Training
Community Mediators in Central Africa
George
Brose and Adrian Symonds are seeking your financial support for this project.
You will receive a Canadian Charitable Receipt for your taxation year. Make your
cheque payable to Comox Valley Community Justice…Attention Rwanda Mediation
Project, Suite E-450 Eighth St., Courtenay, B.C. V9N 1N5. Please ensure you
clearly write your name and address so a taxation receipt may be issued to
you.*
Project Goal: To support the ongoing process of
training community mediators in Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and Tanzania
Participants: Mediators Adrian Symonds and George Brose from
Courtenay, BC
Cooperating Agency in Africa: African Great Lakes Initiative
(AGLI), a Quaker initiative based in East Africa, AGLI <http://aglifpt.org> was founded shortly after the
1994 genocide in Rwanda to provide conflict resolution and reconciliation
between people from both sides of that genocide and in neighboring countries. AGLI
provides three principal programs of conflict resolution: Healing and Rebuilding
our Communities (HROC), Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and Mediation.
Training aspect: A training session will include
approximately 20-25 trainees who will return to their respective communities to
provide mediation service in their villages and urban neighborhoods. In most of these communities the residents
have little or no access to the courts to resolve conflict which without
resolution often results in escalated violence between the disputing parties. It
is proposed that the two mediators Brose and
Symonds will conduct at least 4 trainings in the time they will be in
country: one hundred new mediators!
Previous Efforts: The first mediation training began
with AGLI in 2007. Five North American mediators have directly trained over 300
mediators who have in turn trained another 2000 mediators. The 2014 training
project will be Brose's fifth time participating on the mediation project. This will be Symonds’ first time. As well as Rwanda, the two will return to
Pemba Island, Tanzania to reinforce the training that George did there three
years ago with Sharia judges, Imams, Social Workers, and Teachers.
Why are More Mediators Needed?
The continuous conflict and war
going on in the Eastern Congo and occasionally still in Burundi has cost the
lives of over 6 million people. As well, the refugee camps are a seething mass
of human conflict. With no police
protection to speak of, crimes such as homicides, rape, burglary, and domestic
violence have no resolution. In the absence of a well functioning court system,
these countries have a pressing need for more trained mediators.
1. MAIN WEBSITE: Cosmos Chan Zen Community at http://www.cosmoschan.org/
2. Master Cheng Yen in Facebook;
3. Listen to dharma talks with Gilbert Gutierrez http://dharmatalks.riversidechan.org/
4. Listen/download audio talks from the Tallahassee Chan group at http://www.tallahasseechan.com/talks.html
6. Questions? Adrian at 250 650 9055; adrian2@shaw.ca and this blog http://comoxvalleyzenchan.blogspot.ca/
