 January/February 2001 (XXXIX 1) |
As part of the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams Project, I am going to Rwanda this winter as a volunteer. I will be in Rwanda for five weeks to facilitate workshops and train new facilitators in the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). As many of you know, AVP started in 1975 when a group of inmates in New York requested a local Quaker group to provide them with nonviolence training. AVP offers workshops in correctional institutions and in the community in over 40 states and more than 20 countries around the world. Because it is based on the experience of the participants, it has been successful cross-culturally, and among people from widely divergent class, ethnic and social backgrounds. AVP workshops are typically three days long and use activities and discussions to explore the topics of affirmation, community skills, cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution.
AVP can be found on a small scale in both Uganda and Burundi. Participants from Rwanda have requested the development of a program there, and it is for that reason that we are going. Rwanda suffered a terrible genocide in 1994 when somewhere between 500,000 and 850,000 people were killed. Millions of Rwandans have been perpetrators or victims of violence.
The objective of our work in Rwanda is to facilitate 10 workshops. All workshops will be co-facilitated with Ugandan (and by the end of our stay, Rwandan) AVP trainers. In the process, we aim to prepare and train approximately 15 new Rwandan facilitators and serve 150 general participants. Plans are already being made for the newly trained Rwandan facilitators to facilitate a series of additional workshops over the following year. Thus, our model is to support Rwanda's development of their own self-sustainable AVP program.
I am available both before and after the trip to give presentations on this work. The violence that the people of Rwanda have suffered diminishes all of us. Today, many Rwandans are working hard to restore stability to their country and to transform the atmosphere of violence that has dominated recent years. The people there seek support for an essential process of trauma healing and reconciliation to move beyond the cycle of violence. I believe AVP can support this transformation. Please contact me if you have any questions or would like information or program materials.
Peter Yeomans
Germantown Meeting (PA)
5822 Morris St. 1st floor
Philadelphia PA 19144
215-438-0917
peter-yeomans1@dca.net
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM