Wanjala, who received her master’s in conflict transformation from CJP in 2003, is the chairperson of the Kenya-based Green String Network. Its social healing and reconciliation program Kumekucha was selected as one of the top 10 global governance solutions from among 121 projects presented at the November 2018 .

She is also the chief executive officer of the Hear Africa Center, which aims to enhance communities’ local capacities for social healing, restorative justice and reconciliation. The Center, which operates mainly in the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa, seeks to cultivate conflict transformation, social healing, reconciliation, restorative justice and remembrance and is a regional research, documentation and think tank center.

The Peacebuilder of the Year Award recognizes “alumni who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to its mission of supporting conflict transformation, restorative justice, trauma healing, development, organizational leadership and peacebuilding efforts at all levels of society,” said CJP executive director Daryl Byler.

All of the 628 alumni who have earned master’s degrees or graduate certificates in conflict transformation or restorative justice from CJP are eligible for the award, which includes tuition for a Summer Peacebuilding Institute course and transportation costs.

Wanjala is the fifth award recipient. The first was conferred on Ali Gohar MA ’02 in 2015, founder and executive director of Just Peace Initiatives in Pakistan. The 2016 recipient was Tammy Krause, MA ’99, an expert in restorative justice, and in 2017 it went to Jean Claude Nkundwa MA ’14, who works for peace in his native country of Burundi from exile in Rwanda. In 2018, it recognized Annette Lantz-Simmons, executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution in Kansas City, Missouri.

‘A shining example’

CJP has produced “some of the best and finest peacebuilders in the world,” Wanjala wrote in response to the award. “For me, to be counted among this group is truly a humbling experience…. To fellow peacebuilders, especially from Kenya and Africa at large, this is ‘our’ award. May we not grow weary of putting in efforts to ensure that our communities and countries enjoy peace and harmony.”

An active peacebuilder for over a quarter of a century, Wanjala holds a PhD in peace and conflict studies from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kakamega, Kenya, and has been a Pact International deputy chief of Party for Peace in East and Central Africa and a commissioner and acting chairperson of Kenya’s Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission.

She has also served as an in-house consultant for peacebuilding with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a coordinator for the peace and development network PEACENET, a coordinator of relief and rehabilitation for internally displaced Kenyans, and a social worker and teacher in Utange Refugee Camp. She was a nominee for the 2005 initiative 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize, and one of three Kenyan women noted as Pillars of Peace for their interventions in ethnic clashes in the 1990s.

“Tecla is a shining example of a CJP Peacebuilder who has taken what she has learned, both from her personal experience and the knowledge and skills gained at CJP and elsewhere, and used that to develop and provide dynamic and forward-thinking peacebuilding interactions with people and institutions at all levels of society,” said Jan Jenner, former director of CJP’s Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program, who nominated Wanjala for the award. “Tecla is equally comfortable and articulate with a group of market women in a small village or with a group of national/international political leaders and academics. She is a deeply committed Catholic Christian and that faith undergirds her peacebuilding work – and her entire life.”

Past recipients

• 2018: Annette Lantz-Simmons ‘09
• 2017: Jean Claude Nkundwa MA ’14
• 2016: Tammy Krause MA ’99
• 2015: Ali Gohar MA ’02

The -sponsored workshops in July and August introduced the approaches used by 91����Ƶ’s for addressing trauma, breaking cycles of violence, and building individual and collective resilience, said STAR lead trainer .

Though the content was condensed and delivered in two- or three-day sessions, the workshops “affirm the power of the integrated STAR curriculum,” Barge said. “When you look at conflict and violence through a trauma lens, it gives people on the ground new perspective and new possibilities.”

Barge facilitated the August training in South Sudan’s capital city, Juba. She was joined by faculty member and two alumni of , (MA ’06) and (MA ’98), both from Kenya. Shiphrah Mutungi, a Ugandan alumnus of 91����Ƶ’s , also facilitated.

The introductory workshops, held in Nairobi in July, were led by Ruto and a 2005 CJP grad, of , with input from CJP administrator .

Having experienced violence . . .

Many of the participants had recently returned to South Sudan, after having fled with their families during a December 2013 attempted military coup and related ethnic violence. This upheaval displaced more than 1 million people. The men in the workshop – almost all were male Foreign Service Nationals – were from a range of professions, including drivers, guards, program managers, office staff, doctors and lawyers.

