She speaks at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 21, in Suter Science Center 106 as part of the . Light refreshments are available at 3:45 p.m.

In her nine years of co-creating Fambul Tok and helping it to grow, Hoffman has seen how inviting local ownership and leadership opens powerful new resources for peace and development. [Fambul Tok and Hoffman were featured in a 2011 Peacebuilder magazine .]

These resources proved to be a critical missing dimension of the national and international response to the Ebola crisis of 2014-2015. In this talk, Hoffman will discuss how Fambul Tok鈥檚 unique approach to community reconciliation was adapted to respond to the Ebola crisis. She will share her lessons as a non-local peacebuilder, funder and storyteller, and outline the powerful new framework for peacebuilding and crisis response emerging from this experience.

Hoffman is founder and president of , a private foundation building peace from the inside-out, creating space for those most impacted by war or violence to be the ones to lead in rebuilding after conflict. She produced the multiple-award-winning documentary, “Fambul Tok,” and is a lead author of the companion book, both released in 2011.

A former political science professor at Principia College, Hoffman has an master’s in law and diplomacy (MALD) from Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor鈥檚 degree in political science from Williams College. She lives in Maine, and is married with three children.

The seminar is co-sponsored by EMU鈥檚 .

Stauffer spoke about , a national, grassroots movement that is enabling the country to heal deep psychosocial wounds left by a civil war that lasted from 1991 to 2002. He suggested that this movement had proven to be more effective 鈥� more truly restorative 鈥� than the top-down criminal prosecutions pursued in many countries, including Sierra Leone, after violent conflicts.

Stauffer spoke from first-hand experience. From 2000 to 2009, Stauffer was Mennonite Central Committee鈥檚 Regional Peace Adviser for the Southern Africa region, a role that took him to 20 African countries and 10 other countries in the Caribbean, Middle East, Europe, and the Balkans. He and his family lived in Africa for a total of 16 years; he earned a PhD studying how mythology fueled violence in Zimbabwe.

As an invited expert to the , Stauffer was one of three in a panel discussion on 鈥渞estorative principles in transitional justice.鈥� Alongside him was alumna Pushpi Weerakoon, a native of Sri Lanka who earned her master鈥檚 degree from EMU鈥檚 Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in 2010. Today she is a scholar and fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka as examples

In keeping with the theme of the Feb. 28 symposium, 鈥淩estorative Justice: Theory Meets Application,鈥� both Stauffer and Weerakoon drew upon examples from specific countries (Sierra Leone for Stauffer; Sri Lanka for Weerakoon) to make the following general points, using words from a paper published previously by Weerakoon:

Restorative justice is about healing, not judgment; about recognizing the uniqueness of a situation and individuals, not blindly following the rule-based system of law; it is about compassion not control; about dialogue not advocacy; about recognition of the harm, and not apportionment of guilt. Restorative justice empowers people who are typically silenced or marginalized; it deals with people, not process and system; it builds rather than fragments communities; and it is cathartic and a legitimate end in itself.

Weerakoon鈥檚 words are universal, but she was writing in reference to Sri Lanka鈥檚 26 years of war and its aftermath, once the government defeated the separatist Tamil fighters in 2009. Now there are thousands of individuals who were formerly child soldiers and who need to be re-integrated into society. Meanwhile, United Nations officials have repeatedly criticized the government for ongoing violations of human rights. During the war, both sides were shown to have acted unconscionably.

Weerakoon and Stauffer were surrounded by a sympathetic crowd at Harvard. Three 2011 MA graduates of CJP were among the 85 people in the audience at various points in the day: Barbara Robbins, Judy Clarke, and Rebecca Stone. Among the other invited speakers were a number of restorative justice experts whose writings are studied at CJP, including Harvard law school dean Martha Minow; Daniel Van Ness of Prison Fellowship International; and Mark Umbreit, founding director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota.

