To the amazement of growing numbers of observers from around the world,Ěýthe result has been forgiveness and reconciliation and rebuilding, village by village, on a scale never before achieved.

These heartfelt conversations have been nurtured under a program called Fambul Tok (Krio for “family talk”), led by John Caulker, a human rights activist in Sierra Leone.

Fambul Tok began in the summer and fall of 2007, when John Caulker received the backing of Libby Hoffman and her Maine-based foundation Catalyst for Peace to develop a grassroots answer to the high-level, highly expensive UN-backed Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone.

Caulker, who had lobbied for the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was deeply disappointed in how little it accomplished, after it spent more than $300 million on highly publicized trials of nine men. In contrast, Caulker wanted to help heal the lives of the average person in often-rural communities where neighbors looked suspiciously at neighbors, and even family members were divided by what some had done during wartime.

Hoffman caught the spirit of Caulker’s vision and worked with him – and with a few people at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, where she had attended SPI 1996 and returned for a course in 2000 – to design core elements, objectives and operating principles for Fambul Tok. Amy Potter Czajkowski, MA ’02, and Robert Roche, MA ’08, were program officers for Fambul Tok during its formative stages.

On June 11, 2013, Caulker was the Frontier Luncheon speaker at SPI. He treated his audience to an inspiring account of how a small ripple can, when patiently fanned, grow into a rising tide across the nation.

At SPI 2014, two rising leaders in Fambul Tok – women’s leader Michaela Ashwood and former pastor Emmanuel Mansaray – studied conflict analysis, psychosocial trauma, and organizational leadership. They are being prepared to step up as Caulker transitions from leading Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone to playing a wider peacebuilding role under the auspices of the African Union.

“From the very word go, we’ve made Fambul Tok a community-owned and community-led process,” said Ashwood, who has worked with Caulker for seven years. “We only support. They’ve heard about Fambul Tok on the radio, so they already know something about us. We may provide a bag of rice [for the community gathering], but they provide the goat or fish and fresh vegetables.”

Mansarary added, “We work at the level of the man in the village whose neighbor might have been the one who burned down his house, amputated his son and raped his wife.”

Everyone is longing for the opportunity to tell their stories, said Mansaray. “The victims have stories they want to tell, and so do the perpetrators,” who often talk of being drugged or otherwise forced to do horrible things when they ask for forgiveness.

Fambul Tok now has groups of women, called Peace Mothers (led by Ashwood), who are active in election campaigns and in schools, doing education and dousing sparks of conflicts before they become raging fires. This represents a change in Sierra Leone’s culture, where traditionally women had no voice.

Future plans include spreading peacebuilding principles through Sierra Leone’s schools to address violence that seems to be growing among the young – who lack a memory of the horrific civil war endured by their elders – and to lay the groundwork for enduring cooperation in future generations.

In 2013-14 Fambul Tok was operating in six out of the country’s 14 districts. In each of the six districts they have an office staffed by four, plus a security person. At its national headquarters there are 18 staffers. Catalyst for Peace remains the main funder for Fambul Tok, including funding Ashwood’s and Mansaray’s studies at SPI 2014. Ěý— Bonnie Price Lofton

“,” will be taught 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Feb. 6-7, by Amy Czajkowski, former director of Coming to the Table, and Ann Holmes Redding, a Seattle based religious leader who is part of Coming to the Table and has developed materials for them.

Strategies and practices covered during the seminar will address healing historical harms (HHH), including; facing history, making connections, healing wounds and taking action.

“The training will present the HHH frameworks, which are drawn from STAR models and the experience of Coming to the Table,” said Czajkowski. “The concept of historical trauma explains that traumatic responses to events originating decades or centuries earlier can be passed between generations, and necessitate a more comprehensive analysis and healing approach than issues originating in one’s lifetime.”

In addition, the seminar will train participants in the theoretical underpinnings of HHH framework, give examples of HHH practices in different settings, and provide opportunities for participants to work with their own case studies to analyze and create a healing approach specific to their contexts.

