Tag: 2014

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CSOP Participant Profile – Leda Garcia

by Ellen Paulley

Canadian School of Peacebuilding equips student with tools to work in restorative justice

Leda Garcia says her time at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) equipped her with the tools and knowledge to work effectively in the field of restorative justice.

An institute of Canadian Mennonite University, CSOP is a community of diverse peacebuilders who come together to learn, network, and engage in peacebuilding.

Prior to attending CSOP, Garcia says she had some knowledge of restorative justice, but wasn’t sure of “how to put everything together.” After taking the course “Restorative Justice with Youth and Schools,” Garcia says, “Now I have the tools and I know how to use them.”

Garcia intends to use her restorative justice knowledge in her work at home in Honduras. Working with the Mennonite church, Garcia has been involved in mediation and peace programs in schools.

“We’re trying to tell the kids they don’t have to go through life with a gun, beating people up to make a living,” she says.

Garcia has also worked with a friend to establish a mediation program in the school her friend’s children attended, in response to a wave of violence that was occurring in the school.

She’s passionate about working with youth and encourages them that they don’t have to be involved in a life of violence. “They can change, there is an opportunity,” she says. “They have to work hard but they can make it out.”

Growing up, Garcia didn’t have a strong relationship with her parents and says she had role models who “weren’t the right ones.” As a youth, she says she heard God’s voice call her and felt that she needed to find peace within herself.

“To make peace around you, and to find peace, you have to make peace with yourself; find that forgiveness place,” she says.

Garcia spent one year in Canada as part of Mennonite Central Committee’s International Volunteer Exchange Program. She says she wanted to visit Canada to experience being in a place where there’s “peace all around.”

She was also interested in learning about how concepts of justice vary from place to place. “Justice is always related to the culture, to the community,” she says. “What is justice to you could probably be security and welfare. For us, it could be as simple as having clothing or food for one year.” Once basic needs are met, it’s then possible to pursue other types of justice, says Garcia.

Prior to coming to Canada, she was studying ecotourism in university. But she says her time at CSOP assured her that’s not her path. “My way will be community development,” she says. “I know that feels better in my heart.”

Garcia’s advice to those who are considering coming to CSOP is to not be afraid of stepping outside of their comfort zone and to be open to growing and changing.

“I’ve grown more in this time than I’ve grown in my entire life, in ways that I didn’t know I needed to grow,” she says.

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CSOP Participant Profile – Terry Schalm

by Ellen Paulley

Peacebuilding: Beyond Dealing With War

Terry Schalm, wife of a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, has learned alternative models of peacemaking while studying at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP).

Schalm says that the approaches she’s learned at CSOP have been eye opening and that she’s learned “there are different ways of doing things without using force.” An institute of Canadian Mennonite University, CSOP is a community of diverse peacebuilders who come together to learn, network and engage in peacebuilding.

Schalm, who is also a student at CMU, says her education at CSOP and CMU has expanded her understanding of peacebuilding. “It’s not just preventing violence,” she says. “Peacebuilding is so much more than dealing with war. It’s building communities, building harmony, and seeing value and dignity in everyone.”

While Schalm says she finds value and truth in nonviolent peacebuilding, she says she hasn’t “been converted over yet.” She grapples with whether nonviolent action could be sufficient to “deal with leaderships and attitudes in some countries.”

She also ponders what changes would be required in order for nonviolent peacebuilding to become the norm. She says it will likely take the intentional efforts and substantial cooperation of many people for the world to move in the direction of peacebuilding and wonders whether “we’re committed to continue in a military fashion with our western thinking.”

But the idea that peacebuilding occurs at the local and individual level gives Schalm hope – “it all starts with individuals and moving toward [peacebuilding] and facilitating that growth over time.” She says her time at CSOP has taught her that even actions like compassionate listening can bring about peace.

Hearing other perspectives was a highlight of the CSOP class Schalm took this year, “Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience,” taught by Elaine Zook Barge. “It was really helpful to hear what life is really like for those who have experienced trauma, not just what we imagine or hear in the media,” says Schalm.

In the future, Schalm would like to work in the area of mediation and says what she’s learned during this course will be very applicable. Through her time at CSOP, she’s grown in her awareness that “each person comes with a story and that each person should be entitled to voice their story with respect.”

Because of her husband’s 38 years of service with the RCAF, Schalm says she wasn’t initially sure if she’d be welcomed at CSOP, but comments that the diverse makeup of the School means that everyone is given a voice and is validated. “Instructors seem open to sharing their stories and lives with you and likewise are willing to listen to your story,” she says.

Schalm’s looking forward to talking with her husband about the concepts and approaches she’s learned. And while she might not yet be “converted,” her time at CSOP has “softened my attitude that the military way is the only way,” she says. “Maybe there is hope for people in leadership—that their hearts can be softened too.”

 

 

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CSOP Participant Profile – Enole & Wazha Ditsheko and Keseopile Gaselebalwe

by Aaron Epp

Canadian School of Peacebuilding helps Botswana church leaders work for peace

When Enole and Wazha Ditsheko wanted to start a peace centre in their hometown of Gaborone, Botswana, they thought studying at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding at Canadian Mennonite University would help.

So, the Ditshekos travelled from the capital city in the Southern Africa country to Winnipeg this past June to participate. The Ditshekos helped start their church, New Temple of the New Jerusalem, five years ago, and are leaders in that church today. They came to Winnipeg with Keseopile Gaselebalwe, who works with young people that their church helps.

