January‘06

We "wagabonds" have also been traveling as well as working from an office. I have already been to Sri Lanka twice and will be going back shortly.   Tsunami took us by surprise. We landed in Chennai on the 1st of January. Ashok started work on 2nd. He organized a state level survey to be conducted by 1500 social work students in all the affected areas. I was away in Ashok's home town, shifting his home from Coonoor to Coimbator . When I returned to Chennai on the 17 th, I also started the tsunami work.  

At the moment I am not affiliated to any one organization. I work as the need arises. Ashok is back teaching in college and also volunteering with the various tsunami projects. We were both in the affected villages and the stories are pathetic. Many lives have been lost and a lot of property washed away.

Dec. ‘06

I am working as the Associate Director--Praxis in the Henry Martyn Institute: International Center for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation (HMI). I head four teams: Conflict Transformation, Community Development, Women’s Interfaith Journey, and Relief and Rehabilitation. In this job I use my learning in both social work and conflict transformation.  

The Relief and Rehabilitation project is related to tsunami and is funded by MCC . I directly work with a vibrant team of nine members and 20 other project staff. We use workshops as a methodology for intervention. I facilitate a lot of workshops, along with the team. I enjoy what I do especially because it is an integration of social work and peacebuilding work.  

I travel quite a bit with my work to North East India. I will shortly be traveling to Gujarat and Kashmir . I also went to Pakistan as part of the Fulbright team from India .  

I still volunteer with OFERR, the refugee organization, through my interactions with Ashok. Also, I am still working on my PhD and it looks like I will submit by Jan 2007.  

This summer we had the privilege of having many of the South Asian Fulbright scholars from CTP along with Nancy Good Sider and Jayne Docherty visit us in our home in Chennai. I also went to Pakistan , Sri Lanka and Manipur and met with my class mates. We have truly been blest to have had these opportunities. In fact, recently I went to Babloo's house to see his third baby, born one day after his wife ate the food I cooked in his house in Manipur.  

I am still happily married to Ashok and think that being in EMU together helped us in building that bond.

November 2007:

Upon returning to India, I co-founded Rang Sutra, a federation of grassroots organizations from around India who work for the economic and social empowerment of rural producer groups. Now I am running a small company (part of the federation) that markets the products of over 1,000 artisans from remote and tribal regions of India.  This company sells to Fabindia (a main markerter in India of Indian made quality fabrics, crafts and other products).

While at CJP I dreamed up this company, and did the ground work in a major paper for one of my classes. When I returned to India, I got it implemented.  You can read more about this organization at www.rangsutra.com.

My daughter is now in her last year of college at Lady Shri Ram College where Rina Kashyap (MA ’07) and Shweta Singh (SPI ’06) teach.

Stephen is currently the Director of an ecumenical (including both Protestants and Catholics) non-profit organization called Calcutta Urban Service, which is based in the city of Kolkata. The organization is the only one its kind and works mainly in the following development issues:

• Peace and Non-violence: training and developing peacebuilding programs
• Gender Justice: advocacy for public policy changes
• Environment and Ecology: homestead land development for the marginalized, agro-forestry and nutrition
• Sustainable Development: good governance and public policy changes on development issues
• Child Rights: pertaining to working, street kids and children involved in crime-related livelihood
• HIV/AIDS Prevention: focuses on the right to the workplace of affected with HIV/AIDS, incorporating public policy changes

“My primary duties as the Director involve promoting the work of CUS within and outside the church circles, raising resources, and leading a highly trained group of professionals in the activities of the organization. These activities are researched and well documented. CUS is a member of the Urban Rural Mission of the National Christian Council of India.”

Stephen and his wife Florence live in central Kolkata with their two daughters and son. The eldest daughter is graduating this year with a major in sociology from Calcutta University. The second daughter and son are in high school.

Since July 1, 2004 I am working as Assistant Professor/Lecturer in the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, a part of Jamia Millia Islamia, a university based in New Delhi. I design and teach courses on Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding to post-graduate students, and I supervise students for fieldwork. Besides this, I assist with organizational and administrative duties from time to time such as organizing and coordinating seminars, workshop, conferences etc.  

From April 2003 to April 2004 I worked on the project "Democracy & Human Development: South Asia Context" which was conducted at the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research (MCPR), an interdisciplinary Centre within the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. The Project explored democracy and human development as interconnected processes that could bring sustainable peace and cooperation in South Asia. Besides this, I also performed other organizational and administrative work at the Centre.

Early in September of 2005 the Malaviya Centre’s Program on “Conflict Management and Development” invited me to deliver a series of lectures on issues relating to Conflict, Development and Environment in the One Year Diploma Program.

