Did you ever wonder why so much modern concrete often seems to break quickly while ancient Roman concrete is still standing today? In 2023, a team of researchers published an article in Science Advances that revealed one of the core secrets of Roman concrete – it repairs cracks on its own. I know, it sounds like magic or science fiction, but Roman concrete contains lime clasts – basically chunks of unprocessed lime – due to their combination of quicklime and their practice of hot-mixing concrete. The result is that when water enters cracks in Roman concrete it activates these lime clasts and within weeks they re-seal the crack.

So you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. Earlier this week I was out in Prey Veng signing MoUs with a new set of Primary Schools and I was thinking about sustainability. A few years ago, MCC commissioned an international evaluation on the Peace Clubs model that first emerged from MCC Zambia and which has since spread to other countries.

Peace Clubs was started in Lusaka in 2006 as a means to create a culture of peace within schools. The project has grown over the last decade and in 2019 is working with 32 schools in Lusaka and Kafue. Dealing with traumatic circumstances, such as corporal punishment, bullying, early marriage, or gender-based violence is commonplace for many teenagers growing up in Zambia. The project seeks to reduce corporal punishment in schools, and empowers teachers and students with skills in non-violence, conflict resolution and trauma awareness. The Peace Clubs curriculum has been shared throughout Africa (and beyond), and there are now hundreds of Peace Clubs in more than a dozen countries across the continent.
-Amanda Talstra, Former MCC Representative to Zambia and Malawi

This evaluation affirmed that the Peace Clubs were effective, had great participant feedback, and strong community engagement…but it was rare for the community to maintain them without outside structure and supports be that from MCC or a partner.

MCC Cambodia was running a Peace Clubs pilot in rural Primary Schools at the time – you might remember my post from then evoking the legacy of Christopher Dock – and this feedback was something we worked to incorporate into our Peace Club program. This is why the Peace Clubs in Cambodia are part of the Life Skills class and not an extracurricular activity. Going beyond just the individual schools, our agreement with the Provincial Department of Education provides the support and structure that will sustain the Peace Clubs long term. There’s even been some interest from the government in incorporating Peace Clubs into the Life Skills curriculum more broadly.

Sustainability is also why MCC carefully walks alongside 5th and 6th Grade Teachers with the goal being that they can run the Peace Clubs independently of MCC. In Year 1, the MCC team runs the Peace Club while the Teacher observes. In Year 2, the MCC team runs the Peace Club with the Teacher. In Year 3, the Teacher runs the Peace Club and the MCC team observes and coaches. Finally, in Year 4, the MCC team provides phase-out supports. We’re seeing our first cohort of Teachers graduating from the Peace Club program and it’s extremely rewarding to see them continue running the Peace Clubs without MCC support.

Okay. But you might be wondering what that has to do with self-healing concrete? After all, so many programs involve carefully running a training course in hope that the participants will continue using it afterwards. Isn’t that just laying concrete and hoping it doesn’t crack. Well, that’s our version of lime clasts come in.

A new addition to the Peace Club program has been running Train the Trainer and Coaching/Mentoring courses for the Primary School Administrators and local Education Officials. This means that if a Teacher leaves the School, goes on leave, or is reassigned to a different grade that there are people equipped to cover for the Teacher and train the next Teacher. Overall, this also builds the supervisory capacity of the School Administrators and Education Officials. Remember that this Peaceful Education project isn’t just a Peace Club project – it’s also includes Positive Classroom Management, Child Protection, Community Engagement, and other components.

Giving constructive feedback can be hard. Depending on the culture, relationship, and context it can be difficult to walk the line between being too hard or too soft. The MCC Education team models how to give feedback in constructive ways including active listening and shifting approaches when feedback starts to get misunderstood.

This approach isn’t limited to MCC Cambodia’s Peace Clubs. Even some of our partners, like Organization To Develop Our Villages and Women Peace Makers, have implemented this kind of self-healing / self-sustaining approach into their own community work. I referenced this – without the fun concrete analogy – back in a post in 2019, with “this project works ODOV out of its current role while empowering the communities to self sustain livelihood improvements.” Our goal is to support vulnerable communities in becoming strong and independent. This is one concrete way we’re doing that. Did you get that? I managed to sneak concrete in one more time.