Cost of the two-day training period is $175.

For more information, including partial scholarships and continuing education units, contact Kate Bergey at kate.bergey@emu.edu or 540-432-4996.

The CNN feature highlights the .

Betty (left) and Phoebe Kilby, part of , an EMU/CJP program devoted to transforming the legacy of slavery.

Betty, an African American and author of “Wit Will and Walls” met Phoebe, a European American and the associate director for development for Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU, in 2007 as the descendants of an enslaved/slaveholder family. They now travel the country as members of telling their story.

CNN’s most shared story of the day

May 20 the CNN story was featured on the CNN home page for several hours and logged more than 600,000 hits. It was the most read, linked and shared story of the day on CNN.com, said Wayne Drash, author of the piece and reporter for CNN.

Online comments numbered nearly 2500 less than 48 hours after the original posting. The majority of discussion underscored the difficulty and importance of reconciliation.

Twitter came alive, too, with mentions of the unique program. One young woman tweeted that she found CTTT after meeting kin from the family that enslaved her great-great-grandmother. By mid-day she was one of dozens of new members of the program’s online community, which doubled in membership in just 24 hours.

And visitors to the CTTT website hit a historic high. The site logged 30 times more readers than the day before.

Story spreads across the globe

Interest in the program and the story of the Kilbys and Coming to the Table went global quickly.

Program Director Amy Potter Czajkowski was interviewed for an upcoming Voice of America segment on Coming to the Table.

By mid-day, international broadcasting service had interviewed Phoebe Kilby, CTTT Program Director Amy Potter Czajkowski, and CTTT Community Coordinator Susan Hutchison for a segment to be aired in Asia.

“This is a story that resonates in many cultures,” says Kilby. “It bridges racial, ethnic and religious divides. In the last day I’ve gotten so many positive e-mails, calls, and Facebook postings. I’m glad our story of racial reconciliation has touched so many.”

About Coming to the Table

Coming to the Table was created in 2005 to address the traumatic effects of slavery on individuals and communities. Initially the program focused on the stories and experiences of people linked by their ancestors’ enslaved-slaveholding relationship,but focus has since expanded to addressing historical harms in communities, a point Kilby is quick to emphasize.

“While our family histories provided a window through which we could connect, Betty and I are focusing on creating a new relationship now, a new legacy for the future,” she says.

The program’s continued focus on building community, making peace, and providing service to others are core values of the EMU community.

The name “Coming to the Table” is inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic March on Washington speech, in which he prayed that one day “…the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners… will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

About EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuliding

Coming to the Table was started at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, which is comprised of the and the , which houses the , and other intensive training, program, and partnership opportunities in peacebuilding.

Learn more

• Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
• EMU core values
• Undergraduate major in peacebuilding and development

Betty (left) and Phoebe Kilby, descendants of slaves and slave owners, connected in 2007 and are part of , an EMU/CJP program devoted to healing the wounds of slavery and its aftermath.

The following is an excerpt of .

Betty Kilby was gripped with apprehension. Descendants of the white family that enslaved her kin were coming to dinner.

She scrolled through a mental Rolodex of relatives who might flip out. Her brothers had already asked her: Why would you want to meet the family of those who held our loved ones in bondage?

"When they ask that question," she says, "you kind of scratch your head. It makes sense. Why would you want to do that?"

Learn more

• EMU core values
• Center for Justice and Peacebuilding

]]> /now/news/2010/jfp-person-of-the-day-amy-czajkowski/ Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000 http://www.emu.edu/blog/news/?p=2146
Amy Czajkowski, program director of

Amy Czajkowski‘s experiences as a facilitator in peacebuilding goes beyond countries devastated by war. As the program director of , Czajkowski, 34, is bringing her skills to Tougaloo College for a round table discussion on the impact of slavery on today’s society.

On Saturday, Czajkowski and a group of facilitators will host “Creating New Legacies Inspired by the Dream,” a half-day conference that will address current issues resulting from our country’s history of slavery. Coming To the Table is a program based out of ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in Harrisonburg, Va. that works to promote racial reconciliation.