How Fambul Tok works

The spring-summer 2011 issue of EMU鈥檚 Peacebuilder magazine , who now co-directs EMU鈥檚 Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, and a summary of the Sierra Leone example cited by him at Harvard. This is that summary, slightly edited:

In 2006, we partnered with John Caulker who had an organization called 鈥楩orum for Conscience鈥� in Sierra Leone. We used some of the same material there as in South Africa, working with entire affected communities — seven to ten thousand had their legs and arms amputated in the civil war in Sierra Leone and so many were blinded, they have their own associations. There were ex-combatants associations. Bush wives associations. Those groups 鈥� we brought them together 鈥� 25 to 30 in each of those first workshops in 2006 and 2007.

John helped us to understand the importance of conducting a healing process that would run parallel to the formal Truth and Reconciliation process, which only operated at the upper tip of society. John wanted to start rebuilding his country individual by individual, family by family, village by village, from the base up by simply listening and talking to each other.

Catalyst for Peace, a private foundation in Maine, has committed to funding the Fambul Tok process for 15 years, an impressive, long-term commitment without a lot of strings attached. And it鈥檚 working!

Our current international justice system needs to recognize initiatives such as Fambul Tok as significant community healing and justice processes. I鈥檓 convinced with appropriate research we could make a solid argument that this form of community-level justice is actually more satisfying and more effective for the rebuilding of Sierra Leone than the singular use of a Truth Commission or the International Criminal Court. The Criminal Court 鈥� for instance 鈥� built a building in the capital of Sierra Leone that cost millions. And then the court took four years to try nine people.

The reason it took four years to do nine cases is because they were trying to establish all of the details of the atrocities that these nine leaders did during the civil war. While these factors are important, they are certainly not all that the country needs in order to resolve its pain. As is the case in so many war-torn regions, Sierra Leone needs to be restored, justly, which is a long-term process that can only be done by the people themselves, one day at a time.

Stauffer is in his third year of a research project that assesses the value of community-level justice and reconciliation efforts through the study of Fambul Tok.

For more information on restorative justice, including studying the subject at EMU, visit this .

Guerrier was 鈥渟elected from a highly competitive pool of over 400 applicants and representing a diverse mix of national and ethnic backgrounds,鈥� according to a Feb. 20 news release by the sponsoring organization, , an international educational organization headquartered in New York City.

EMU is one of 22 academic institutions in the United States and Europe with a selected student; it is likely the smallest among a group that includes Ankara University in Turkey, Harvard, Institut d’茅tudes politiques (Sciences Po Paris), Johns Hopkins, King鈥檚 College in London, Oxford and Princeton.

Selection criteria included 鈥渉igh academic standing, demonstrated experience in international diversity issues, outstanding recommendations and developed research interests,鈥� said the Humanity in Action release.

The 24 fellows will be studying, consulting and doing research together in three cities 鈥� Washington, Berlin and Paris 鈥� with a focus on exploring 鈥渢he different diplomatic approaches of each country, specifically on issues of diversity, democracy and pluralism,鈥� said Anthony Chase, Humanity in Action鈥檚 Director of Programs.

Multiple sessions in Washington D.C. will be hosted at the , according to the news release. Toward the conclusion of their fellowship, the group is expected to wrap up research on a subject relating to global diversity for publication by Humanity in Action.

At EMU, Guerrier has been a graduate research assistant at the , which led him to do site research on the impact of in promoting reconciliation in postwar communities in Sierra Leone.

In a Guerrier reflected on his time in Sierra Leone, pondering its recovery from an 11-year civil war, with these words (excerpted):

“With their machetes, the child soldiers ripped open the stomach of pregnant women to see who would win the game in guessing the gender of the unborn baby.鈥� This was a story I heard this summer, when I travelled for the first time in Africa to Sierra Leone to undertake a field research project exploring issues of justice. My question was, 鈥淗ow do we even begin to satisfy the justice needs of people after mass atrocities, genocide, and gross human rights violations?鈥�

I worked with Fambul Tok International, an NGO that was formed after the war to address community reconciliation through community-led peacebuilding efforts, including truth-telling ceremonies rooted in indigenous traditions.

As we drove through the dirt and rocky roads to access remote villages, the trembles of the car shook away my sense of worry as it reawakened childhood memories from my native country Haiti. It has been 300 years since my ancestors were uprooted around the same area in West Africa and brought to Haiti on slave ships. I said to myself, 鈥淚鈥檓 happy to be back after so long鈥�.