In the six months when they were displaced, many had similar experiences of “running, refugee camps, and deaths in the family,” one participant explained.

Many also came to the trainings preoccupied by strong feelings of anger and abandonment towards “others they felt had wronged them, such as the political system, the government and their employer,” said Ruto. “Most of them felt that the training would not be sufficient to resolve some of the unmet needs and grievances that had not yet been expressed.”

But after activities and small-group discussions that focused on the impacts of the conflict in their personal and professional lives, workshop participants began to see these events with a new perspective.

Seeing with a new perspective

“They realized that traumatic events are caused by multiple events, especially in a situation of war, and that the evacuation they were focused on might not have been the only traumatic event they were experiencing at the moment,” Ruto said.

One participant noted that learning about the cycles of violence “helps us understand how we keep hurting each other and why the violence/conflict hasn’t ended.”

“As participants learned about more tools and developed more of an understanding of the STAR principles, they became more hopeful about how they could use this training for themselves and their families,” Barge said.

Participants advocated for further exposure of trauma-resilience training beyond the “foreign service national” community served by the USAID-sponsored workshops.

More trainings wished for

“They do not want their children to experience 21-plus years of conflict and violence, and they see that this training could play a real peacebuilding role in the region,” Barge said. “It’s important that USAID supports the development of trauma-informed staff, but the positive reaction of the participants and their recommendations to get this training to more people in South Sudan challenges USAID and CJP to do more.”

Generations of South Sudanese have been affected by two civil wars lasting a total of nearly 40 years, encompassing 1955-1972 and 1983-2005. In 2005, a comprehensive peace agreement was signed. South Sudan voted for independence in January 2011 and was declared a sovereign nation six months later. Inter-ethnic warfare, a large refugee population, and internal unrest are among the young nation’s challenges.

In de-briefing sessions after the workshops, Barge said that (who recently left that role, but stays engaged with South Sudan issues) and other officials expressed optimism about the training. Discussion touched on the potential for longer and more extensive workshops for local and expatriate staffers, as well as STAR trainings for a trauma resource team and USAID employees.

Both Barge and Ruto return to South Sudan in October 2014 to lead follow-up workshops.

All women, all Muslim, all university-educated, and straining the bonds of their conservative societies, these nine graduates of the all live in Somali-speaking regions of east Africa.

“Credit for the creation of this program belongs to another strong and committed Somali-speaking woman, ,” Docherty said in her remarks at the WPLP graduation ceremony in a hall of University of Hargeisa, Somaliland. Abdi visited 91����Ƶ in June 2010 for a gathering of women peacebuilders.

At that gathering Abdi asked these provocative questions: “Are we women innocent victims, or are we part of the problem and perpetrators? And if we contribute to war, then how do we organize ourselves to contribute to peace?” The ideas from that gathering – educating women to lead their societies away from violence and towards just relationships necessary for peace – are central to 91����Ƶ’s new program.

18 months of study and practice

WPLP consists of cohorts of carefully chosen women – strongly recommended by organizations with a stake in in a particular region – who undertake coursework for 18 months, partly at 91����Ƶ’s main campus in Harrisonburg, Va., and partly in their home region.

“WPLP was designed by women for women’s life situation and learning needs,” says CJP’s executive director , JD. “The cohort model creates space for the students to support one another during their course of study, as well as during in-country implementation of peacebuilding practices.”

The first group received their graduate certificates from the program at the end of 2013 in a ceremony attended by six of the nine Somali-region cohort women. “The program they have completed was academically rigorous. They completed the same courses taken by our master’s degree students – and they did it largely at a distance, while meeting the demands of work and family obligations,” said Docherty.

In attendance and speaking at the graduation ceremony were the president of the University of Hargeisa, several political party leaders, and three women leaders of cabinet-level departments in Somaliland. The university facilitated this ceremony as a courtesy to 91����Ƶ since the WPLP graduates would have had difficulty obtaining travel visas for the spring 2014 graduation at 91����Ƶ.

“Strong, resilient women”

Graduate Asli Mohamoud spoke at the ceremony and praised her cohort’s “group of strong, resilient women… All the women you see in front of you are used to carrying weights and burdens… We are happy and thankful that now we have the tools and knowledge to guide our experience. We hope to work together as a team to enhance peace and stability in our respective communities.”

