For published on Aug. 19, 2013, BBC reporter Naveena Kottoor quoted three sources in the United States: Howard Zehr; Bill Pelke, whose 78-year-old, Sunday-school-teaching grandmother was murdered in her home by four teenage girls; and Linda White, whose 26-year-old-daughter was abducted, raped and killed by two teenage boys.

Pelke and White told their stories of evolving toward releasing bitterness and anger. They chose to develop their ability to feel compassion and even to express forgiveness toward some of the ones who had done these grievous crimes. With the help of trained facilitators, both Pelke and White eventually met two convicted murderers in prison.

鈥淰ictims are often stuck in their experience,鈥� Zehr told the BBC. 鈥淭he meetings enable them to get answers and let go.鈥� Zehr said that doing proper groundwork for the meetings was crucial: 鈥淪uccess depends on the level of preparation on both sides 鈥� sometimes it can take up to a year.鈥�

. The BBC article prompted Newstalk, a national radio broadcast in Ireland to arrange for Zehr to be interviewed later the same week on the , which attracts about 100,000 listeners in its mid-afternoon slot.

鈥淲e wish the best for you as you work to secure the peace, promote stability, and restore prosperity to the people of Somalia,鈥� said in a congratulatory letter dispatched to President Mohamud on Oct. 4.

Challenging the incumbent, Mohamud was the come-from-behind winner in a run-off election that ended Sept. 10, 2012. He was inaugurated on Sept. 16.

鈥淲e are honored that you attended our Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 2001, and hope that some of what you learned during that time will serve you well in the coming months and years as you work with the very difficult issues that Somalia faces,鈥� wrote Swartzendruber.

Mohamud arrived at SPI 2001 as an educator who was interested in how to engage civil society in building his country. He was encouraged to attend SPI by Khadija Ossoble Ali, a native of Somalia who completed her EMU in 2001. Mohamud鈥檚 attendance was facilitated by scholarship funding provided by SPI.

Joining 182 people from 45 countries at SPI 2001, Mohamud took classes in trauma healing, mediation, and adult-centered education techniques.

During the era when Mohamud attended SPI, he was dean of the Somali Institute of Management and Administration Development, which prepared mid-level management and administrative technicians for reconstructing Somalia, according to his official online biography. He was also a researcher for the Center for Research and Dialogue, focusing on post-conflict reconstruction of Somalia.

In 2011, Mohamud founded the Peace and Development Party, the platform from which he launched his bid to be president.

鈥淭he election of Mohamud, a former adviser with an unsullied reputation, appeared to give even the cynical hope,鈥� according to The Toronto Star.

The called Mohamud a 鈥減eace activist and educational campaigner,” who remained in Somalia during more than two decades of civil war, 鈥渦nlike many other Somali intellectuals.鈥�

鈥淗assan Sheikh Mohamud’s dogged determination not to give up on Somalia despite years of conflict, warlordism, piracy and Islamist insurgency has finally paid off,鈥� added the BBC.

Mohamud regularly spoke on a weekly BBC-Somali program, stressing the importance of including civil society groups in the “roadmap to peace.” His election may be one of the outcomes of his determination to follow such a 鈥渞oadmap.鈥�

As a Muslim who disavows the violent agendas of extremists, Mohamud has experienced threats to his life, including an assassination attempt two days after his election that left casualties among African Union soldiers guarding him.

Mohamud鈥檚 election was the final step of a U.N.-backed plan to bring a stable central government to Somalia. The last stable government collapsed in 1991.

鈥淓MU continues to be involved in assistance to Somalia,鈥� noted Swartzendruber in his letter to President Mohamud. 鈥淐urrently, four Somali women are enrolled in a graduate certificate program in Peacebuilding Leadership at (along with Somali women from Somaliland and Northeastern Kenya, and women from Liberia, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands).

鈥淓MU has also cooperated closely with that is working with trauma and social reconciliation through our curriculum that has already trained more than 800 local trainers who are working with groups in their communities in sixteen districts in Mogadishu,鈥� added Swartzendruber.