By Jeremy Hunt, Daily News-Record

Folks representing cultures from all over the world dance Monday at an event marking the end of the first of four sessions of a peacebuilding program at 91短视频. Photo by Jeremy Hunt

Fiji is a beautiful country with picturesque beaches and stunning landscape.

But the Pacific Island nation struggles with inner turmoil and unrest.

A 2006 coup ousted the ethnic Fijian-dominated government and replaced it with a military government. It’s come under international criticism recently, with neighboring countries saying the government rejects democracy, freedom and human rights.

Koila Costello-Olsson finds herself in the middle of all this. In fact, it’s her job.

"A lot of it is old and deep-rooted and it’s transferred over the years," she said.

Costello-Olsson is the director of Pacific Peacebuilding, a nongovernmental agency in Fiji that aims to facilitate dialogue among opposing groups and train conflict resolution.

The most recent coup was one of several that have contributed to Fiji’s instability.

Among the issues that cause conflict are poorly managed resources and discriminatory policies, Costello-Olsson said.

To assist in her work, she studied at 91短视频’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Harrisonburg. She graduated the program with a master’s in 2005.

This year, she is teaching a course in the program, which is run through 91短视频’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

"For me, this is my support group," she said. "They have supported myself and my community tremendously."

The summer institute consists of four sessions that run over six weeks. The first session ended Monday, and the institute celebrated with food, music, dancing and a "cultural fashion show."

The summer institute brings together more than 200 participants from throughout the United States and more than 30 nations, including Bolivia, Afghanistan, Israel, China and Kenya, said Sue Williams, the institute’s director. Read more about these peacebuilders from 35 nations gathered to study healing and peace.

Some of the participants are earning course credit, Williams said, but more than half work for nongovernmental agencies for peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

The participants share ideas and discuss programs that have been successful in their countries, Williams said.

"The main focus of this institute is people who do this work," she said. "In my experience … nothing is directly exportable, but the ideas can be adapted."

They turned to greet neighbors, each invited to speak in his or her native language. Many said “Hello”; a few, “Hola!” or “Bonjour.” Sebastian Bukenya, a young Roman Catholic priest from Uganda, asked, “Oli otya!” (in the Luganda language, “How are you?”).

The mood among these 84 visitors from 35 nations seemed undampened either by chilly, wet weather or slightly reduced attendance as the 14th annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute opened May 4 at 91短视频.

Samuel Waihenya Njoroge from Kenya introduces himself in the opening session of the 2009 Summer Peacebuilding Institute. The first SPI session, May 4-12, drew 84 people from 35 countries.

“As I look at your faces and listen to your voices, I feel the presence of the whole world here,” SPI’s new executive director Sue Williams told the gathering in Martin Chapel.

Learners at SPI – a program operated by 91短视频’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding – work in humanitarian, conflict resolution and other peace-related areas in their home countries. Ninety-six had been expected for the opening session, but attendance has been deterred by visa restrictions combined with the global economic downturn and swine flu outbreak, Williams said.

Students combine faith and social issues with trauma healing

Bukenya, attending for the first time, had learned of SPI through his service on a peacebuilding team in Kampala. His parishioners, having endured prolonged hardships in their country’s 23-year-long civil war, face challenges that he characterized in part as “trauma healing and forgiveness.” Hoping to gain theoretical knowledge to strengthen skills he has been acquiring by practice, Bukenya has enrolled in two classes: “Faith-Based Peacebuilding” and “Philosophy and Praxis of Forgiveness and Reconciliation.”

“I’m fighting for the rights of women in Pakistan,” said Razia Joseph, president of the Women Shelter Organization in Faisalabad, a city in her nation’s Punjab region. Her organization promotes women’s education and health care, assists women in prison and provides shelter for victims of domestic violence. In contacts with fellow-peacebuilders in SPI, she hopes to call attention to the plight of the women in her country.

SPI global network now in the thousands

More than 2,200 alumni from all parts of the world have attended SPI. During four sessions spread over six weeks, SPI learners form cross-cultural friendships and working partnerships while studying many aspects of solving conflict.

New courses and instructors this year include “Faith-Based Peacebuilding,” offered by Roy Hange, co-pastor of Charlottesville Mennonite Church and Harrisonburg District overseer for the Virginia Mennonite Conference; and “Human Rights, Governance, and Peacebuilding,” taught by Dan Wessner, 91短视频 professor of international and political studies. SPI training sessions will include mediation and facilitating crime victim/offender dialogue.