Working together as a team is a major component of WPLP’s approach. Drawing women who share a common language, ethnic identity and similar experiences of conflict, the cohort-based program requires a “very different form of teaching, a revamping of the curriculum, tailored around their problems and their region,” notes Docherty. Their real-life case studies, drawn into an academic framework, provide material for their courses.

The collaborative teamwork fostered during their coursework, practicum and mentored projects will hopefully continue as they implement what they have learned. “Each group of graduates builds out the peacebuilder network,” says Docherty. “Our graduates, wherever they work around the world, have an uncanny knack for finding and supporting each other.”

For Mohamoud, WPLP was more than an academic exercise. It was “a journey of healing and understanding and acceptance of our situation as women affected by conflict, and who are looked up to as the leaders of change in our locations.”

On journey of healing, pushing for answers

Her supervisor at confirms that Mohamoud “pushes us hard now, asking very tough questions and causing all of us to think.”

For graduate Hibo Kheyre, being part of WPLP enabled her to recognize that she had been doing peacebuilding work for a long time. “Now with the courses and skills I have had, I know that I can continue peacebuilding in a much better way. I have changed my world view into a bigger one.”

Colleagues now express amazement that she is serving in “the role of traditional elder,” who would typically be a man, she adds.

“Training gives these women the power to step up and lead,” said WPLP director from Nairobi, Kenya, where she was interviewing the 2014 group of eight women candidates from that country. Two women from Sudan and two from South Sudan will complete the incoming group.

The Somalia-region group of graduates included women who live and work in Somaliland, Somalia, Kenya and Puntland. While enrolled in WPLP, many were promoted or found more challenging jobs that use their expanded skills. Their work includes aid relief, gender advisor, peace educator, migration issues advisor, HIV educator, job trainer and electoral reform policymaker. Their WPLP participation was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Mohamoud summarizes the interconnected issues these graduates will face. “I am now in a position to link peacebuilding work with gender, human rights, and environmental protection – all crucial to building lasting peace in Somalia and in Africa.”

Other first graduates from Liberia, Fiji, Solomon Islands

In addition to the nine women of the Somali-region, the first class of WPLP graduates includes two women from Liberia, two from Fiji and one from the Solomon Islands. Some of these graduates plan to participate in 91����Ƶ’s April 27 commencement weekend.

Docherty described her journey around the globe to participate in the first WPLP graduation ceremony in Hargeisa, Somaliland: “I had already scheduled a trip to Burma/Myanmar, so I continued west from there. I stopped in Dubai, took a flight down to Hargeisa, was there four days, back to Dubai and then home. Total time on airplanes, coach class seats, was more than 48 hours. But it was important for someone from here to be there.”

This was Docherty’s second visit to Hargeisa. In September 2012, she, Jan Jenner, and , PhD, traveled there to teach a two-week course to eight WPLP students denied travel visas for training. Of that experience, Docherty noted in her graduation remarks, “Spending time here in Hargeisa was immensely helpful as we learned more about the rich culture of the Somali-speaking peoples and more about the potential for peace in this region.”

The United States government denied entry to the six (two each from Kenya, Somalia and Somaliland). This was ironic, given that a federal agency, , was paying for their training.

The stated reason for exclusion was that the women might overstay their visas, says Jenner. That allegation “was more upsetting to them than that they were denied visas,” adds Jenner, who found all six women “completely committed to their countries.”

The women, ages mid-20s to early 40s, included peacebuilding-organization workers, an educational journalist, and a trauma-healing counselor. Some had been war refugees as children – a history belying the ebullient smiles in photos showing them with their American instructors, all wearing Somali clothing.

All participants in this program need a university degree before they can be admitted to WPLP [Women’s Peace Leadership Program], something not easy to obtain for many Somali women. Thus, says Jenner, these women needed to be very determined and passionate about getting an education despite often-difficult circumstances.

Jenner, Rhodes and Docherty devoted two weeks in September and October ¬– amid a busy semester on 91����Ƶ’s Harrisonburg, Va., campus – to teach the women in Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital. Commercial flights to Hargeisa from Nairobi had just been discontinued, limiting the 91����Ƶ teachers to “lowest priority” seating on United Nations flights.

Docherty explains that WPLP is designed to create a network of women peace leaders within a specific country or region, who can “relate to

one another as ‘lost sisters from the same clan,’” while helping transform their region’s conflicts.

