From the 10th to the 28th of August 2011, we had our first IPP in the Netherlands. We worked together with the National Liberation Museum 1944-45.
This Museum is built to remember a very important part of our national history during World War II. It gives a great impression of the battle the allies had to fight against the Germans. However, this museum is 25 years old so it was in need of modernizing. The theme of our IPP was “Youth in Wartime: learning Peace from historical times of war and liberation”. But during our project it came down to making a shift from memory to history for the young and future generations and to keep the memory alive. We worked on this by cleaning and painting some things that are exhibited in the museum to ‘freshen up’ the building and by making a promotion video both for the museum and CISV. But also we came up with ideas how to make the museum more attractive for children. Finally, we translated the information texts into more languages including Polish, Czech and Arabic.

Some of our participants live or lived in countries that are or were recently in conflict, like Sierra Leone, Pakistan and Lebanon. They told us and made us feel what the conflicts are about and what it does to them in daily life. By sharing this and relating it to the history of World War II we were all motivated to be ambassadors of peace in our daily life. At the end of the project we demonstrated our work to all family, (CISV) friends, volunteers at the museum, and others who were interested. Our first IPP was a great success and all participants went home with good feelings and a great learning experience.