(L. to r.): Mary Beth Spinelli, Krista Johnson and Pam Welsh, students in the MA in conflict transformation program and SPI participants, place symbols representing various cultural and faith traditions at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute on a table during a welcoming gathering.

“The ideal global learning experience would be for each of us to spend a year working alongside every person here,” said Williams. Although that is not possible, she noted, “We have SPI.” Williams replaced former SPI director Pat Hostetter Martin following her retirement last year.

Williams’ work includes healing in Northern Ireland

Before arriving on campus in Fall 2008, Williams had lived and worked in Northern Ireland, Uganda, Kenya and Botswana, and had served as a consultant on political mediation and dialogue in a training program for the Mediation Support Unit of the United Nation’s Department of Political Affairs.

Read more about William’s work in Ireland in the spring/summer issue of Peacebuilder. The magazine also details the work of other CJP professors and 91短视频 community members long involved in the peace process there.

“We are here to be learners and teachers. We are not here to have a vacation,” Williams noted. However, shared meals, sports, music and local sightseeing enrich the cultural learning.

The opening ceremony by CJP students featured symbols of diversity – small flags from many lands, colorful fabrics and religious symbols. A round loaf of bread served to symbolize unity. “If you are not familiar with the term, ‘potluck,’ you will be during your time at SPI,” an announcer promised. Read more about the opening ceremony and Koila Costello-Olsson from Fiji…

Masters in conflict transformation at CJP

Some SPI participants earn credit toward a masters’ from the CJP program, which has awarded degrees to about 300 graduates now working in more than 50 nations, said CJP executive director Lynn Roth.

A standby in SPI opening ceremonies is the introduction of each guest by home country. Nations represented this year included Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, Kenya, Palestine, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, the Ukraine, the UK, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Canada and Honduras.

Following prayers from several languages and faith traditions, the class work began.

The SPI program, with six intensive classes in each of the four sessions, will run through June 12.

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer living in Harrisonburg.

On Monday, June 2, Atyam told her powerful story of hate and desire for revenge changed to forgiveness toward those who devastated and traumatized her and many others.

SPI director Pat H. Martin introduces speaker Angelina Atyam from northern Uganda, citing “the testing her soul has gone through and finding the courage and grace to forgive others.” (Photo by Jim Bishop)

Atyam, 57, spoke at a “Frontiers in Peacebuilding” luncheon as part of the third session of the 2008 Summer Peacebuilding Institute at 91短视频. The 93 SPI participants from 35 countries were joined by many 91短视频 faculty and staff and community persons for the presentation.

Tens of Thousands Kidnapped

“Uganda is a beautiful country of 24 million people, but we have not enjoyed peace for many years,” she said. The east African country moved from a British colony to independence in 1962, but protracted civil war has spawned refugee camps and a special problem – young boys snatched from their homes to be trained to fill the ranks of rebel armies and young women to serve as sex slaves. Over the past 20 years, some 26,000 children have been documented as kidnapped and more than 6,000 others are unaccounted for.

In 1987, an anti-government group calling itself The Lord’s Resistance Army – “not the Lord that I serve,” Atyam noted – stormed St. Mary’s College, a boarding school for middle and high school students at night, taking close to 150 girl students hostage.

The assistant headmistress followed the rebels and pleaded repeatedly for their release. Eventually, the rebel leader agreed to let one group of 109 girls go and kept the remaining 30 girls. Atyam’s daughter, Charlotte, 14, was among the latter group.

Atyam was devastated by the situation. She recalled “seeing stoic men crying openly,” bemoaning the loss. Families who had lost a child banded together for support and prayer. During one prayer meeting, the group repeated the Lord’s prayer, and one line jumped out at Atyam – “and forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us.”

‘God was at work among us’

“I was convicted of the need to first deal with our feelings of hatred and to pray for forgiveness toward the rebels – we had put a curse on them. Praying for those who had wronged us became our sacrifice,” she said. “And we began to experience a lifting of our burdens. God was at work among us.”

The period of mourning and the commitment to fervent prayer prompted Atyam and others to form the Concerned Parents Association (CPA) to address the tragic issue of kidnapped children. The group’s motto – “Every child is my child.” The organization grew to include members – Christians, Muslims and non-believers – in seven districts across the country.

Atyam decided to visit the mother of the rebel leader who had taken her daughter as his wife. People were amazed at Angelina’s willingness to forgive the woman, her son and her tribe. “What do we gain by wishing the death of our enemies?” she asked. “God wants us to be forgiving, practical peacebuilders.”