Works, who is white, learned that he has black cousins, and he wanted to meet them.

That sent him and his family on a years-long journey of mending race relations.

Learn more about

The Kellogg Foundation and the Fetzer Institute collaborated to provide the $845,000 in funds. Kellogg contributed a two-year grant of $400,000 and Fetzer Institute is providing $445,000 over three years. The funding will support the program’s mission to “acknowledge, understand and heal the persistent wounds of the institution of slavery and its aftermath, strive for racial reconciliation and a more unified, just and truthful society.”

“Coming to the Table was founded by descendants of both slaveholders and enslaved people in partnership with the CJP,” said CTTT program director Amy C. Potter. “The name is inspired by the call of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his historic address at the March on Washington in 1963. He prayed that ‘the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

A ‘closing circle’ at a Coming to the Table gathering. Photo by Howard Zehr

“Coming to the Table is committed to achieving that goal through research, relationship building, information sharing, community projects and training,” Potter noted. “The program is non-partisan, multi-faith; multi-cultural and multi-generational.”

The Kellogg and Fetzer funds will support the development and application of a model for healing from the legacy of slavery. CTTT envisions that, once further articulated and studied, the process will be applied to families, organizations and communities.

“It is hoped that this work will contribute to a national conversation about healing from slavery and making things right for society-at-large,” Potter said. “Coming to the Table wants to create a new, positive legacy for America’s children so they can grow up without the burden of history and the associated cycles of victimhood and violence.”

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), a graduate program at EMU, was founded in 1994 to further the personal and professional development of individuals as peacebuilders and to strengthen the peacebuilding capacities of the institutions they serve. The program is committed to supporting conflict transformation and peacebuilding efforts at all levels of society.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, established in 1930, supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society.

The Fetzer Institute’s mission is to foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community, believing that efforts to address the world’s critical issues must go beyond political, social, and economic strategies to their psychological and spiritual roots.

On Sept. 1, 2004, terrorists linked to the Chechen independence struggle took more than 1,200 people hostage in a school in the town of Beslan. Shootings and bombings on the final day of the standoff left 186 children among the casualties.

Fairweather, the administrative assistant for the masters in counseling program at EMU, created a homemade basket from dyed reeds, complete with a grapevine handle, as she prayed for the many people directly affected by the horrific event.

Russian Counselors Come to EMU

Three years later, she was able to give this symbol of her care to a delegation of Russians during a week long visit in Harrisonburg to learn about ways to address psychological trauma on a community-wide level.

Fairweather gave her basket to the group at the close of an interchange with faculty members of the master of arts in counseling program Wednesday, Dec. 19. It will be given to a mother in Beslan whose daughter was killed at the school.

Brenda Fairweather presents her homemade “prayer basket” to the Russian delegation (l. to r.): Naida Vagabova, Vladimir Rud, Fatima Berezova, Liudmila Domashenko and Grigory Yarygin (at right) of St. Petersburg, representing the Open World Leadership Center. Photo by Jim Bishop

“It was an incredible experience to meet these wonderful people and to sit in their meeting with my EMU colleagues,” Fairweather said. “They were visibly moved by this gesture.”

All four delegation members – Liudmila Nikolayevna Domashenko, Fatima Aleksandrovna Berezova, Naida Muratovna Vagabova, and Vladimir Nikolayevich Rud – are mental health professionals, some of whom worked with survivors of the three-day Beslan school hostage crisis, one of the most horrific terrorist incidents in recent history. All work with children or young people in Russia.

Asked what has impressed him most in his brief time in the community, Vladimir Rud said through an interpreter. “The people we’ve met. They are open and caring. It has been interesting to hear about practical techniques and methods used in mental health treatment here.”

“I appreciated the opportunity to stay with local families,” said Liudmila Domashenko. “I realized how quickly language barriers can be overcome in these kind of settings.”