I have also presented two papers and had three articles published.

That was all about my work and professional career. Now on a personal note,I got married on 27 May, 2005 to Mr. Ashwin Parijat Anshu, Assistant Professor in a college in Delhi University. He teaches Modern Indian History.  

Aküm recently began the enormous undertaking of launching a daily newspaper: The Morung Express, a daily publication of the Morung for Indigenous Affairs and JustPeace. This is a non-profit foundation seeking to deliberately and consciously contribute towards social transformation by generating critical consciousness in the region. Besides the foundation, Aküm and his family have put a considerable amount of resources into this launch, which he believes will and should survive.

In a region that is known to be the oldest armed conflict in the sub-continent, the voices of the people have been drowned in the midst of war, and with the role of an independent media being crucial, Aküm describes The Morung Express: “We reach out to students, educational institutions, professionals, activists, youths and the age group that will be today’s and tomorrow’s change makers. What makes our paper different is that we are an independent alternative newspaper, not affiliated to any political or commercial party, but a paper driven by our commitment and passion for justice and peace.

“We are a paper that strives to be rooted in the realities of the people and aspire to create space for the voices of grassroots, whose voices are never heard. We seek to be a people-centered paper.

“We are struggling to exist in a market driven by fierce competition, where there are already four Naga English papers (some of which are leaning towards state electoral politics). Our challenge is to maintain our independence in the midst of many powerful stake-holders who may not wish to see the presence of an independent newspaper that aspires to stand on principles and values.”

Manjri is Senior Program Officer at WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace), a peacebuilding initiative of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility of HH The Dalai Lama, New Delhi .

She is also a member of the Core Faculty for the Peacebuilding Diploma Program at Lady Shri Ram College for Women ( LSR ), University of Delhi . At LSR, she teaches courses on Justice and Reconciliation; Nonviolence; and Conflict Analysis and Conflict Transformation.

As a Fulbright Conflict Resolution Scholar, she holds a Masters degree in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, U.S.A. She recently published a book titled Multi-Track Diplomacy between India and Pakistan: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Security (Manohar, New Delhi , 2005) and has co-authored, with Meenakshi Gopinath, two resource books on conflict transformation titled Transcending Conflict and Dialogic Engagement. She has also co-authored, with Deepti Mahajan, a monograph titled Kashmir: Engaging with Possibilities. A trainer in the field of peacebuilding, Manjri designs curriculum and conducts workshops on various aspects of dialogue, nonviolence and conflict transformation.   

Lecturer Department of Social Work
Loyola College-Chennai 600 034    

In the post tsunami scenario we are actively engaged in lobbying and advocacy to rehabilitate the poor people who are still reeling in the temporary shelters. In order to take stock of the situation, we carried out a study over the last month in 178 sites. The following is an article written based on the study.  

From an ’05 note:

After a lot of thinking and hard work I am now ready for a Conflict Transformation workshop. This is the first of a series of workshops planned for the Ceylonese Refugees in India . After we returned to India , the Organization for Eelam Refugee Rehabilitation put a peace collar around my neck and asked me get involved in their peace work. The offer was irresistible as this gave me a playground to practice my newly acquired tricks from my tool box.  

The peace workshops are planned at three levels. First, 30 trainers receive training, second, they take it to the four regions and train the field staff, and finally, the field staff reach it to the people. Trainings in dialogue and training is advocacy will soon follow.   The first training of trainers is happening on the 26th of April 2005 .

I have tried my best to work an agenda that would provide a basic understanding of conflict transformation and skills. However this will be followed by a second level.  

As I go into it I am filled with a lot of uncertainties and concerns such as: All the materials are in English and the training is in Tamil How do I contextualize what I learned? How do I adopt the training methods to this situation? How do I Include the indigenous ideas and methods of CT? I can go on and on. I am braving the effort of going ahead with the workshop and learn lessons from it. I hope to consider this as another learning and an extension of CTP/CJP.      

I am now on staff at the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS), Graduate School, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta. The Center has been a leading academic program in promoting diversity and inter-religious dialogue. Currently, I have three main jobs at the Center:

• teaching assistance in religion and social science,
• writer of biweekly editorial in a local newspaper on actual issues from the perspectives of civic education, diversity and religious tolerance, and
• coordinating a program in social research training for lecturers from Islamic colleagues throughout Indonesia.

This month I joined a regional organization, Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN). In November 2006, I joined an interfaith peace mission, consisting of five different religious leaders and human rights activists in Asia to visit West Papua. Our mission is to document human right issues and especially interfaith initiatives in the West Papua.

