Becoming Catalyst for Change

91短视频 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短视频 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鈥檚 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短视频. 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短视频 received the grant after responding to a notice by HED earlier this year seeking a university willing to participate in the exchange program.

91短视频鈥檚 past involvement in similar projects made the Harrisonburg school an ideal choice for the exchange program with Somaliland. 鈥淲e had some good experience in helping other programs get started in other countries,鈥� said Potter.

Somaliland 鈥楺uite Peaceful鈥�

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短视频 and the Somaliland school, and left impressed with the region鈥檚 political climate.

鈥淪omaliland is quite peaceful,鈥� said Jenner. 鈥淭he people there are very proud of their elected democratic government. I felt completely safe there.鈥�

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 Hargeisa, and small towns.

Cultural Bonds

Barry Hart, associate professor of trauma and conflict studies at 91短视频, is one of three instructors from 91短视频 who will go to Hargeisa in the spring of 2008 to teach and work with faculty from the latter university.

Staff from 91短视频, 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短视频 involved in the exchange program hope that their initiative in Hargeisa will enable the university there to help pave the way for peace throughout Somalia.

Citizens of Somalia have enough in common culturally to make peace possible, said Hart, adding that he and other 91短视频 officials hope that the people of Somaliland 鈥渃an, over time, become a catalyst for change.鈥�

[Reprinted from a November 6, 2007, article by Tom Mitchell of the Harrisonburg ]