Visiting Counselors Attend STAR

During the week, the delegation attended sessions in EMU’s STAR (Seminars on Trauma Awareness and Resilience) program, met with faculty in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and conferred with mental health specialists at Rockingham Memorial Hospital.

“We were asked by the National Peace Foundation, organizers of the Open World Program, to give this Russian delegation broad exposure to the work being done by the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding on community mental health issues,” said Amy Potter, a CJP administrator and organizer of the local visit.

From EMU, the group headed to in Akron, Pa., to learn more about how the Amish community responded to the school shooting on Oct. 6, 2006, in which five Amish girls were killed.

The sponsor of this visit, the Open World Leadership Center, is housed at the Library of Congress. Founded in 1999 by the U.S. Congress, the Open World Program has brought more than 10,500 people from Russia, Lithuania, the Ukraine and Uzbekistan to sites in all 50 states.

Delegates range from mayors to journalists, from nonprofit directors to small-business owners, from political activists to high-court judges.

Somaliland lies within the physical borders of Somalia, but declared its independence from the nation in 1991 due to broad civil unrest in the rest of the country.

EMU and a university in the African nation of Somalia are collaborating on an exchange program as part of a plan to boost peace efforts in the troubled nation.

EMU and the University of Hargeisa in Somaliland, a region of Somalia, have agreed to a cultural exchange of faculty.

Somaliland lies within the physical borders of Somalia, but declared its independence from the nation in 1991 due to broad civil unrest in the rest of the country.

Though it held elections and has a democratically elected government, the international community still considers the region a part of Somalia.

Experience Helped Win Grant

The partnership between the two schools will involve visits by instructors from both universities to each other’s campus over the next three years, said Amy Potter, associate director for the Practice Institute, a branch of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU. At both sites, staff from each school will teach classes in conflict resolution to faculty and students, said Potter.

The project will use funds from a $400,000 grant from Higher Education for Development (HED), a program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Potter. EMU received the grant after responding to a notice by HED earlier this year seeking a university willing to participate in the exchange program.

EMU’s past involvement in similar projects made the Harrisonburg school an ideal choice for the exchange program with Somaliland.

“We had some good experience in helping other programs get started in other countries,” said Potter.

Somaliland ‘Quite Peaceful’

Initially, the project will not involve the rest of Somalia, according to Janice M. Jenner, director of the Practice Institute.

Jenner spent a week at Hargeisa in August discussing the feasibility of an alliance between EMU and the Somaliland school, and left impressed with the region’s political climate.

Janice Jenner, right, with Hargeisa dean Mohamed Aw-Dahir Abdi

“Somaliland is quite peaceful,” said Jenner. “The people there are very proud of their elected democratic government. I felt completely safe there.”

The vast majority of the 3.5 million people of Somaliland are Sunni Muslims. A little more than half of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic, with the rest living in urban centers, like the city of Hargeysa, and small towns.

Cultural Bonds

Barry Hart, associate professor of trauma and conflict studies at EMU, and an instructor at EMU in conflict transformation, is one of three instructors from EMU who will go to Hargeisa next spring to teach and work with faculty from the latter university.

Staff from EMU, said Hart, will help officials at Hargeisa create a curriculum that, they hope, eventually will teach Somalians how to resolve their differences.

Hart and others from EMU involved in the exchange program hope that their initiative in Hargeisa will enable the university there to help pave the way for peace throughout the rest of Somalia.

Citizens of Somalia have enough in common culturally to make peace possible, said Hart, adding that he and other EMU officials hope that the people of Somaliland “can, over time, become a catalyst for change.”

Jews, Muslims and Christians may nurture interfaith understanding via an Abrahamic traditions studies center.

These proposals come from a smorgasbord of about 30 submitted by EMU students, faculty, staff and friends at the invitation of an ad-hoc "Micah Think Tank." Each of these visions, unveiled at a March 23-24 conference on campus, aims at helping the university better exemplify its mission described in Micah 6:8: "to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God."

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