The book I wrote before coming to EMU has been published:
The Image of the other as Enemy: Radical Discourse in Indonesia

Muhammad Iqbal Ahnaf
ISBN 978-974-93619-9-3
140x210 mm, 86 pages

“This book analyzes the systematic construction of the image of the Other, that is, non-Muslims, by two radical Islamic groups, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia ( HTI) and Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI). The author documents discourse patterns in the groups' publications and speeches stereotyping non-Muslims as hostile towards Islam and imagining Islam's imminent victory after an inevitable clash with all other civilizations.

Although these groups do not engage in physical violence, the author categorizes their efforts to stereotype non-Muslims as “symbolic violence.” Moreover, in the long run, their activities may be counterproductive because of the religious and ethnic pluralism of Indonesian society.”

Happy news: the birth of our new baby on October 11, 2006. I call my son “Abrar,” after my close friend from Pakistan while we were at CJP. Our son’s full name is Abrar Karunia Ramadhan.

After graduation from EMU, I’ll do an internship at VIVAT International, a faith-based NGO associated with the UN under the ECOSOC in New York. I envision my future work focusing on the issues of Human Rights, Sustainable Development and Eco-peacebuilding in Indonesia. I plan to work at our national, in Jakarta-based, NGO "PADMA Indonesia" in partnership with VIVAT International and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

February 2008:  

I have been invited to provide some advice to the Nepali National High Commission on Peacebuilding. Part of the job is to support peace committees for each district in the country. This is a politically dicey time, and these committees are to be conflict prevention tools.

Last October I held a four-day training for 15 Nepali facilitators who will be deployed to set up these new Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction local peace committees. I will continue to have a coaching role with them over the coming months.

Other tasks include working with United Mission to Nepal in establishing its conflict transformation programme in seven parts of the country, instituting an internal conciliation service for the organization, and working with Nepali Christians to provide trainings in forgiveness and reconciliation for church leaders.

First Report:

We arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, in Sept. ’06. We expect to be here four years, supported by The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, seconded to The United Mission to Nepal. I am to be "Peace Advisor to the Mission," working out of the 25 years experience of peace work I have been involved with in Ireland, my home country.  

The United Mission to Nepal involves some 50 international Christian mission organizations, and they have been working in development in Nepal since 1953. Peace work is a new program in response to the 10 year armed insurgency in the country. The Mission presently works in five regions of the country and in each region a Nepali peace worker will be appointed. My task will be to mentor and support them as they work with grass roots level community leaders, establishing alternative ways of working at conflict.  

Janet is a trained nurse/midwife and trauma counselor. She has participated in the STAR program at EMU. So she will contribute to the peace program as a resource person and have other pastoral care roles in the mission.

I am currently working as a News Editor in The Kathmandu Post, an English National Daily. Besides writing and editing stories and overseeing news production, I also write a fortnightly column, The Edge. I mostly cover political issues but also write on economic issues occasionally.

Besides journalism, I also do research on issues related to conflict and peace. It is there I mostly use my knowledge and skills gained at the CJP as a graduate student of Conflict Transformation and Peace Building. Just recently, I led a team of Nepali researchers to prepare a country case study on "private sector and conflict" for the International Alert, London.     

On personal front, hoping to get married this March and be a proud father of a lovely daughter in a few years' time.

7/07
2007 has been a whirlwind for me. Early 2007 I worked with the Catholic Relief Services in Cambodia as Program Manager--Counter Trafficking in Persons.

After six months I moved back to Nepal. Currently I am working with the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) in the Political Affairs Division. Nepal is currently going through a very fragile peace process, and I am glad in so many ways that I am part of the peace process. Being back in Nepal after two years (critical two years) seems surreal. There are so many new organizations and acronyms that I tend to get lost in translations. It just goes to show the money influx into Nepal!!!!

I am reading like crazy to come to speed with all the time lost while at the US. Today I realize how far removed my analysis of the Nepal conflict was while at CJP. The conflict dynamics are changing every day.

1/18/07
I joined CJP as a Fulbright Scholar in Aug 2005 and became an active and “hyper” part of the CJP community. In fact, January 2007 was when my practicum was due. While searching for a practicum placement, I landed a job with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Cambodia !!!!!  

I am currently working with the CRS in Cambodia as Program Manager--Counter Trafficking in Persons. I have been here for a month now. Cambodia has been real fascinating, and I am absolutely enjoying my work. It's hectic trying to set up a whole new program--from planning to recruitment to implementation—but then I am not complaining, as I am just loving all this. In addition I am also writing my reflection papers for the practicum. So it’s an interesting transition for me.  

