Tag: 2017

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Iryna Dehtiarova

by Alison Ralph

CSOP gives Ukrainian peacebuilder tools to help those affected by war

Conflict in Ukraine led Iryna Dehtiarova to the 2017 Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP).

“The war started three years ago, and people have experienced so much trauma,” says Dehtiarova, who works as a project coordinator for health, education and now peace projects, with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

“It was surreal. These things happen in other parts of the world, but not here.”

MCC’s response in the Ukraine began with humanitarian aid. Four years on, Dehtiarova and her colleagues have seen the need for psychological support, trauma healing, and peacebuilding.

“A lot of internally displaced people have come to Zaporizhzhia and they are traumatized by the experience,” says Dehtiarova. “We have veterans who are returning, and we want to support them, but we have no idea how to respond.”

Some of Dehtiarova’s colleagues have studied at the CSOP over the years, so when her supervisors approached her about the possibility of coming herself, she was excited.

Dehtiarova says the CSOP is giving her the practical tools she needs to help people in her home community.

In her first week at the CSOP, she took Expressive Trauma Integration: Caregiving and Conflict Transformation with Dr. Odelya Gertel Kraybill, a leading trauma therapist, researcher, and consultant, with experience as a trainer with the UN in the Philippines, South Korea, China, and Japan.

“It relates so well to my context,” says Dehtiarova, recalling a woman in her church who hid when the New Year’s fireworks went off. The noise and flashes of light triggered the trauma she had experienced in the conflict zone.

“Without these courses I wouldn’t have understood her reaction,” Dehtiarova says. “Now I understand not only the emotional response, but also the physical response in the body and the brain, and I can help people to overcome that through art, and creative exercises.”

In her second week at the CSOP, she took Practices for Transforming the Peacebuilder, with Dr. Ron Kraybill, a peacebuilding consultant with over 30 years of experience, including most recently six years as Senior Advisor on Peacebuilding and Development for the UN in Lesotho and the Philippines.

 “People have been vulnerable and I value that,” says Dehtiarova. “To learn from other peoples’ personal experiences is powerful.”

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Rudy Friesen

by Alison Ralph

Tutoring newcomer youth inspires retired teacher to come to the CSOP

At 81 years old, Rudy Friesen may be the oldest participant at the 2017 Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP).

“I don’t feel that I’m that much older in terms of ideas,” he says. “I think I’m still open to new insights, ideas, and stories.”

Friesen attends the same church as Valerie Smith, Co-Director of the CSOP, and says he’s had many opportunities to hear about it over the years.

“She told me I’d really enjoy [the CSOP], and after three years of her telling me this, I finally came.”

A retired teacher, Friesen volunteers his time tutoring recent immigrant and refugee youth at Grant Park High School in Winnipeg, MB.

“I work primarily with Muslim and Yazidi students,” says Friesen. “Because of that, I thought I need to learn something about interfaith dialogue. That was the deciding factor.”

At the CSOP, Friesen took Peace Resources in Islam and Christianity, taught by Dr. Mohammad Ali Shomali, founder of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Qom, Iran, and Director of the Islamic Centre of England; and Dr. Harry Huebner, Professor Emeritus of Theology and Philosophy at Canadian Mennonite University.

“It’s a great experience,” says Friesen. “I’ve been to all kinds of conferences, but to get a group of well-educated people from all over the world—they’re bright, they’re sharp, they have experience and they have a passion for peace. To listen to them and engage with them in dialogue—it’s a very unique opportunity.”

“The age factor from my perspective has not stopped me or slowed me down or influenced others,” adds Friesen. “I sit back sometimes and admire how articulate some of the younger folks are in their theology.”

What he’s learned at the CSOP is very applicable to his work tutoring newcomer youth.

“I want to encourage them,” says Friesen, observing that the transition for these young people can be difficult.

“If we’re going to live together in community, we might as well understand each other.”

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Min-Goo Kang

by Alison Ralph

“We’re all peacebuilders,” Pastor learns at the CSOP

“I didn’t define myself as a peacebuilder, but I guess we’re all peacebuilders,” says Min Goo Kang.

That’s one of the most significant things he learned at the 2017 Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP).

A minister at Fort Garry United Church in Winnipeg, Kang first came across the CSOP through a brochure.