The first stage of the women’s program – initially conducted for 12 other women at in May and June – consisted of two six-day courses. In “Conflict Analysis,” taught by Rhodes, the women in Hargeisa acquired tools for understanding problems. “Strategic Peacebuilding,” taught by Docherty, helped them plan interventions.

They’re now finishing activities and papers begun during course sessions. Those completing the 15 credit-hour program will receive graduate certificates.

“It is a privilege to interact with and teach women who have been brought up during a time of civil war,” says Rhodes. “I’m learning a great deal about what gives these women motivation for peacebuilding and about how wise, strong and resilient they are.”

Rhodes felt buoyed by the women’s hopefulness. They had “hope for security and stability, hope for more women’s participation in decision making, and hope for a peaceful Somaliland and Somalia in the future.”

Somaliland is a self-declared, but internationally unrecognized, state that broke off from northern Somalia to form its own parliamentary government in 1991. It enjoys more stability than war-torn Somalia, which has struggled to establish a functioning government (though Jenner says the WPLP women consider its new president, who has himself attended SPI, to be promising). Since earlier visits, Jenner has seen former refugees returning to Somaliland, and the building of shopping centers and high-rises, though extreme economic disparities remain.

Jenner says the six were “such fun women,” yet deeply committed. Even within a patriarchal culture, “They can be spokespeople for the women who don’t have the ability to speak for themselves.”

In Somali culture, she adds, “In theory, women have quite limited power. In practice, it’s like any society” – widely varied. Women, for example, often resolve family disputes.

The 12 program participants on campus in mid-2012 came from Liberia, the South Pacific and Somalia. Before her death in a 2011 accident, former SPI student and teacher Dekha Ibrahim Abdi had advocated for a women’s program, while master’s degree alumna and served as a major inspiration.

The program is expected to grow gradually, says Jenner, depending upon the ability of regional women’s networks, or cohorts, to build local organizational support and secure sources of funding.

The first group of students in the included 12 women from Africa  (Liberia, Kenya, and regions in and around Somalia) and the South Pacific (Fiji and Solomon Islands) at the 2012 under .

After returning home, the participants will be provided with mentors and will take two additional classes in their respective home regions before earning a graduate certificate. An additional eight Somali women who did not receive visas to attend SPI this year are also enrolled in the program’s first cohort.

“I’m grateful, I’m overwhelmed to be a part of this,” said Gwendolyn Myers, a 21-year-old activist and journalist from Liberia who was selected for the program. “I want to bring this key message to the group: prioritize young people! Young people can contribute positively towards peace and development, if given the chance.”

She said her SPI classes taught her how to analyze and “map” conflicts and to bring all parties involved “to the table,” enabling her to act more strategically in Liberia in the future.

Myers is executive director of , a nonprofit organization that works with university students and youth to promote peace, reconciliation and a spirit of volunteerism in Liberia.

Hiba Mohamed Ismail, an instructor with the in Hargeisa, Somaliland, echoed Myers’ thoughts: “I was so lucky to be chosen.” She spoke of the benefits of being granted a safe, hospitable place to gain wider knowledge while reflecting on the social situation at home.

Ismail trains at-risk youth – many of them homeless, battling drug addictions or recently released from prison – in conflict management and vocational and social skills.

As a follow-up to SPI, experienced leaders in the peace field will act as mentors for each sub-group of women, helping them to integrate their academic training with their day-to-day work.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding received more than 100 applications for spots in the first cohort of the women’s leadership program and has already begun planning for future sessions. Working with its funding partners, and the German development organization, EED/, the peacebuilding center is expecting a larger group from the South Pacific next year, and it hopes to bring more Liberian and Somali women as well. Plans are also underway to add a new cohort of women leaders from Burma.

“The leadership of both women and men is vital to developing, implementing and sustaining robust peacebuilding processes at all levels of society,” said , director of the Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program. “More and more organizations and countries are realizing that the participation of women in leadership is vital to their well-being. This program is assisting countries and regions in developing the capacity of women to take up these leadership roles that are so needed.”

Three of the women in the program – Asli Ahmed Mohamoud, Amina Hassan, and Priscilla Singh – spoke appreciatively of having the support of their husbands for their peacebuilding work. In their home regions, it is almost unknown for a husband to care for the children in the family to enable a wife to play a public role, but their husbands have been exceptional. Mohamoud has three children, Hassan has five, and Singh has two.

Mohamoud, employed by , is the founder of a radio program called “Voice of Women,” which draws on the oral tradition of the Somali community to mobilize women to participate in their country’s peacebuilding process. She also writes a weekly newspaper column to encourage women.