There is so much I bring to this job in terms of critical thinking, analysis and theoretical frameworks and adaptations to suit Cambodia that I sometimes surprise myself. Thanks to CJP for that. I am glad that I came to CJP, yeah, this is in total contradiction to what I felt when I first arrived at Harrisonburg. But now I miss every single thing about CJP and Harrisonburg . I could go on and on--but stop I must.

Anjana is the chairperson for Himalayan Human Rights Monitors and director of the women and development program at INHURED International. Recently she has been working with Nepalis displaced from their home communities by the country's warring factions.

She has also focused on preventing the trafficking of humans. She frequently travels outside Nepal representing her country at regional and international conferences.

April ‘06

I have not been able to communicate much with anyone of you as I was totally involved with monitoring, observation, and negotiation of the recent people's movement. This is the first time I have been so close to bullets, tear gas, tire-burning fumes which became my daily routine for almost three weeks. I have seen people being brutally oppressed which influenced me to also work on not just documenting the injured and missing but to provide emergency support.

It was a healing process for me to talk to those who were brutally beaten and or shot, to realize they are still alive but require other supports. Through Plan Nepal we have a small resource to provide emergency support for the people who are seriously injured with or without dependents. We are further trying organize trauma counseling.

News April, 2006

October ‘06

Congratulations to Howard! I am sooooo happy to know you received the award once again. I was in DC and NY for a short time in October but I just could not call. I had come to attend UNICEF Technical Meeting on Paris Priciples and Guiding Principles on the same.

Right now I am trying to raise money to conduct a National Conference on Girl Children, and I want to take at least one girl child to the next UN CSW session in NYC during first two weeks of March. I just finished conducting a Mock Child parliament in the Eastern Region and I am raising money for the next three regions. It’s very exciting to see how young people change and how great they are.

I think we have been able to make a huge difference in what we have been able to do with this program, as we were the first ones to conduct it in depth and with Parliament joint secretaries. Now UNICEF and other organizations are interested in conducting these programs. It’s really a good program for leadership development, self-confidence, inclusive participation, gender balance, and good governance.

February 5-6, 2007, I will be in Paris, attending the Ministerial Meeting on Paris Principle on protection of children with armed conflict and armed groups, Free Children from War. (Actually, I was not expecting to be invited as only limited governments would be invited based on the information given in the technical meeting that was conducted by UNICEF in NY, Oct 2006 which I attended.) I would not like to refuse the invitation as I am the only NGO invited besides the Foreign Minister.

My organization and I have been focusing a lot of our work on release and reintegration of children caught in the armed conflict. Actually, after I returned from EMU we worked for the release of people from both the Maoists and the Army, as well as other smaller groups. I started another program within HimRights called Lifeline which focused on saving people in grave human rights violations, extra-judicial killings and disappearances, abductions, imprisonment, rapes, witchcraft, and other issues. We have conducted hundreds of fact findings and monitoring of these cases.  Now, people come to us when they get no justice from other organizations.

I am the founder and director of the Rural and Community Development Center, J-CON. “J” stands for the “Jaagaran” which means “to awaken from inside to do whatever we want to do outside; alternative approaches for humanistic development.”

When I completed the MA in conflict transformation from EMU in April, 2004, I returned to Nepal to continue this work.

The office of J-CON is in Kathmandu, but it is a rural development program in Sankhuwasabha District of Nepal. We serve 3000 households, economically poor and socially disadvantaged. The goal of our program is to improve their quality of life, to empower these persons, and to build their capacity to act for themselves. We want to help them find hope, confidence in themselves, and dignity.

The development projects include agricultural training, caring for livestock and helping them identify tools for supporting themselves. Since 2005, Heifer Project, Int., has given funding support to J-CON.

I also lead training and workshops in conflict transformation, leadership development, and team building. My wish is to create a space for dialogue and finding common ground between the peoples of Nepal. I see the development work as focusing on the root causes of conflict, and the trainings as giving the people tools to meet each other in peacebuilding dialogues.

“To awaken from inside to do what we want outside,” is the vision, the alternative approach to humanistic development, I have for all our work.

Since October ’05, I am working with the European Commission as their Political Advisor. My main task is to provide analysis of political situations from the perspective of peacebuilding, human rights and development. My work will influence European aid to Nepal a large extent. It is a huge responsibility.

While I was at CJP I used to talk in our Development and Peacebuilding class about making aid and donor agencies "conflict sensitive." Now it is my chance (and challenge) to make one institution more sensitive.

Since my return to Nepal I have worked with the private sector to encourage their involvement in peacebuilidng. I helped start the National Business Initiative, which has 14 large businesses as members, and they are keen to contribute in national peacebuilding projects. I am continuing with them as a weekend volunteer.