“My wife and I have taken other workshops through CMU, and have had a great experience, so we look to CMU for new things.”

In his first week at the CSOP, Kang took Expressive Trauma Integration: Caregiving and Conflict Transformation with Dr. Odelya Gertel Kraybill, a leading trauma therapist, researcher, and consultant, with experience as a trainer with the UN in the Philippines, South Korea, China, and Japan.

“I’m interested in learning how to be sustainable, how to sustain myself,” says Kang. “Over the last six months I noticed how I’m affected by my family members, and what’s going on in the congregation. So, it’s critical to be able to access the resources I need to sustain myself, and care for my congregation.”

In his second week at the CSOP, Kang took Practices for Transforming the Peacebuilder, with Dr. Ron Kraybill, a peacebuilding consultant with over 30 years of experience, including most recently six years as Senior Advisor on Peacebuilding and Development for the UN in Lesotho and the Philippines.

“This was a course I needed at this time in my life,” says Kang. “It helped me to learn about myself in such a deep way, that wouldn’t have been possible on my own.”

Kang calls the CSOP “world class” and “exceptional.”

“The staff, and faculty—this is their vocation, it’s not just their job,” says Kang. “As soon as anyone walks into the building, they can feel that this is a safe place to be themselves.”

Originally from South Korea, Kang and his family moved to Canada in 2007 to pastor a church on Vancouver Island.

“I was working as a second minister in a church with 500 people in South Korea, but I felt something was missing,” says Kang. “That’s why I came to Canada.”

The language barrier was tough to overcome, he says, but he came to a place where he could express himself and understand others, not limited to the use of words.

In 2014, Kang’s wife got a call from The United Church in Meadowood in Winnipeg, and he followed.

“Home is when I’m in a place where I can communicate with the holy, with others, and with myself freely, and with authenticity,” says Kang. “I know I’m home now.”

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Fareeha Iftikar

by Alison Ralph

“It’s like home,” at the CSOP, says inter-faith peacebuilder from Pakistan

When Fareeha Iftikhar’s plane landed in Winnipeg last June, she says it felt like coming home.

Although she currently lives in Pakistan, Iftikhar was born in Abbotsford, BC. It was her desire to study at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding that brought her back to Canada.

Iftikhar was looking at professional development opportunities when she remembered meeting Wendy Kroeker, co-director of the CSOP, at the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute in the Philippines, in 2015.

“We looked at the dates and courses and (the CSOP) fit,” says Iftikhar, who works on interfaith peacebuilding projects for Norwegian Church Aid (NGA).

Before joining NGA, Iftikhar worked for the Canadian High Commission in Pakistan.

When the government of Canada established the Office of Religious Freedom in 2013, she and her colleagues encouraged the High Commissioner to meet with leaders of different faiths.

“We did roundtables to bring together people from all walks of life for discussion and developed a network,” she says.

Those discussions highlighted some of the intra-faith and inter-faith challenges facing people in Pakistan. When Iftikhar joined NGA, she knew it was something she wanted to stay involved in.

“Often, it’s a case of people lacking information, and those small misunderstandings can lead to conflict,” she says. “But, people can always learn.”

This past year, Iftikhar produced and hosted a television show in Pakistan called Hum Aik Hain, which means, “We are one.”

The eight-episode series highlighted the contributions of people from diverse backgrounds and faith traditions in Pakistan.

“We had a lot of positive feedback from the community,” Iftikhar says. “It just shows that hard work always pays.”

 In her first week at the CSOP, she took Journalism and Peacebuilding with David Balzer, Assistant Professor of Communications and Media at Canadian Mennonite University. Iftikhar found the course very interesting, given her recent media experience.

“The question I wanted to answer was, how do we quickly and accurately gauge the success of a media project?” she says. “It takes time and repeat messaging to shift people’s thinking, and media is a visual tool with great potential for impact.”

In her second week at the CSOP, Iftikhar took Practices for Transforming the Peacebuilder with Dr. Ron Kraybill, a peacebuilding consultant with over 30 years of experience, including most recently six years as Senior Advisor on Peacebuilding and Development for the UN in Lesotho and the Philippines.

Overall, her experience was wonderful.

