each other. Hence, while the outer/political conflict causes obvious physical harm and diseases including increasing rate of cardiac problems and cancer, it also causes many psychological issues such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, increasing rate in suicide and so on. Furthermore, in wellness, all the aspects of health (social, mental, emotional, occupational, etc) are interdependent and the awareness of the importance of mental health is very rare in most of the conflicted regions today. And while the outer-political peace at times feels only like a dream for people in conflicted regions, we could instead start with our inner freedom/peace; meaning, targeting our daily conflicts/stress and starting our healing process at interpersonal level, empowering ourselves with sustainable skills and stress management techniques, to deal with the ramifications of living in a conflicted region. This way, we start with peace at interpersonal level and the process in turns transforms us and leads us in the journey of achieving outer peace. This understanding of peace and conflict is the basis of Paigaam's peacebuilding and peacemaking strategies. My personal experiences as a Kashmiri made me realize that there is a great need for mental health awareness in Kashmir for the overall wellness of people. Unfortunately, people there don’t yet understand the importance of mental health or inner peace- what is seen physically is considered important, what remains unseen, is not given any/much importance which has led to a great increase in suicide rates, teenage depression, drug-addiction, and many other psychological disorders. Hence, Paigaam’s chapter in Kashmir is very much dedicated in taking effective steps in the mental health field which is important for the healing process. This realization is what led me to create the field of peace-psychology or redefine it according to today's needs, pursuing it in a formal professional way; being the youngest , and first and only peace-psychologist in the world and South-Asia, respectively ."
More on Peace-psychology
http://www.peace.ca/peacepsychology.htm
