peacecamp 2015

Hi, my name is Wanda, and I’m very much looking forward to meeting you all! I’m 18 years old and I live near Vienna in Austria. This is my last year of school, and after the summer my wish is to study Biotechnology at the University in Vienna. I have two older sisters who I get along with really well, and who are the ones that first told me about the Peace Camp. In my free time I love Swing dancing and cooking with friends. My favourite place in the world is probably the planetarium in Vienna; I love star- gazing. I am a huge procrastinator. I am thankful I grew up in cosy and peaceful Austria, but I know that there is more to the world. I want to go to Peace Camp because I want to learn to think outside of the box.

HeyHey! My name is Lukas. This summer will be my second time working "4peace" and I am looking forward to meet everybody, get to know the students, make music, learn to understand each other better and most of all have some fun together!
I am very, very excited and thankful to be invited again this year.
I studied classical drums(including Timpanes and instruments like the Marimbaphon, Djembe etc...), play the guitar and bass and also the piano a little bit, but when I realized I wasn´t going to become the Beatles I started to study medicine, which has become a passion equal to music and arts to me.
I will make workshops with AnnPhie, adding music, some visual Arts and maybe some juggling(if anybodyý interested).
Also we are going to play games with you as a group, to try and make you think about how problems can be solved in a community, how conflicts can develop from trying to fulfill a simple task together, and also, i have to admit, to annoy you a little bit ;-) I can´t wait for our time together in Lackenhof to start!
Peace!

Hi everybody!
I´m Alexandra Lux. We will meet in Talks4Peace and I´m really looking forward to that. I met Evelyn and Ronny many years ago through Markus (who´s also part of our team). I visited Peacecamp several times and this year is the 3rd one where I work with the group.
I´m an Austrian high school teacher for Mathematics and History and I´m both interested as well in working on the issue of finding ways of living peacefully together (with having historical developments in mind) as well as in working with students.
In previous Peacecamps I found it always very enriching to find out about different point of views from the students, getting a little insight in the challenges in their daily lives and their opinions about peace issues. It´s a gift to see how the time at Peacecamp itself and sometimes even our work there has some impact on their opinions and their lives. And I´m pretty sure that this year will be a very special experience for all of us again.
I´ll participate only part-time in Talks4Peace actively as Markus and I have our little son with us. His name is Aaron, he´s 2 years old (2 years and 4 months to be precise ;-) and it´s his 3rd Peacecamp now, too. He loves playing football, hide and seek, making fun, talking,… He´s usually a little shy in the beginning and needs time to warm up. So don´t hesitate if you´d like to play with him, just keep it rolling! Oh yes, he loves words and talking! Would be fantastic if he´d learn some words in different languages from you.
See you soon!
Alexandra
P.S. I´m already so much looking forward to your films!!!!

Thomas Stern, one of the talk4peace moderators,
hello everybody. peacecamp 2015 will be my third one, and I am really looking forward to it! I am a friend of Evelyn and Ronnie, and I like their concept of encouraging youngsters to develop their ideas of a better and more peaceful future. I am impressed by the results of past peacecamps and by the brightness, creativity and humour of the participants. Working with them, discussing, playing and brainstorming with them is fun for me and my teammates. How can we make the world a better place, more democratic, more just and equitable, more peaceful? I think society should enable everybody to develop his or her talents and live without fear and aggression. It is frustrating for me to see so many political conflicts that make people suffer but could be solved with a bit of good will and ingenuity, especially in the Middle East. I am critical of both Israeli and Palestinian politics.
I was born and live in Vienna. I am an ex-teacher of maths, physics and politics and now I work at a university in educational research and teacher training. My passion is listening to music, reading literature and travelling, meeting people and getting to know and understand different cultures, outlooks and perspectives …. And I am always eager to make new friends, why not in Lackenhof this summer?

My name is Liz Vanun and I am an English teacher at Carmel Zvulun Regional High School, which is situated near Haifa, in Kibbutz Yagur. I was born in Amsterdam, Holland and moved to Israel when I was twenty years old. Though I have lived in Israel ever since, I have had the opportunity to spend time in many other countries; I love to travel, meet new people and their culture. Israel, being a melting pot of so many different cultures, is therefore the perfect place for me.
I am both honored and excited about having been given the opportunity to be part of a delegation that represents our country in such a wonderful and important program. I strongly believe that meeting each other, exchanging different, and often opposite views, are essential in the attempt to get a better understanding of each other. It is not enough to talk about peace; actual steps must be taken to attain what we all want. The 4Peace camp is a great opportunity to lay the foundation for better understanding, better communication and empathy for the pain and loss of the other side.
I am looking forward to meeting everyone and hope that, alongside the differences, we will be able to look beyond them and discover that we have far more in common than we initially thought.