Enole says New Temple of the New Jerusalem is a church that resulted out of conflict. The leaders of his former church were corrupt, leading promiscuous lifestyles and not being open about how they were spending money that parishioners were giving the church. They were not willing to be held accountable — financially, morally or otherwise, Enole says.

“African churches are made up predominantly of poor people,” he explains. “If they are going to put money in the basket, they should be able to ask at a general meeting, Where did that money go?”

The matter was brought to the courts, but the congregation and its leadership were not able to reconcile their differences.

“(The leaders) knew if they gave answers, they would be exposed,” Wazha says.

That conflict showed the Ditshekos that Gaborone could benefit from a peace centre — a place where people could learn practical skills for resolving conflicts without using violence.

In addition to conflicts caused by corrupt church leadership, the Ditshekos say a challenge facing Christians in Botswana is the influx of people from Zimbabwe who have come to Botswana to escape the harsh living conditions in their homeland.

“As local people, we often feel they have taken over,” Enole says. “But these people are desperate and want to make a living.”

The peace centre would help these Zimbabweans adjust to life in Botswana and aid them in getting the proper documentation they need to live and work in the country.

New Temple of the New Jerusalem also currently works with 30 youth between the ages of 10 and 19 who come from difficult home lives because they have lost one or both of their parents to HIV/AIDS. These youth struggle to maintain healthy relationships and get a proper education because they have no positive role models and live in poverty. Drug abuse amongst this group is rampant.

Gaselebalwe and her colleagues already work with these youth, bringing them to the church each weekend where they attend services, sing in a gospel choir and receive a meal. Within six months of connecting with the church, many of these youth have gone from living on the streets to living at home with their grandparents. Most are back in school after having dropped out.

“We find ourselves having to build the blocks of morality for them,” Enole says. “To do that, we feel a peace centre will be very helpful.”

Enole, Wazha and Keseophile’s visit to the CSOP this past June was two years in the making. They worked together with their local church, along with a Mennonite church in Kansas and a Mennonite church in Winnipeg to work out visas, finances and accommodations to make the trip possible.

Enole says that taking classes at CSOP was important to the group, and with any luck, he and other people from his church will be back in 2015.

“For as long as the CSOP is running, we want to send people here,” he says. “That is my desire. That is my dream.”

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CSOP Participant Profile – John Fox

by Aaron Epp

Criminal, prosecutor reunite at Canadian School of Peacebuilding

John Fox and Rupert Ross are used to seeing each other in the courtroom, not the classroom.

When Ross worked as the Assistant Crown Attorney for the District of Kenora, Fox encountered him during numerous bail hearings after being arrested for a variety of crimes, including assault and weapons charges.

“He was the enemy,” says Fox, 43. “It was always us against them.”

The two reunited at the 2014 Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP), this time on friendlier terms: Fox enrolled in Exploring Indigenous Justice and Healing, a course taught by Ross.

Between 1992 and 1995, Ross was seconded to the federal Aboriginal Justice Directorate. He travelled across Canada, examining Aboriginal approaches to justice with special emphasis on healing programs for victims, offenders, families, and communities.

He wrote two books as a result: Dancing with a Ghost: Exploring Indian Reality and Return to the Teachings: Exploring Aboriginal Justice.

Fox discovered the books as a student at Menno Simons College (MSC).

“I loved his books,” Fox said, adding that reading them gave him a better understanding of his Aboriginal heritage, the gap in communication between Aboriginal peoples and the dominant white Canadian society, and the history of violence in his family.

“I was hurt a lot as a child,” Fox said. “Because of that hurt, if you don’t deal with it properly, you tend to hurt other people.”

Fox grew up in Big Trout Lake First Nation, a fly-in community in northwestern Ontario. From the age of 11 to 15, he was sexually abused. He lost two close friends to suicide as a teenager, and turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with the pain.

Until a few years ago, he had spent most of his life working as a drug dealer. Fox was a violent person whose run-ins with the law led to nine or 10 stints in jail.

In 2008, his then-girlfriend’s sister committed suicide in front of him. Blaming Fox, the woman’s brother and boyfriend burned down his house.

After the suicide, things began to change for Fox. He stopped dealing drugs and started attending Alcoholics Anonymous. He began volunteering at a church drop-in centre and embarked on a healing journey that has relied heavily on traditional Aboriginal practices.

Today, Fox has been sober for four years and he is happily married.

Reuniting with Ross at the CSOP was a pleasure for Fox, and an indication of how far he has come.

“He’s such a storyteller,” Fox said of Ross. “He reminds me of an elder. Ask him a question and he doesn’t answer, he tells you a story.”

Fox may be enrolled in Conflict Resolution classes at MSC, but he says that what he’s really studying is the man he sees when he looks in the mirror.

“I’m studying myself, because I was a person with so much conflict.”

 

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“Walking with Our Sisters” comes to Winnipeg

For those of you in the Winnipeg area, from now until April 12, the “Walking with our Sisters” art installation is on display at the Urban Shaman Gallery of Contemporary Aboriginal Art.  The gallery is located at 290 McDermot Avenue in Winnipeg and gallery hours are 10am – 8pm.  The gallery is closed Sundays and Mondays.

At the 2013 Canadian School of Peacebuilding, the “Human Rights and Indigenous Legal Traditions” class participated in making moccasin vamps for  “Walking with our Sisters,”  an art installation created to raise awareness of the hundreds of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.  Other CSOP participants were invited to become involved by walking alongside a visual representation of our forgotten sisters, created by class members.

Check out the video of the CSOP work on this project, get more information on “Walking with our Sisters” and, for those of you outside of the Winnipeg area, take a look at the exhibition touring calendar to find out when the installation will be in your area