January 2008:

I am currently working as Team Leader for a project called Jana Awaaj (meaning People's voices) with the Center for International Studies and Cooperation.  It is a project funded by Canadian Independent Development Association. The aim of this project is to enhance the participation of women and socially excluded groups in the making of a new constitution.

My job is focused on implementing the project in 16 districts of the five development regions in Nepal.  We are carrying out massive education and awareness raising sessions on the CA process, enabling socially excluded groups to carry out discussions on CA related issues so that their voice can be heard at the policy level.  It is very challenging because the districts in Nepal are very diverse, not only ethnically but also culturally, socially and economically. I find my job very enriching because I share similar values with this organization, and I am very happy to be involved in a project directly affiliated with the political transformation process as a step towards peacebuilding.

I have also worked with Action Asia team to conduct a four-modular training on Building Peace and Trust in Nepal.  It also was a very enriching experience, and my article on restorative justice in the context of Nepal has been published in the Action Asia journal.  I am working with Emma Leslie who is Secretariat for the Action Asia team.

November 2006:

I have been working with CARE Nepal for five months now. I am working on a survey of like minded organizations working around peace building and conflict sensitivity.

It was a historical moment for Nepal yesterday with the Maoist leader and the present Prime Minister signing the peace agreement and ending the war.  We had a holiday today to celebrate the signing of the peace agreement.  I hope things will be better for all Nepali people here onwards. 

I am currently working as a Consultant for Education Sector Advisory Team (ESAT) a project funded by DANIDA. It is a full time job for six months duration. Some of my major responsibilities are to give technical advice on conflict transformation and peacebuilding, to carry out impact assessment of conflict and political instability in the education sector, and also to give advice for the capacity building of teachers in the same sector.  

My job is very challenging because it is a nation-wide program to support the capacity building of teachers, and we work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Sports/Department of Education where every single project activity has to be approved by the Ministry.  

Currently, I am working on a proposal to strengthen the capacity of the education sector with the involvement of International, Regional and National expertise.  

ESAT does not itself have the flexibility to implement any programs. Every single activity has to be approved by the Ministry of Education and Sports itself, which I feel is very challenging.  

Besides this job, I have also completed an assessment of the Community Mediation Project for The Asia Foundation and worked as a team member to complete a report on Gender, Ethnicity, Culture and Conflict for IIDS.  

January 2005:

I just joined CARE Nepal as Advisor for Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding.  This is my third day at work and currently I am trying to break all the ice to get to know people better and find out how best I could be an asset as a member of the team.  Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding is a new initiative for CARE Nepal and this position is new too, so I have a lot of scope to work hard over here and put all the theories on CTPB to practical use here.

CARE is quite a huge organization but there are many familiar faces around here, people that I worked with 14 years ago.  My God how things have changed.  It is quite interesting to come back to the same organizations with so much transformation, within yourself and within the organization too.  Did I tell you that I worked for CARE from 1992 to 1994.  At that time I joined as a fresh young girl straight from university with very little knowledge about development.  Now I am joining CARE after all these years with expertise in some areas like gender and social inclusion, good governance, and conflict transformation and peacebuilding.  I am quite excited.

September 2007:

I am in Kabul (Afghanistan) for a four month consultancy as Technical Adviser to the Government on social issues and child focused social work.

April 2007:

Last week I attended a two-day conference at Istanbul, Turkey, arranged by Young Democratic Leaders. The conference was attended by leaders and peace builders from more than 40 countries. Since it was the first meeting of this group, many decisions took place through a democratic way, and the name chosen is Forum for Peace and Democracy. Plans are to arrange yearly meetings in different parts of the world and to increase the number of participants.

I plan to finish my consultancy in Afghanistan this month, training government officials in social work and peace. I developed a reference book and training manual, and the officials I am training will further train their partners and colleagues.   Inshallah, in June I will pick up the three main projects of Justpeace: one year, with a Greek NGO and funded by the Greek government, on European perspectives for earthquake affectees, a three-year project for the victims of torture, with the same Greek NGO, funded by European Union, and one by the Pakistani government and USAID on social mobilization in tribal areas.

December 2006:

I left Oxfam and am now working from Just Peace International, a local NGO that I helped to create. Presently I have many projects in hand, by the grace of GOD. For Pakistani Television I have started thirteen episode programs, on the most violent conflict reported in the press on a daily basis, under the title, “Why it’s Happened.” We identify the roots of the issue where most of the conflicts start. We ask the opinions of the police, religious experts, traditional jirga practitioners, psychological specialists, and then I begin and end the program with conflict transformation methods. The programs will be on air from the 1st of January.

Inshallah, I am beginning a four months’ consultancy from an NGO consortium headed by Terry de Hommes and funded by European Union to train the social welfare officers of Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare in Afghanistan on social work and peace building.