“As a Muslim traveling here during Ramadan, I wasn’t sure what it would be like,” Iftikhar says. “Would it be diverse and welcoming? And it is. It’s a diverse group of people from all over the world and they’ve been very welcoming. It’s like home.”

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Ashley Hayward

by Alison Ralph

Peacebuilder bridges gap between undergrad and master’s studies at the CSOP

Growing up Ashley Hayward was told that she could do anything. It was a positive message, but an overwhelming one as well, with enough options and opportunities to get lost in.

She knew she had to find something that fit with her values. That’s how she found herself at CMU’s Menno Simons College (MSC), majoring in Conflict Resolution Studies.

"From the very first course I took, I realized how applicable it was to my life and the further I went the more I realized how applicable it was to so many things beyond.”

As a working mother and a full-time student, Hayward also knows the value of practicality.

That’s what appealed to her about attending the 2017 Canadian School of Peacebuilding.

Hayward had just completed the Honours thesis for her undergraduate studies at MSC on how language shapes conflict and figured that studying at the CSOP would be a good bridge to her master’s training.

In her first week at the CSOP, Hayward took Journalism and Peacebuilding. She loved it.

“Communications theories are as important to relationships and to peacebuilding as the theory and practice of peacebuilding itself,” Hayward says “It’s critical.”

In her second week at the CSOP, Hayward—who is Métis—took Human Rights and Indigenous Legal Traditions.

She says she’s only just beginning to get to know her Indigenous heritage, and the course has helped her to do that.

Hayward adds that studying with people from a variety of backgrounds was a highlight of her CSOP experience.

“The international perspectives around the table and the actual experience from people around the world, from different walks of life, different parts of their careers, gave a different reference point for us,” she says.

Hayward is now a student in the Joint Master of Arts Program in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg.

She is the first person in her family to graduate from university.

“I’ve felt a lot of pressure, but I’ve felt a lot of support as well,” she says. “The coolest moment for me was to hear my six-year-old say, ‘My mum’s becoming a problem solver.’”

“It showed me that my kids are picking up on what I’m doing,” she adds. “They’re being impacted by what I’m learning, even if they don’t realize.”

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Joe Heikman

by Aaron Epp

Ongoing Muslim-Christian dialogue inspires Saskatoon pastor to study at the CSOP

‘The energy of people who are walking the talk of peacebuilding exists throughout this space,’ Joe Heikman says.

An ongoing interfaith dialogue that his church is having with a nearby Muslim community led Joe Heikman to the Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP).

Heikman, pastor at Wildwood Mennonite Church in Saskatoon, SK, came to Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in June 2017 to take the course Peace Resources in Islam and Christianity.

“They’ve invited us to their mosque, and we’ve had them to our church for a potluck and presentation,” Heikman said of some of the events his church and the nearby mosque have participated in together since first forming a friendship in mid-2016. “That’s been a really good thing, and I wanted some more language for how to engage in meaningful dialogue with the Islamic story.”

Heikman enjoyed the course, taught by Dr. Mohammad Shomali, founding director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Qom, Iran, and Dr. Harry Huebner, Professor Emeritus of Theology and Philosophy at CMU.

“It’s an amazing group of people to be a part of,” Heikman said, noting that the class was made up of people from five different continents, including people from different sects of Islam, different denominations of Christianity and one student with a secular Jewish background. “It’s just a real mix of perspectives.”

The CSOP often takes place during Ramadan, and organizers offer students who observe the annual month of fasting a food package that allows them to eat before dawn and after sunset.

Although he is not a Muslim, Heikman chose the Ramadan food package. There were two reasons for this decision.

“This is a course about common ground between Christianity and Islam, and fasting is part of both of our traditions,” he explained. “It’s something I could participate in that’s true to both tradiations. That’s half of it.

“The other half is that every good cultural tradition involves eating together. If the Muslim students aren’t eating at (regular) meal times, eating at 10:00 PM gives me a chance to (spend time with them).”

In a letter to Saskatoon’s StarPhoenix newspaper, published in June 2016, Heikman noted that “Christians have much to learn from our Muslim neighbours about Islam…, about the nature of faith and spirituality, and about ourselves as new friendships invite us to consider our own assumptions and ways of life.