Trained as a schoolteacher, Hassan founded Women for Peace and Development in Mandera, the northeast district of Kenya, in 1998. “Twenty or 25 years ago, you would hardly see a woman participate in activities beyond the family,” she said. “Some changes have been realized.” She said frequently recurring droughts – probably due to climate change – have forced some of the changes. Her people are seeing the end of the tradition of men supporting their families by owning herds of camels and other animals.

“Men are becoming idle and not knowing what to do or where to start over,” she said. Hassan’s group has doled out small loans – “we started with 100 women receiving 5,000 Kenyan shillings (about 60 U.S. dollars)” to empower women to start supporting their families through setting up market stalls and other small businesses.

For her efforts at reducing violent conflict and seeking other ways for her people to survive, Hassan has received the Head of State commendation in Kenya. She is planning to run for a seat in the nation’s parliament.

As the first woman to be elected to local government in her region of Fiji, Singh faced bullying and came to realize that women need to form a “critical mass” in government in order not to feel alone in the “lion’s den.” Singh is working to increase the role of women in the next national election and plans to run for a national office herself at some time in the future.

All of the participants in the Women’s Peace Leadership Program made the point that women and men must be respectful partners if there is to be lasting social change, for the betterment of all. “Promoting leadership for women is also promoting collaborative leadership for men,” said Jenner.

Though they were together at SPI for just a month, these first participants developed strong bonds and friendships, said 26-year-old Philma Zaku, a youth coordinator for the surrounding Honiara, Solomon Islands.

“You’re able to communicate with people who have the same passion … for making the world a better place,” said Zaku, whose job includes a significant focus on reducing and preventing domestic violence against women.

Zaku made a point of linking peace to other issues affecting the Pacific Islands, notably climate change and rising sea levels, which threatened the islands’ very existence.

, the executive director of 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, said he hopes the women’s leadership program marks the beginning of the participants working together over their entire lifetimes, sometimes in collaboration with 91����Ƶ.

Zaku agreed: “This first cohort of the women’s leadership program is just the beginning of something that must continue for the betterment of the world.”

Other members of the first Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program at SPI were: Amal Yasin Ibrahim, who works with the in Somaliland; Windor Dorko, executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy in Liberia; Vaiba Flomo, featured in the documentary “” as one of the founding members of the Women’s Mass Action Campaign in 2003, which was instrumental in ending war in Liberia; Grace Jarsor, who was also one of the founding members of the Women’s Mass Action Campaign in Liberia, works for her government’s Ministry of Gender and Development; Jerolie Belabulie, a monitoring and evaluation officer employed by the in the Solomon Islands; and Alita Waqabaca, clinical practice leader for in Fiji.

“Probably 80 percent of the people who sign up for SPI today heard about it by word of mouth from veteran peacebuilders,” he said. “In the 1990s SPI was relatively new and the people coming were pioneers in the then-fledgling field of .”

By the time SPI wraps up on June 15, 2012, Goldberg expects nearly 200 people from 40 countries to have cycled through at least one of its 19 classes on topics ranging from psychosocial trauma to leadership for healthy organizations.

“I still feel inspired when I join the classes at the morning coffee break and see people from Australia, Afghanistan, Fiji and Nigeria chatting together, enjoying each other because they know they are all here for the common cause of peace and justice everywhere.”

Goldberg started at 91����Ƶ as a master’s degree student in what was then called the conflict transformation program. This year Goldberg is co-director of SPI, alongside fellow conflict transformation graduate .

Courses at SPI can be taken for either graduate-level credit or simply for training purposes.

At SPI for the first time are 12 fully funded women enrolled in 91����Ƶ’s newest initiative — the . This program consists of 20 women grouped in four national cohorts. In this inaugural year of the program, the women are from Liberia, Somalia, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

“The goal is to develop a mutually supportive cohort of women from a particular region of the world — women who have already shown themselves to be social-change leaders or who have real potential to be,” said , director of the program. These women will be prepared to be resources for each other when they are working for social change in their home regions.

Like many of the hundreds of students holding master’s degrees in conflict transformation from 91����Ƶ, started at 91����Ƶ at a session of SPI.

Explaining why she traveled to SPI from the opposite side of the globe, Vosita Lenisaurua of Fiji said that she is a staff member of the Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding, which is modeled on 91����Ƶ’s . It is led by Koila Costello-Olsson, a 2005 master’s degree graduate from CJP.