Through the focus group interviews I conducted, I was able to enter a sacred space within the Sierra Leonean culture鈥� A woman told how the rebels had burned down her house, killed her husband and daughter, and stole all her cattle. She recognized the perpetrator as her neighbor, and had known him since he was a child. Even though there was a lot of pain and sorrow, she understood that since he lived in the community, neither she nor the community could move forward without reconciling with the person who had caused this harm.

I was shocked at how many people were willing to forgive. They said that healing the wounds of their society and village could not take place without it. They believed that it was an essential element to stop the cycles of violence. I was shocked because I expected to hear a more punitive, western approach to justice in which prisons are always the solution and the perpetrator is removed from the community.

As typical of Guerrier鈥檚 reflective approach to peacebuilding, he wrote that being in Sierra Leone was humbling and eye-opening. 鈥淗aving observed the experiences of the people of Sierra Leone and their ability to overcome the horrors of the war through their wealth in values, I am no longer bogged down by the trivial things in my life when something goes wrong,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 live more lightly.鈥�

Guerrier is also a board member of an EMU-affiliated organization, , an organization that works across the United States to address the legacies of slavery.

These are the messages being spread by alumni of the of 草莓社区 who are working in West African countries affected by Ebola.

鈥淟ocal communities should not be seen simply as the source of problems or as victims,鈥� writes Libby Hoffman in an published this month (January 2015). 鈥淓bola is not just a medical problem 鈥� it is a community problem, and this dimension is being largely ignored within the current international response.鈥�

Liberian peacebuilding alums Nathaniel Walker ( 鈥�10) and Gwendolyn Myers ( 鈥�14) offered similar sentiments in commentaries published in The Guardian and the Liberian Daily Observer, respectively.

鈥淐ommunities that have taken Ebola prevention and control matters into their hands have recorded [a] significantly low number of cases,” wrote Myers in a . 鈥淲hereas, in communities that are yet to fully embrace the outbreak and to take action to avoid infection, we have seen an increase in transmission.鈥�

Local efforts include developing the Pen-Pen Peace Network, an initiative of motorcycle taxi drivers. The Network has communicated about Ebola prevention through text messages, billboards, social media and loud speakers, distributed 3,000 fact sheets through communities, and built handwashing sanitation stations for citizens, wrote Walker and co-author Kai Kuang in an .

Women are playing important roles

In another grassroots initiative, Vaiba Flomo (CJP Grad. Cert. 鈥�13) has rallied her close-knit Rock Hill community in Monrovia 鈥� where many of the 25,000 adults and children survive by hand-crushing rocks to sell for construction projects 鈥� to do health education. With her women鈥檚 team (called GSA Rock Hill Community Women), Flomo has distributed buckets, chlorine, and soap to various groups and centers where youths and adults typically gather, including clothing shops, prayer bands, video clubs, and drug stores. In an impoverished community largely ignored by governmental agencies, Flomo and her team have received .

Liberia is still recovering from a brutal civil war (as is Sierra Leone, one of the other West African countries hit hard by Ebola). For Walker and Myers, community-driven efforts toward Ebola prevention are vital not only to eradicate the disease, but to preserve the fragile peacebuilding steps that have been taken in recent years to heal these communities. (Guinea, the third West African country widely affected by Ebola, has suffered from political violence, but not outright civil war.)

In both Liberia and Sierra Leone, peace remains tenuous and distrust runs high (in many of these communities victims and perpetrators are living side-by-side), so fighting Ebola is intimately tied with communities鈥� ability to transcend past transgressions and develop open and honest communication.

鈥淟ack of trust within communities is the unseen but powerful inhibiter of Ebola prevention and treatment initiatives,鈥� writes Hoffman, whose charitable foundation, , is the main U.S. backer of , a Sierra Leonean peacebuilding initiative.

