PEACE EDUCATION IN AN ERA OF CRISIS: State Of The Art, Issues, Strategies, and Perspectives. Organized by: Kent State University; Ohio, USA; University of Rwanda; Kigali; AEGIS, Kigali; Rwanda

I'm invited to Rwanda to conduct a training on social cohesion (i.e., “sense of living together”) following violent conflict; specifically, to discuss indigenous cultural practices of Peace Building to foster sustainable peace.

 

Let me share with you something brief about Rwanda to give a sense of the context in which I am conducting this training on social cohesion:

 

In October 1990, a civil war erupted in Rwanda and, despite several peace agreements to end the war, resulted in genocide. Between April 7 and July 15,1994, approximately 800,000 Rwandans, mostly the Tutsi population, were killed. The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), one of the rebel factions in the civil war, emerged victorious, ending the civil war on 18 July 1994. The RPF formed a new broad based government comprising Tutsi and Hutu and began the process of reconstruction, reconciliation, and peacebuilding. Today, Rwanda has made great strides, having held successive elections (2003, 2010 and 2017) since the end of the genocide.

 

With this context in mind, let me quickly add, however, that I am not an expert on Rwanda, or specifically aware of how far Rwandans have come as a people since the war and endured their collective struggles to foster a sense of living together. I consider myself simply as a facilitator and also a student because I believe learning is a two-way process.  Students learn from their teachers and in turn, teachersalso learn from their students.  I may not have experienced the struggles Rwandans went through during and after the civil war and genocide, but as a Liberian, having personally lived through and experienced torture during our own brutal civil war, I believe we might have something in common to share.

 

As the saying goes, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). Together we will be able to learn from and share with one another; so as to help us as human beings to heal from our physical scars and invisible wounds of trauma.

 

In the coming days, I will keep you posted with pictures from Kigali as time permits.

 

Citing this blog post in APA format:

Vonhm, M. E. (2003, July 11-13). PEACE EDUCATION IN AN ERA OF CRISIS: State Of The Art, Issues, Strategies, and Perspectives. Organized by: Kent State University; Ohio, USA; University of Rwanda; Kigali; AEGIS, Kigali; Rwanda. Center for Peace Education. http://peacefulliberia.blogspot.com