“I was able to self-learn much of what I use in my work from books, articles and pamphlets, often published by 91����Ƶ professors,” Lenisaurua said. “But here I get to listen to people from many other countries and to learn from their work, which is often similar to mine.”

At the Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding, Lenisaurua is the coordinator of restorative justice programs for prisoners and corrections officers. She is also a facilitator of dialogue between parties in conflict.

“Reconciliation is a personal, internal, collective journey that people must decide they are going to take, and I think Liberians are at that place where they want to move forward,” Gbowee said to the Voice of America following upon her appointment.

Gbowee, who completed a master’s degree through in 2007, said Liberians’ inability to approach reconciliation has blocked their country from dealing with many pressing issues on the national agenda. Gbowee plans to talk with all Liberians and solicit the help of retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a fellow Nobel Peace Laureate. Tutu led the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the apartheid era officially ended. “I’ve been in touch with Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s office because I see the ‘Arch’ as one of those individuals who have all of the experiences when it comes to talking about reconciliation,” said Gbowee.

“The one thing that we are seeing happening is that our inability to approach the whole issue of reconciliation head-on has been adding more train to that gown,” said Gbowee. “So, we have one package – the issues of the war that haven’t been addressed and the issues of elections over the past few years…. Some of the other issues are disempowerment, the huge population of young people who cannot find jobs.”

“Leymah’s experience, peacebuilding skills, and above all her passionate commitment to the people of Liberia make her the right person for this position,” said , director of the practice and training institute at CJP.

Gbowee came to CJP in 2004 for its and returned for a round-table in in 2005. During 2006-07, Gbowee was in residence at 91����Ƶ as she completed her .

Gbowee has been receiving widespread coverage in the U.S. media outlets, including a feature article in the December issue of Reader’s Digest and one in the Nov.  29, 2011 edition of Christian Century.

She officially started her new position on Nov. 29 with a Peace and Reconciliation Jamboree.

Learn more about and her .

Abdi was a student at the peacebuilding institute in 1998 and 2009 and an instructor during the 2011 Summer Peacebuilding Institute. Abdi also participated in the Women in Peacebuilding Symposium, which was held June 9-11 at 91����Ƶ.

“Dekha’s death is a great loss to her family, to 91����Ƶ and to peacebuilding efforts in Kenya and the Horn of Africa,” said Fred Kniss, provost and acting president of 91����Ƶ. “She leaves four children – Kaltuma, 22; Ibrahim, 19; Noora, 14; and Balquesa, 11.”

Abdi’s husband died in the same accident that took her life.

Abdi’s work on behalf of peace in East Africa and the well-being of traditional pastoral peoples around the world brought her into association with local and international agencies in Cambodia, Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Germany, Ethiopia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, Uganda, Ghana and Kenya.

Abdi received the 2007 Right Livelihood Award – often described as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize – which is bestowed on those “working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today.”

The Right Livelihood Foundation website describes Abdi as “a global peacemaker…her comprehensive methodology combines grassroots activism, a soft but uncompromising leadership and a spiritual motivation drawing on the teachings of Islam.”

Abdi also was one of 1,000 women nominated as a group for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 and was named the Kenyan Peace Builder of the Year in 2005.

Her most recent work included development of Wajir Peace University in northeastern Kenya, often in collaboration with several colleagues at 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, including long-time friend Janice Jenner.

In the book Working with Conflict, Skills and Strategies for Peace (Zed Books, 2000), Abdi wrote about her experiences as a mediator and offered insights into the roots of and solutions to conflicts.

Abdi served on several boards including the Nomadic and Pastoralists Development Initiative in Nigeria and the Berghof Center in Germany. Abdi is also a founding member of the Coalition of Peace in Africa (COPA) and the Global Peace Practitioners Network “ACTION” (Action for Conflict Transformation).

Abdi, a Muslim woman of Somali ethnic origins, died in a Nairobi hospital; she worked from her home in Mombasa, Kenya.

“Rocks in the Road,” a presentation with discussion on the recent post-election crisis and peace efforts in the east African nation of Kenya will be held 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, in room 123 of the seminary building.

Janice M. (Jan) Jenner, director of the Practice Institute in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at 91����Ƶ, will introduce the topic and moderate the session. She will be assisted by 91����Ƶ students from Kenya and CJP Kenyan graduates.