“I’m also learning that we have much in common despite the differences between Christianity and Islam: shared values of love and peace, shared work in humanitarian aid, and shared visions of hope for our community.”

In that vein, Heikman was struck at the CSOP by Shomali’s teaching about the continuity between Judaism, Christianity and Islam as one ongoing story of the Abrahamic tradition.

It showed him that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are starting from the same place when engaging in interfaith dialogue.

“Where we end up is unclear,” Heikman said, “but we have common ground to begin with.”

He added that he was happy with his decision to study at the CSOP.

“The environment is what I hoped it would be,” Heikman said. “The energy of people who are walking the talk of peacebuilding exists throughout this space.”

“Participating in that is good for me,” he added. “It’s good for anyone interested in doing the work of peace.”

 

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Tirzah Maendel and Doris Wurtz

by Aaron Epp

Hutterites learn about the Islamic faith at Canadian School of Peacebuilding

‘This is my effort to bring real knowledge… to my community,’ teacher says

When you engage in interfaith dialogue, you can end up finding strong similarities between what you and your dialogue partners believe.

That’s one of the biggest things Tirzah Maendel and Doris Wurtz learned at the 2017 Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP).

Maendel and Wurtz travelled from their home on the Baker Hutterite Colony, 130 km west of Winnipeg near MacGregor, MB, to take the course Peace Resources in Islam and Christianity.

The course was taught by Dr. Mohammad Shomali, founding director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Qom, Iran, and Dr. Harry Huebner, Professor Emeritus of Theology and Philosophy at Canadian Mennonite University.

The class was made up of students from five different continents, including people from different sects of Islam, different denominations of Christianity and one student with a secular Jewish background.

“After one such (interfaith) conversation, people were commenting that they had forgotten that someone’s a Muslim here and someone’s a Christian here,” Wurtz said. “They were so fully in that dialogue that those labels fell away, and that’s what we have to work for.”

Maendel, a graphic designer who runs a print shop, and Wurtz, a high school teacher, took the course so that they could gain a better understanding of the Islamic faith and Muslim culture.

“In the past year, I’ve been involved with two refugee families (from Syria), so I’m hoping to learn how to be a better ally (to) them,” Maendel said.

The global rhetoric surrounding Muslim people as well as the current political climate in the United States inspired Wurtz to take the course.

“I wanted to have real information so that I could be a better teacher of history and social studies. This is my effort to bring real knowledge… to my culture, to my community,” Wurtz said. “The texts that we were given to read and study were exactly what I was looking for.”

Maendel and Wurtz agree that learning about the Islamic faith is fascinating.

“(Muslims) see it as a religion of submitting to God’s will, and (I am trying) to bring that idea of submissiveness together with Christian ideas,” Wurtz said.

The Christian faith and the Islamic faith might not be so different after all.

“Sometimes it seems like taking a different road to the same idea,” Maendel said. “It’s nice how familiar it feels.”

This was Maendel and Wurtz’s first time at the CSOP, but “probably not the last,” according to Wurtz.

“This (five-day) format is so easy for me to participate in as a full-time teacher,” she said. “I’ll probably be doing this every year.”

 

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Rebaz Mohammed

by Aaron Epp


Lawyer-turned-activist from Iraqi Kurdistan excited to share what he’s learned at the CSOP

Dissatisfied with the work he was doing in his native Iraqi Kurdistan, Rebaz Mohammed moved 9,000 km to Canada last summer to work with Christian Peacemaker Teams’ Indigenous Peoples Solidarity group.

But first, Mohammed stopped at Canadian Mennonite University’s (CMU) Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) to take the course, Human Rights and Indigenous Legal Traditions.

For Mohammed, who holds a PhD in law, the things he learned about Indigenous legal traditions was completely different from his background in Iraqi Kurdistan’s civil law system.

“I’m really enjoying (the course), especially since one of the facilitators is Indigenous,” Mohammed said during the middle of his week at the CSOP. “It’s not an outsider, but an insider who is giving us the course.

“I’m learning to rewire my brain to accept the fact that this is a whole different legal system that I need to be open (to).”

After graduating from university, Mohammed worked as a lawyer. Ultimately, he didn’t like the work, so he got a position with a human rights organization. He hoped that as an activist, he could make more of a difference than he could as a lawyer.