I am also beginning another very heavy project with a Greek NGO named European Perspective, to start a two-year project for Victims of Torture. The program is mostly for the victims of community violence, and those who were in the Afghan war.

With UNICEF I introduced Restorative justice system and started building the capacity of implementing partners. The first mediation center will begin from January 2007.

Till now I taped six interviews for another project, my dream even while at EMU, to record the stories of Bacha Khan, SERVANT OF GOD, as told by his friends. My vision is to dub their non-violent stories and share these stories of non-violence with peace institutions around the world. I am presently looking for funding. One article was recently published in Restorative Directions Journal, a journal from Canada, and another one will be published in December from Belgium.

The Jirga research book and restorative justice book are being circulated in Afghanistan and Pakistan both, and the leading newspapers are writing book reviews on their importance. One such review is forwarded  for your information.

I think these are sufficient for the record. More information is available on the web, www.justpeaceint.cjb.net that will be soon updated.

First Report:

I have begun working with Oxfam Great Britian to end honor killing. Oxfam began a campaign for behavioral change in different parts of the world. For Asia they selected the theme of Violence against Women; in Pakistan the campaign focuses on "honor killing" a practice common all over Pakistan, and in my Province in particular.

Our NGO working with Afghan refugees is also in full swing especially in the field of training. UNHCR has given us Eastern Afghanistan to train UN staff. In Pakistan we are training partners in peacebuilding and co-existence among some of the most conflicted tribal areas. Restorative justice is now coming side by side with jirga to make the traditional system work with needs of the present time.

After returning to Pakistan, I started working from May 3. I am working on a project for strengthening teachers' network and support systems, and all the issues and problems related to teachers to be brought to the policy makers. The project aims that a certain percentage of teachers must be represented when policies and plans are made. This is currently missing in the education policy plans here. This project is the first of its kind in Pakistan . (They are a lot of other details related to it).  

The place is very friendly and I have made many new friends. On the 25th we are holding a Consultative Workshop from policy makers at the government level, to NGOs, Teachers' Unions and Associations, and educationists.  

I am really liking my work, and I am so happy to be back. That does not mean that I have forgotten EMU. The beautiful memories, friends and experiences will always stay with me. EMU has become a part of me.

Nov. '06

My work is going well. Holding many sessions in various cities in Pakistan on "introduction to conflict and peacebuilding." People are being drawn to it, and I am getting various invitations from groups to hold such sessions.

Kamal joined the same organization in Peshawar on his return, the Frontier Constabulary.  He jumped into active policing as District Police Officer in the Punjab Police, commanding a whole southern district for a short while. He did not accept some illegal and irregular demands and was transferred immediately. He is no more in Police because he cannot change the system and can never become part of it. 

In October 2005 he joined PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) on deputation as General Manager for Punjab Province. The organization is responsible for regulation of private electronic media, including Satellite TV Channels, FM radio stations and Cable TV Operators.

PEMRA has also established a forum where complaints against stakeholders are addressed in an amicable way instead of approaching Criminal and Civil courts.

Let's hope this job is for the better. Pakistan has not changed while we were away, rather we have taken a U turn. We are not giving up hope because this is the only thing we have, but this is a very difficult time for those Pakistanis who can think.

Hassan is Chief Economist, Government of North West Frontier Province, Peshawar, Pakistan

The earthquake of October 8, 2005, has been one of the worst times in the recent history of our people. One cannot imagine what kind of miseries the people of the worst affected areas are undergoing, and there is not much that even we can do to support them at individual levels. The government, as well as the aid agencies, are working together. Tented villages have been organized where medical support, food and schooling facilities are available. But there is still a big area in the mountains which remains inaccessible for outsiders to reach. With the snow season, the UN is predicting an even larger catastrophe for the people who are still alive but either refuse to leave their destroyed villages or are not able to come down the mountains due to land sliding on mountain tracks.

I have been busy working for my government, first to participate in the relief operations and later for rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. Since more than 50% of the affected area falls under the Government of NWFP, I, as part of my job, am working on finding ways and means to maintain some stability in the macro economic front for the Province.

January 2008:

While concluding my doctoral work at Bradford University in U.K., I have moved to Sri Lanka, taking the position of Development and Reconciliation Advisor at the United Nations Resident Coordinator's Office.  My role is to mainstream conflict sensitivity in UN development interventions, provide strategic analysis of the peace and conflict dynamics, catalyze a national process for political settlement, and support peacebuilding at the community level. 

First Report:

Samuel terminated his position as Executive Director of the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) to focus on his Ph. D. studies at the University of Bradford in the UK. He began the Ph.D. program in August of 2004.

