Education organisations are working together in Oxford this summer to deliver an ambitious project. Talk Together aims to change the world by promoting the importance of effective communication and understanding.

This international project is bringing young people from two sides of a conflict zone in North Africa to St Edward’s School, Oxford. Here, they will learn negotiation skills and make new friends.

Working with students from the UK and Norway, the 16 to 26-year-olds will be challenged to come up with new responses to the conflict affecting their lives in Morocco, Western Sahara and Algeria. After the fortnight-long course, they will go home with a strategy to share the experience with their communities.

And how will this change the world?

There is no doubt the experience will massively expand the world view of the young people involved. Yet Talk Together wants to reach further.

A fly-on-the-wall film will extend the ideas to a broad TV audience in North Africa and beyond. The organisers want to hook viewers using an empathetic reality TV style following the students’ emotional journeys.

They will certainly undergo a culture shock, travelling from refugee camps in Algeria to an independent school in Oxford. They will be supported through a learning process which, the organisers hope, will make for compelling viewing.

Andrew Brown, who set up the project, says: “The personal stories of some of these young people are sobering. We will watch as their world views are challenged and their skills develop. We’ll learn alongside them.”

Mr Brown believes local and international communities must share knowledge and improve mutual understanding. Only then, he argues, can we build a better future. Promoting these principles among teenagers, Talk Together hopes to harness the potential for youth to change attitudes for the future.

With this in mind, a schools’ version of a film will be made to support the teaching of soft skills, both in the UK and worldwide.

A teachers’ pack will offer additional resources for the development of better communication, negotiation and lateral thinking skills.

“The future rests in the hands of young people”, Mr Brown said. “Among them, improved communication, better negotiation skills, and greater understanding of others, will make the most difference. It will enable them to make the greatest difference themselves.”

The leader of Oxfordshire County Council, Keith Mitchell, has expressed support for the influence of Talk Together in the county.

“The unparalleled educational experience will have a huge impact on the participants' lives and, thanks to the filming of Talk Together, the effects of the project will reach much further,” he said.

"Young students in Oxfordshire will benefit from the schools' film and teaching materials, promoting crucial communication and negotiation skills.” Selected Oxfordshire students will also be taking part in the course. They will share their experiences with their classmates and spread the message of the importance of good communication to build a better future.

Alongside the ambitious ideals, one of the aims of the project is to have fun. The fortnight’s course is shaping up to be a kaleidoscope of experiences. Talk Together’s timetable lists lessons in everything from ‘tango for conflict resolution’ to ‘rational empathy and its pitfalls’.

Group transformation specialist, Robert Krzisnik, will facilitate the teaching of soft skills during the course. A charismatic and good-humoured psychologist from Slovenia, Krzisnik will be treading a very careful line. He will challenge the students to their limits and beyond. They will also receive comprehensive personal and intellectual support.

The politics and history of the conflict affecting their lives will be analysed with the help of Oxford University academics. Talk Together is collecting a variety of perspectives on the issue of Western Sahara, the conflict zone under scrutiny.

Control of Western Sahara has been disputed for decades. The situation worsened when the Spanish pulled out in 1975.

The Moroccan government and the POLISARIO resistance movement both lay claim to the area. Algeria and Mauritania also taking an interest.

This has left 170,000 people living in refugee camps in the deserts of Algeria. They are separated from their families in Western Sahara, and reliant on handouts. Access to education or communication services are hugely inferior to those enjoyed by students in Oxfordshire.

Talk Together students report that life in the middle of the desert is hard. Summer temperatures can hit 55ºC and sandstorms destroy the tents and clay houses.

Others are from Western Sahara, living under what they regard to be an occupying power.

One of these students, C, is very politically active. She says the police have stormed her house more than 30 times. She reports being held in detention, tortured and threatened with rape.

It is these highly personal elements that will engage a TV audience in the little known issue of Western Sahara. They will also watch, through the experience of the students, the benefits of improved communication and understanding.

Talk Together hopes public interest in the project will raise awareness of useful negotiation skills, and leverage change in political attitudes to conflict resolution.

A number of MPs, including Oxford’s Andrew Smith, have voiced their support.

Mr Brown is somewhat of a David, taking on a Goliath of an issue.

The Talk Together team is used to hearing the phrase: “If it was easy, someone would have done it already”.

He and his wife Caroline deliver action- packed language courses for British and foreign students each summer, at St Edward’s, Oxford.

The independent school has made a £20,000 donation to the Talk Together course, and there is other local support. Motts Travel is providing transport to Talk Together at cost, a saving of £800.

Further funding has come from the European Commission’s Youth in Action programme, and United World Colleges has taken Talk Together under its wing as a UWC outreach initiative.

UWC is a global educational movement which brings together students from all over the world with the explicit aim of fostering peace and international understanding.

Yet it is grassroots support from the public which Mr Brown wants to harness.

Talk Together is using new media to generate support. The Facebook and Twitter following are growing.

Mr Brown hopes that if a groundswell of opinion is built, it will press politicians to listen to the message of communication, understanding and constructive dialogue.

“Imagine if a million people all donated 50 pence to Talk Together. It is not about the money, it’s about the message that sends.”

The Browns believe that, once the principle is proved, the programme will attract sponsorship and become self-sustaining.

Next year the team is considering building on the 2009 course and focussing on the Middle East or Kashmir.

If successful, Oxford is likely to be the venue for exciting developments this summer and in the years to come.

Talk Together participants will be at St Edward’s School from August 5-19. To find out more visit the website www.TalkTogether.info , or TalkTogether’s Facebook or Twitter pages. Microdonations can be made at www.justgiving.com/talktogether.