This article is from the EMU News Archive. The approximate date of publication was in October 2003. Current EMU news is available at www.emu.edu/news
TO EMU HEADLINE NEWS | CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM | USIP
EMU'S CTP Program Awarded Grants
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, D.C., has awarded two grants totaling nearly $80,000 to the Conflict Transformation Program (CTP) at Eastern Mennonite University.One of the grants reflects CTP’s role in spawning peacebuilding initiatives and institutes around the world and their need for assistance to grow.
Using a USIP grant of $39,971, CTP will bring 12 representatives from peacebuilding programs in the Philippines, Zambia, Ghana, the South Pacific, Asia and the Caribbean to the 2004 Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) at EMU for a five-day workshop. Here the dozen participants - many being former students at CTP — will exchange experiences and information aimed at improving their work.
“These organizations [inspired by SPI] are truly on the cutting edge of peacebuilding and conflict transformation work,” said Pat Spaulding, co-director of SPI. “They are, however, under much stress as they pioneer their way in this new and rapidly-developing field. They are often isolated from each other, with little time, energy or awareness of each other.”
The grant is intended to reduce this isolation, permitting future cooperative projects and exchanges. During the workshop, participants will produce a journal article on their findings and a manual to help new peacebuilding institutes.
The second grant, for $35,650, aims to assist the media in Nepal to report on conflict in ways that do not increase hostility in that country. The grant will launch the production of a manual that presents non-inflammatory ways of reporting on conflicts. Forty-five Nepalese journalists will then be invited to attend one of several five-day workshops in which they will receive training based on the new manual.
Based on the lessons drawn from these workshops, the manual will be revised and distributed more widely, including being available for download from the websites of the Kathmandu Post, Nepali Press Institute and Eastern Mennonite University. At a follow-up workshop one year after the trainings, one Nepalese journalist will receive an award for demonstrating his or her ability to apply the lessons learned, thus earning the title, “Best Conflict Reporter.”
The project in Nepal will be directed by Jayne S. Docherty, associate professor of conflict studies at EMU. Working closely with her will be two editors from the Kathmandu Post - Ameet Dhakal, a 2002 EMU graduate of the master's program at CTP, and Prateek Pradhan, a 2002 graduate of the M.A. in journalism program at New York University.
"We’re extremely pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with the U.S. Institute of Peace," said Janice M. Jenner, director of Eastern Mennonite University's Institute for Justice and Peacebuilding. "Receiving both of these awards testifies to the diversity and quality of the work being done by CTP’s graduates, who prompted the staff at CTP to apply for these grants," she added.
Posted: October 13, 2003