5/07 Susan Granada has been named a "Modern Mother for Peace" by the Ploughshares Fund and is featured in their Rediscovering Mother's Day Campaign. Click the following link to learn more: http://www.rediscovermothersday.org/sgranada.asp.

1/06 I'm back in Jaffna after a 3-week vacation in the Philippines. Our team made a reentry to Jaffna yesterday in a most difficult time. The travel was uneventful, but a day before yesterday there was one claymore mine blast. . . . The situation in the North and East is really getting very bad. Along our travel route we saw droves of people from one village in Jaffna taking refuge in an LTTE controlled village. We witnessed movements of soldiers, all in arms, along with a convoy of military vehicles. Just this morning we have heard the news that food stocks are gradually getting depleted in the shops. A visitor just informed us that, “ Jaffna is ready for war.” The situation is like watching a war movie in motion. But I play a role here!  

I'm part of those who do the 'patrolling,' but doing it nonviolently. I often remember one thing: being a peace-builder does not guarantee immunity from the violence that any conflict situation brings. For above all other people, the peace-builder, similar to a soldier (no matter to which party one belongs), “prays for peace, for they suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of conflict and war.”

  “We are staying!” Over and over we say this to people, to assure them that we will be with them. We feel comforted that many in Jaffna have remained resolute. We see children who continue to go to schools. Men and women continue to go to churches and temples. Shops remain open, with stocks continuing to be replenished. Though in the evening, people observe a de facto curfew at 6 pm. . . . .  

In an inter-agency meeting of internationals this afternoon we were discussing emergency plans. If war would break out, displacements of people may reach to 100,000. We diiscussed how we would assist the displaced, and how internationals would find safety. When asked of our plans, we said that we will be moving with the people, where they will be. I said that this is the mandate of Nonviolent Peaceforce--to be with the people and to protect them. . . .  

I think in Jaffna, I am at the right place at the right time. Despite the emergency situation, I am happy and fully alive. My “political past” keeps popping up and tries to reconnect to my present, which is nice. I am always amazed on how situations unfold and I readily cope with them. I attribute that to the grace of God, and my "training." We are preparing at the moment for one big mobilization, and the year 1995 just flashed back to me. I hope that this will be nonviolent as it was in the Philippines in 1995.  

Please continue to remember us, the people in Sri Lanka, who have been suffering.

~ Susan is on a two-year assignment with the Non-violent Peaceforce group as a member of the civilian "peace army". She is one of 10 people from nine countries working with local groups to underpin the 2001 cease fire by protecting human rights, deterring violence, and helping local peaceworkers. (Peacebuilder '05)

January 2008:

I am beginning as a PhD candidate (Development Studies) at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands. My research is going to focus on how the space of development work can be utilized to bring about reconciliation among grassroots while the civil wars are still continued at track one level. The idea is to find an interim reconciliation process while the violence is on (in civil war situations) that will strengthen peoples capacities to make effective contributions to national level peace building and build people's peace movement (bottom up). As you know, according to the traditional view, reconciliation comes last in the process. But I want to find something without taking it as a post conflict priority, because you never know when a conflict like that in Sri Lanka will end? (This is going to be the case for many other countries in the 3rd world.)  So my research is bit of "swimming against the current." But by working with all the levels in the society of Sri Lanka, I am convinced that we need to do more work at the grassroot level to influence the corrupted, profit making civil society and track 1.

First Report:

I am now working for German Technical Cooperation in Sri Lanka, as an advisor and lead trainer for a project called FLICT (Facilitating Local Initiative for Conflict Transformation) in their capacity building endeavors. We are running a program for 30 mid-career and career professionals from various backgrounds and age groups from all across Sri Lanka, equipping them with knowledge in conflict transformation. Our goal is to enable them to coach local organizations in far away corners in Sri Lanka in doing better peacebuilding work so that projects reach the maximum level of impact. The current course is running till January ‘07. Afterwards, we will be training three or four more groups. The in-house preparations for the second batch of trainees are already underway.

So far, I have been designing the modules on various aspects of peacebuilding and also lecturing and conducting training sessions as the lead trainer for many sessions. It is such a lot of work, as the program is very high standard. I am very happy to work on this project, as it really addresses many gaps in peace building efforts in Sri Lanka. I am also helping FLICT to carry out evaluations on their previous engagements with various partner organizations.

Weekends, I again work as a visiting lecturer at the University of Colombo (where I was teaching before I entered the MA program), conducting a certificate program for new staff at the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs. The young staff think the solution to the problem in Sri Lanka is to fight against the LTTE. So I have begun the process of “positive and peaceful” brainwashing them with my learnings at EMU! From recently I began lecturing at the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the same university for a group of post graduate students, who are enthusiastically listening to my stories of conflict transformation, restorative justice and etc.