Trauma Healing, Recovery

In the midst of the loss and great uncertainty, Mennonite Central Committee workers inquired what the organization could do to help. Atyam expressed gratitude that “MCC people came with offers of assistance but didn’t tell us what to do.”

The Concerned Parents Association invited MCC to work with them in focusing on trauma healing for parents and extended families of abducted children. Training sessions were held in the various districts with the aim of training persons who in turn would educate others in trauma recovery.

“We can’t do anything without also addressing the problem of AIDS and HIV-infection among the many displaced people,” Atyam told the audience. “We have many traumatized people who are unemployed, with nothing to do, and that creates its own problems.”

Twenty four of the 30 kidnapped children eventually were returned to their families, including Atyam’s daughter Charlotte. She came back, however, with two children she bore during her seven years and eight months in captivity.

While some criticized her for accepting back her daughter and grandchildren, Angelina could no more abandon these children than could her daughter. “These children sustained my daughter because they gave her love,” she said. “They are now my flesh and blood as well.”

What does Atyam desire most of all for her country?

‘Weapon of prayer’

“The priority is for God’s intervention in people’s lives,” she said. “We carry the weapon of prayer everywhere we go – even through checkpoints.”

Persons from Community Mennonite Church pray for Angelina Atyam and for the people of Uganda after she spoke in the Sunday worship service there June 1. (Photo by Jim Bishop)

In 1998, Atyam received a human rights award from the United Nations for her work on behalf of thousands of kidnapped children in Uganda. Following her time at 91短视频, she will travel to the UN and also meet with government officials in Washington, D.C., speaking on behalf of abducted children. Her connections are being coordinated by MCC’s New York and Washington offices.

She is one of about 20 people from 14 countries whom MCC sponsored to attend SPI 2008.

During her time at SPI, Atyam also spoke at local churches – Shalom, Community Mennonite, New Beginnings, Park View Mennonite and Charlottesville Mennonite Church.

International protests against cartoons of the prophet Muhammad inflamed tensions between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, sparking deadly riots in late February that claimed at least 138 lives in several cities.

There was widespread fear that riots would break out in many other parts of the country, including Jos, a central Nigerian city with a recent history of interreligious violence.

But local Muslim and Christian peacemakers worked together to reduce tensions in Jos through face-to-face meetings and cell phone text messaging. These efforts, as well as government security measures, prevented a violent confrontation in Jos, according to Gopar Tapkida, a (MCC) peace worker in the city.

Tapkida earned a master’s degree in from 91短视频 in 2001. He began his current assignment as an MCC peace worker in Jos weeks before interreligious riots engulfed the city on Sept. 7, 2001.

Teaching Peacemakers

Ever since interreligious riots erupted in Jos in 2001 and killed about 900 people, Tapkida and others have worked to teach peacemaking skills to Christians and Muslims in the region. He helped form groups of Christian and Muslim peacemakers in Jos and in the surrounding Plateau state.

On Feb. 23, during a week of heavy rioting in other cities, Tapkida met with 10 leading Muslim and Christian peacemakers in Jos to find ways to diffuse rising tensions.

“We agreed at this meeting that each one of us will serve as evangelists for peace,” Tapkida says.

Members of the group met with their friends and neighbors and spoke about how Christians and Muslims should resist calls for violence against each other.

Situation Defused

Tensions escalated in Jos as rumors spread that Muslims were preparing to attack Christians on Feb. 25 and that Christians were planning a reprisal attack. However, two Muslim peacemakers investigated the situation and found that Muslim teenagers were simply planning a demonstration against the cartoons of Muhammad.

The Muslim peacemakers sent text messages to inform Tapkida and other Christian peacemakers and eventually persuaded the teenagers to cancel their demonstration.

Tapkida says that the recent violence in Nigeria is a reflection of longstanding political divisions between Christians and Muslims. Nigeria’s population is divided about equally between the two religions.

Then, Tapkida says, he felt like a lone swimmer in an ocean of violence. But after the recent successes of peacemakers in Jos, he knows he is not alone.

“Today, as I look at the situation, the ocean is still there, but I don’t see myself swimming alone,” Tapkida says. “There are people that are swimming alongside.”

91短视频 has been named the winner of a refereed competition among U.S. universities to host the for this year and the next two years.

In a ceremony held Sept. 3 to celebrate the award, 91短视频 president Loren E. Swartzendruber welcomed 14 Fulbright scholarship recipients to 91短视频