Fall / Winter 2006
Alumni Develop Own Peace Centers
CJP alumni Gopar Tapkida (back row, 2nd from right) and Austin Onuoha (back row, center beneath Jesus) at a 2005 Nigerian workshop that they led on preventing violent conflict. The workshop involved both Christians and Muslims, a rarity in Nigeria.
If you’ve ever served a favorite dish to a guest – who ate it with pleasure, said “thank you,” and then asked for the recipe to take home and use – then you will know how the people behind EMU’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) feel when they watch similar institutes sprout around the world.
“Whenever I hear from one of our alums that they are involved in a new peacebuilding institute in their region, I feel gratified that the family of peacebuilders is growing,” says Pat Hostetter Martin, SPI director for the past nine years. “The more people trained in this field, the better.”
Since SPI opened its doors 11 years ago, people who attended SPI have set up similar summer programs at seven locations overseas: three in Africa – Ghana, Zambia and Mozambique; three in Asia – in Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippines and in South Korea; and one in the South Pacific islands of Fiji.
“The regional institutes can offer training closer to home and at less cost, making it possible for more people to take courses in peacebuilding,” says Martin. “The curriculum can also be tailored to regional issues and needs.”
For instance, the West Africa Peace Institute in Accra, Ghana, this year is offering three weeks of training, Sept. 4-22, with participants being able to choose between two concurrent courses each week. Two of the six courses are being taught by graduates of CJP’s masters program – Emmanuel Bombande ’02 and Austin Onuoha ’04. (See www.wanep/org/wapi for more info.)
In May and June of 2004, 20 people from the world’s peacebuilding institutes gathered for the first time at EMU to share lessons and discuss ways to help each other.
Even without EMU’s direct input, much collaboration was (and is) happening. For instance, Babu Ayindo, MA ’98, and Tecla Wanjala, MA ’03, have journeyed from Kenya to the Pacific island of Fiji to help fellow CJP alumni launch a South Pacific peacebuilding institute.
The six-year-old peacebuilding institute in the Philippines has been asked to help a large non-government organization in Africa establish a regional peace institute in Sudan.
A peacebuilding institute for Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa is being organized by JustaPaz. Its director will be Alfiado Zunguza, MA ’99, working from Maputo, Mozambique.
“This sprouting of institutes has been a wonderful and gratifying outcome of CJP’s commitment to sow seeds of peace worldwide,” says CJP co-director Ruth Zimmerman.