鈥淐onversely, empowered and trusted local voices and leadership magnify the success of prevention efforts, and they do so while strengthening community capacity for post-Ebola recovery.鈥�

Gaining strength to handle any crisis

Hoffman writes that building trust in communities actually provides a 鈥渟ocial immunity鈥� that goes beyond the disease at hand, and into the underlying fabric of society, leaving communities 鈥渟tronger to face the next crisis, whatever it may be.鈥�

Fambul Tok community members in Sierra Leone have been using their hard-earned trust to distribute soap to their communities, teach about prevention techniques, and develop the Bridging Communities Network, which functions much like the Pen-Pen Network in Liberia. [Hoffman attended EMU鈥檚 Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) in 1996 and 2000; she has employed CJP graduates to work with Fambul Tok and sent Fambul Tok staffers to SPI sessions.]

As an example , who attended SPI 鈥�14, heads a group called Peace Mothers under Fambul Tok. These mothers have been distributing soap and promoting handwashing in six mainly rural districts of Sierra Leone, seeking to reach about 250,000 households per district, often by going door to door.

鈥淲e believe that the outbreak will end when actors at all levels 鈥� the national and district governments, community-based organizations and the health sector 鈥� work cooperatively to engage local communities,鈥� said a 鈥減roject report鈥� released Sept. 2, 2014, by the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, founded by Nobel Peace Laureate (MA 鈥�07 in ).

The tide may be turning

This seems to be happening at last. The tide seems to be turning from Ebola in West Africa. On that weekly UN figures show a decline in new Ebola cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Even though the 鈥渄eath toll from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has reached 8,429 with 21,296 cases so far,鈥� schools in Guinea opened Jan. 19 after a five-month closure and the national daily infection rate in Sierra Leone is two-thirds lower now than it was in November. Liberia had its lowest weekly total since June and all three countries 鈥渉ave sufficient capacity to bury all the people known to have died from Ebola,鈥� said the BBC.

In Sierra Leone, New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman has found that the locals are proving amazingly resilient.

鈥淰igor seems to be part of Sierra Leone鈥檚 national ethos,鈥� he wrote in a on Sierra Leone鈥檚 passionate surfers, 鈥渆specially now, when so many people are fixated on staying healthy. Freetown鈥檚 streets thicken at dawn with men and women decked out in the latest and brightest spandex 鈥� jogging, stretching, jumping rope, or doing situps and push-ups in the grass.鈥�

If one visits , you鈥檒l see that interspersed with updates on trainings in handwashing to stop the spread of Ebola, are fun photos of Myers in colorful clothing and high heels, sometimes with color-coordinated decorations around her neck and in her hair. It鈥檚 as if she鈥檚 saying, 鈥淲e are not all gloom and doom here! We鈥檙e resilient Liberians and proud of it!鈥�

at a to. The money raised will be distributed听by the to two Liberian service organizations founded by alumnae of : GSA Rock Hill Community Women in Monrovia, founded by Vaiba Flomo, and Messengers of Peace, a youth outreach group founded by Gwendolyn Myers. To or for more information, click .

To the amazement of growing numbers of observers from around the world,听the 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 鈥渇amily talk鈥�), 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鈥檚 vision and worked with him 鈥� and with a few people at EMU鈥檚 Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, where she had attended SPI 1996 and returned for a course in 2000 鈥� to design core elements, objectives and operating principles for Fambul Tok. Amy Potter Czajkowski, MA 鈥�02, and Robert Roche, MA 鈥�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 鈥� women鈥檚 leader Michaela Ashwood and former pastor Emmanuel Mansaray 鈥� 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.

鈥淔rom the very word go, we鈥檝e made Fambul Tok a community-owned and community-led process,鈥� said Ashwood, who has worked with Caulker for seven years. 鈥淲e only support. They鈥檝e 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.鈥�

Mansarary added, 鈥淲e 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.鈥�

Everyone is longing for the opportunity to tell their stories, said Mansaray. 鈥淭he victims have stories they want to tell, and so do the perpetrators,鈥� 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鈥檚 culture, where traditionally women had no voice.

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

In 2013-14 Fambul Tok was operating in six out of the country鈥檚 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鈥檚 and Mansaray鈥檚 studies at SPI 2014. 听鈥� Bonnie Price Lofton

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