CISV International (formerly Children's International Summer Villages) is an international youth organization, founded on the aim of achieving world peace through cross-cultural understanding and friendship. The organization operates international programs on an annual basis to bring together participants from member countries.
CISV was founded in 1951 by Dr. Doris Twitchell Allen. Since then, the organization has expanded into 80 countries, and over 150,000 delegates have participated in more than four thousand international CISV activities.
For Dr. Allen and the CISV organization, children and youth were seen as the ideal starting point for peace education. Programmes were developed which offered young people opportunities to meet their peers from other countries and to form intercultural friendships. Locally, programmes give people the chance to learn about the cultures in their own communities and explore important themes related to peace and understanding.