This fall I also joined a training team conducting a program for Buddhist monks. This is a great opportunity as they are a controversial group in Sri Lanka’s peace building efforts. Hopefully, a few of them can become positive voices against the current politicized set of monks who appear on the TV and newspapers on an every day basis.

When hearing the feedback from my participants and my senior foreign colleagues about my work, I feel very happy and appreciate more my study and learning at EMU.

As you may already know, the situation in Sri Lanka is really bad, and it is very risky to work for NGOs as well, particularly if you a local. I have minimized my traveling to the troubled areas, but, even in Colombo, life is not predictable. But thanks to my students from all the corners of Sri Lanka, I have been able to be in touch with the ground realities of war and peace in Sri Lanka.

So, I am spending a lot of time on reading and writing! Anyway they are my favorite "things".

Dev Ramiah works for the UN Development Programs as the Peace and Development Analyst. In this capacity he oversees the implementation of a small grants fund for peace building, which develops local capacities for peace and supports other initiatives which develop national capacities for conflict prevention. He is also a visiting faculty for the Conflict Resolution and Peace Preparedness Program of the Bradford University and the joint United Nations University for Peace and Bandaranayake Center for International Studies program on conflict resolution and peace skills. He advocates for reconciliation among the ethnic communities by teaching restorative justice and reconciliation courses, which mainly focus on military personnel and NGO workers.  

Reconciliation remains a key area of focus for Dev Ramiah, and he has been involved in research in this subject area. Recently, he and a colleague co-authored a paper in his personal capacity as part of the Policy Options for Democratic Reform series published by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). It was titled "Reconciliation and the Peace Process in Sri Lanka : Frameworks, Challenges and Ways Forward". Dev remarks in the preface that the CJP SPI environment and interactions have inspired him to continue working in reconciliation.  

Dev lives in Sri Lanka with his wife Shimi, who is a journalist.

I am currently a member of the team at Hope International Development Agency in Yangon, Myanmar, where I work alongside four other people who also went through CJP programs.

Hope International works directly with civil society partners in Myanmar to enhance their capacities to facilitate constructive social change. Additionally, Hope International attempts to influence the international community to engage in Myanmar to support constructive change processes.

I still have lots of photos of CJP friends and events posted on my bulletin board at home.

Unlike me, my children have changed a lot since our time in Harrisonburg. Caitlin is now in her first year at college in the US, and Braedan is in the middle of his 11 th grade year here in Yangon!

I'm working as a Programs Facilitator at Hope International Development Agency in Yangon, Myanmar.  

Currently, we have three CTP alumni and an SPI participant in our organization: S’Lont Mun ‘05, Carol Gowler ‘03, David Tegenfeldt ‘04 and Aung Tun SPI ‘05. We also partner with the Shalom Foundation where Ja Nan Lahtaw ‘04 is the Assistant Director.  

Hope International basically works in partnership with local organizations, supporting them in their programs such as development projects, capacity building, trainings and workshops, consultations, and situation analysis, using the peacebuilding knowledge and background that we learned from CTP.  

Working together, we're trying to contribute as much as we can. We're still at a very early stage and hope someday we'll see the fruits of our work.

Currently I work with Hope International in Yangon . Hope International works directly with civil society partners in Myanmar to enhance their capacities to facilitate constructive social change. Additionally, Hope International attempts to influence the international community to engage in Myanmar to support constructive change processes.

We have four CTP alumni and an SPI participant in our organization: David Tegenfeldt ‘04 is director, Naw Naw Paw ’04, Carol Gowler ‘03, and Aung Tun SPI ’05 are my colleagues. We also partner with the Shalom Foundation where Ja Nan Lahtaw ‘04 is the Assistant Director.

Senior Advisor, Hope International Development Agency
Yangohn, Union of Myanmar

David Tegenfeldt has lived and worked in Myanmar for 20 years, having previously lived and worked in Thailand and the United States . His professional experience is in public health, management, community development, ethnic minority issues, social change and peacebuilding.

April, 2006

Following our study with CJP, my wife, Carol Gowler, and I returned to Myanmar to lead Hope International's program.

Hope International works directly with civil society partners in Myanmar to enhance their capacities to facilitate constructive social change. Additionally, Hope International attempts to influence the international community to engage in Myanmar to support constructive change processes.

In addition to advising, teaching, and training, I am an occasional speaker at international forums on Burma/Myanmar.

I am also an outdoor enthusiast and enjoy coaching and playing various sports.