The presentation will examine events in Kenya following the Dec. 29 election, resulting in violence that has caused at least 1,000 deaths, 350,000 internally displaced people and tremendous infrastructure and economic damage.

A poster created for the “Rocks in the Road” presentation at 91����Ƶ.

Several current and past 91����Ƶ students will provide relevant Kenyan history and analysis of the current situation, including the Kofi-Annan brokered peace talks, civil society peacebuilding efforts and the effect on Mennonites in Kenya. There will be time for audience questions.

Prior to joining the 91����Ƶ faculty, Jenner was co-country representative for seven years with Mennonite Central Committee in Kenya. She holds a masters in conflict transformation from 91����Ƶ.

Refreshments will be served. Admission is free.

The program is sponsored by the provost office and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. For more information, call 432-4490.

Somaliland lies within the physical borders of Somalia, but declared its independence from the nation in 1991 due to broad civil unrest in the rest of the country.

91����Ƶ and a university in the African nation of Somalia are collaborating on an exchange program as part of a plan to boost peace efforts in the troubled nation.

91����Ƶ and the University of Hargeisa in Somaliland, a region of Somalia, have agreed to a cultural exchange of faculty.

Somaliland lies within the physical borders of Somalia, but declared its independence from the nation in 1991 due to broad civil unrest in the rest of the country.

Though it held elections and has a democratically elected government, the international community still considers the region a part of Somalia.

Experience Helped Win Grant

The partnership between the two schools will involve visits by instructors from both universities to each other’s campus over the next three years, said Amy Potter, associate director for the Practice Institute, a branch of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at 91����Ƶ. At both sites, staff from each school will teach classes in conflict resolution to faculty and students, said Potter.

The project will use funds from a $400,000 grant from Higher Education for Development (HED), a program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Potter. 91����Ƶ received the grant after responding to a notice by HED earlier this year seeking a university willing to participate in the exchange program.

91����Ƶ’s past involvement in similar projects made the Harrisonburg school an ideal choice for the exchange program with Somaliland.

“We had some good experience in helping other programs get started in other countries,” said Potter.

Somaliland ‘Quite Peaceful’

Initially, the project will not involve the rest of Somalia, according to Janice M. Jenner, director of the Practice Institute.

Jenner spent a week at Hargeisa in August discussing the feasibility of an alliance between 91����Ƶ and the Somaliland school, and left impressed with the region’s political climate.

Janice Jenner, right, with Hargeisa dean Mohamed Aw-Dahir Abdi

“Somaliland is quite peaceful,” said Jenner. “The people there are very proud of their elected democratic government. I felt completely safe there.”

The vast majority of the 3.5 million people of Somaliland are Sunni Muslims. A little more than half of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic, with the rest living in urban centers, like the city of Hargeysa, and small towns.

Cultural Bonds

Barry Hart, associate professor of trauma and conflict studies at 91����Ƶ, and an instructor at 91����Ƶ in conflict transformation, is one of three instructors from 91����Ƶ who will go to Hargeisa next spring to teach and work with faculty from the latter university.

Staff from 91����Ƶ, said Hart, will help officials at Hargeisa create a curriculum that, they hope, eventually will teach Somalians how to resolve their differences.

Hart and others from 91����Ƶ involved in the exchange program hope that their initiative in Hargeisa will enable the university there to help pave the way for peace throughout the rest of Somalia.

Citizens of Somalia have enough in common culturally to make peace possible, said Hart, adding that he and other 91����Ƶ officials hope that the people of Somaliland “can, over time, become a catalyst for change.”

“When personal trauma is not healed, aggression and increased violence may be the result,” says Virginia Foley, the widow of a U.S. government official who was assassinated in Jordan in 2002. “This is true of societies as well as individuals.”

Virginia and Larry Foley in Jordan in 2001. Foley was on assignment for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) when he became the victim of a terrorist attack on Oct. 28, 2002. Virginia Foley credits her STAR experience in 2006 as a major step in a long-term healing process. Read more …

Foley credits STAR

Dr. Alharith Abdulhameed Hassan, 56-year-old professor of psychiatry at the University of Baghdad, was shot while traveling to work on Dec. 6, according to an e-mail sent in mid-January by his bereaved widow, Maysa Hussam Jaber, to friends at 91����Ƶ.

Both Alharith and Maysa attended trainings under 91����Ƶ