Working with the human rights organization was all right, but Mohammed didn’t appreciate the bureaucracy involved.

Joining CPT appealed to him because it would allow him to “work on the ground with people, instead of being on a policy-making level, and being disconnected from the reality of what is going on.”

“One other thing I liked about CPT is that it’s not neutral,” he adds.

“All the other organizations I was working with were neutral, trying to stay distant from (taking a side). CPT was clear in their writings that (what is happening to Indigenous peoples in Canada) is wrong, and we stand by this group to make it right.”

Mohammed was excited about what he learned at the CSOP not only because it would help him in his work with CPT, but also because it would aid him when he goes back to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraqi law, Mohammed says, is a “weird mix of Islamic law and French law.” Meanwhile, Kurdish legal traditions were lost hundreds of years ago after the Kurds “became Islamicized and Arabicized.”

“I teach once every week at my alma mater, and I can’t wait to go back and tell them that there is a different legal system (they) didn’t know about,” Mohammed says. “It will be very interesting for my students to know what’s being done to revive (these old traditions).”

 

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Duha Alassaf

by Aaron Epp

‘Everybody is accepted’ at the CSOP, Jordanian peacebuilder finds

Duha Alassaf is passionate about peacebuilding.

“Peacebuilding is a subject that should be mandatory in schools and universities for how to deal with others,” she said. “If people only knew peacebuilding, we wouldn’t have these conflicts and wars.”

It’s this interest that led Alassaf to the Canadian School of Peacebuilding last June. Alassaf, who lives in Amman, Jordan, was searching for professional development opportunities online when she found the CSOP.

“I found this program and it just caught my eyes and my heart (because) it’s about peacebuilding,” she said.

Alassaf is a master’s student in the human rights and human development program at the University of Jordan.

She also works as a health officer with the international NGO Medair. Her work involves assessing the psychological status of Syrian refugees and conducting group therapy sessions with them.

At the CSOP, Alassaf took the course Expressive Trauma Integration: Caregiving and Conflict Transformation.

She believes the things that she has learned will aid her in her work with Medair.

“Mostly we work with people who are traumatized, and we are helping them overcome their traumas,” Alassaf explained. “This course is helping me to get familiar with other types of work other than just the use of talk therapy.”

She credited the professor, Dr. Odelya Gertel Kraybill from Lesley University (Cambridge, MA), and the CSOP staff with creating a safe environment for students to learn about sensitive subjects.

“What I really do like the most is the people here,” Alassaf said, adding that as a Muslim woman coming from Jordanian culture, she didn’t have any problems fitting in at the CSOP. “The acceptance and positive vibes are all over the place.”

Alassaf is currently writing a dissertation about using community-based rehabilitation as a tool to promote social justice.

She plans to continue the work she is doing, and hopes to return to the CSOP.

“I just want to thank Canadian Mennonite University, because it has made a small world inside it where everybody is accepted.”

Categories
News Profiles

CSOP Participant Profile – Shahadat Hossain

by Aaron Epp

Bangladeshi judge travels to CSOP to learn about refugee response

Growing up, Shahadat Hossain dreamt of contributing to his country’s legal system. That dream became a reality, and for the past 10 years, Hossain has worked as a judge.

“In our country, most of the people are poor,” said Hossain, who lives in Bogra, a major city in northeast Bangladesh. “Most of the litigant people are poor, and I wanted to do something for them—to help them, to give them justice.”

In recent years, Bangladesh has experienced an influx of refugees from Myanmar and the Middle East.

To better understand how they might respond to their country’s refugee situation, Hossain and two of his colleagues made the 11,500 km. trip from South Asia to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada last June to study at the 2017 Canadian School of Peacebuilding.

At the 2017 CSOP, Hossain took the course Exploring the Refugee Challenge with Dr. Stephanie Stobbe, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution Studies at Menno Simons College.

“I’m enjoying the course very much,” Hossain said in the middle of his week in Winnipeg.

Hossain was struck by the diversity in his class, which included students from the U.S., Canada, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Iran.

He added that he hopes to return to the CSOP in 2018.

“The environment is wonderful, the people are very friendly, we are enjoying the class, and we are learning something new,” he said.