On 19 March 2026, CTII held a workshop at Springfield Convent Senior School at their invitation, in which just under 100 matriculant girl students participated. The workshop was titled “Peace building and Human Rights” and was a designated retreat day for the matrics.
It was designed largely by Babalwa Ngcongolo, and facilitated by her, Sarah Oliver, Veliswa Ntsume, Nic Paton and Cecil Plaatjies. It took place in the music hall of the school. The students were seated 8 at a table and right at the beginning they were encouraged to find others that they do not usually socialise with to form a group.
Sarah set the stage with an introduction which included stretching and warming up. Each facilitator then introduced themselves and shared something about their own interfaith journey.
The students were engaged in an interactive way by Babalwa as they looked at their lives in relation to the theme of the workshop.
Nic led an exercise where each table had to come up with a statement that best reflected their group contemplation. The statements were compiled and projected onto a screen. All the students then voted for the best statement. Nic skillfully turned the phrase “enjoy life, while we have it” into a song, which he performed. Everyone sang along while clapping their hands, creating a moment of community. Nic also played the song in a prayerful/meditative mode which again changed the energy in the room as the students visibly experienced the sacred.
An energetic drumming session followed outside with The Drum Café. The students, teachers and CTII facilitators all drummed together with Nic and Veli joining the drummers on stage.
Cecil facilitated a session on Religion and Human Rights. He used the Socratic method. The students raised many questions and instead of supplying answers, he made them explore their own questions.
The lunch supplied by the (Woollies) tuck shop was superb.
The last part of the day was spent examining human rights. Veli gave an introduction of the preamble to the South African Bill of Rights, bringing fresh focus to familiar words. The students were asked to reflect on the preamble and to write their own.
The day spent at the school was a rewarding initiative. The students were already familiar with the material and eagerly participated.
This type of interfaith activity is a good way to spread the CTII interfaith ethos further than to the students on our existing schools program, the YIIP. It reflects the growing confidence by schools to have the CTII lead events.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and encourage CTII members to play an active role in similar future initiatives.
