Greshma Pious Raju, the founder of the Ecopeace Teen Cafe, has a Master of Arts Degree in International Peace Studies from the United Nations Mandated University for Peace. Greshma has worked at projects like the Earth Charter that focuses on fosterijng global interdependence and shared responsibility. Currently, she is leading the global campaign "One Billion Youth for Peace," which was initiated by the United Religions Initiative in India. Greshma believes that small acts of love and compassions will make the world better.

Peaceleader

Greshma is exploring new paths to strengthening interconnectedness among youth through online platforms. To complement her goal, she started Ecopeace Teen Cafe in 2021. 

We are working with Greshma and the Ecopeace Teen Cafe to support her in creating lesson plans that are engaging for the teens that she works with. Greshma struggled with connecting with teens through online dialogue using the platform of zoom. She shared with us that she feel the students did not connect to one another and were not engaged her classes and often did not attend all four sessions. 

We worked on creating an updated lesson plan with her that would help her to engage more with the teens. For example, in this lesson plan, we created a fun interactive game of zoom bingo that kept them engaged.

Past session topics

Music and Peacebuilding

Interfaith dialogue

Climate Change

Different Programs Around the World

Green Leaders Academy 

Spanish Program in Latin America & Caribbean

French Training Program in Africa

Ecopeace Youth talks on Wednesdays 

Issues Identified

Connecting on zoom

Language barrier

Engagement

Application process

Precedents

Interview 1

With the first interview we wanted to learn more about how the Ecopeace Teen Cafe work and what happens in the meetings. 

• Each session lasts for 1 month and meets weekly on Saturdays
• The project's goal is to create peace through a connection with nature
• Each meeting has a speaker who talks for most of the meeting
• Teens are disengaged through the zoom platform
• Teens are hesitant to talk
• Language barriers create struggles in communication for some teens because meetings are in English
• Greshma starts the meetings with an icebreaker like what's your favorite food?
• There are different sessions that take place all around the world 
• Greshma wants to have sessions in person but it is too expensive to get food and transportation for teens

Interview 2

We wanted to figure out what kind of specific help she wants with the meetings

• Students most positively reacted to interactive sessions
• Greshma wants us to make the sessions more interactive
• Students are hesitant to unmute
• Students sign themselves up
• Students have to fill out a form to sign up and Greshma chooses teens off of their answers
• Greshma wants us to create more fun icebreakers
• Her most successful icebreaker has the teens go plant a tree and check on it every week

Interview 3

We showed Greshma our icebreakers

• Create a film that shows off your environment
• Research Sustainable Development Goals and debate
• Use grey water to water the trees that they have planted
• Go outside and look for an object that makes you feel an emotion
• Make an activity generator that the teens can use
• Use websites like Kahoot
• Use things like zoom whiteboard

Interview 4

We show Greshma our new lesson plan

• Greshma told us the current meeting structure has some icebreaker and then the speaker and then a final reflection
• Greshma is open to a new meeting structure which we can make
• Greshma likes the idea of having something go throughout the whole meeting
• Zoom Bingo

Greshma asked us to help her to engage teens throughout her zoom sessions. She also expressed concern that teens were going to the first meeting, and not return, and she asked us to help her to brainstorm how to make the sessions more interesting so students felt motivated to return. One of our ideas was to create a number of ice breakers that helped the student to get to know one another and to be more comfortable both with the facilitator and each other. Later, we realized that this would not sustain engagement throughout the whole meeting. So, we switched focus to creating a curriculum that would provide a format for the facilitators to keep the students interested throughout the meetings.  

Current structure

What we learned from this experience

Will

Christopher

I learned about how to work with a client and how to pursue a project that doesn't spark your interest.

I learned how to effectively and efficiently work with a client by engaging the client in dialogue that includes both open ended and precise questions that assisted me in understanding the scope and the goal of our work together. I also learned in this project how to compile seemingly unconnected ideas into a synthesized final project that has practical application.