 September/October 2000 (XXXVIII 4) |
espite years of civil war, and before that a holocaust that left over a million dead, Cambodia has people who care and who hope. "I'm inspired each time I come by the courage I find here," says George Lakey of Central Philadelphia Meeting. "Despite a past that has left some of the workshop participants with hardly any family left, they dare to stand up for peace and justice."
George Lakey returned to Cambodia last December for his fifth nonviolence training trip, this time organized by the American Friends Service Committee and the Mennonite Central Committee. George worked with a co-facilitator, Ouyporn Khuankeaw, a Thai woman he has been mentoring during his decade of similar work in Thailand.
Village leaders came from around the country to develop their strategy skills and understanding of nonviolent struggle. They have been struggling to save their forests, to retain the right to fish in communal rivers and lakes, and to reduce the level of violence in their villages. Although the civil war is now over, the war left a legacy of violence, brutality and greed.
"Healing is happening, and our workshops have been part of that process. Sometimes when we work on options for responding to violence, old memories surface from the Khmer Rouge days and the tears spill over. Of course we facilitate the releasing process, knowing that tears are a part of the healing. It's just as we Quakers believe — there's no real wall between activism and spiritual work, and when people focus on one, if they focus properly, the other comes forward as well."
George Lakey's work in Cambodia started in response to a request from the group led by Maha Ghosananda, "the Cambodian Gandhi" who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee. George's nonviolence ministry has been under the care of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting since 1991.
In addition to training a wide range of grassroots groups, George occasionally leads advanced facilitator training for Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP). A nonprofit organization has grown up around the work, and he directs Training for Change, Inc., which regularly leads workshops in North America, Southeast Asia, and Russia, and occasionally in Africa and Europe. To get the schedule of upcoming trainings in North America, call 215-729-7458 or e-mail peacelearn@igc.org.
George Lakey
Central Philadelphia Meeting
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM