UNYP, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, has ties to 60 youth organizations in 45 countries. One of those youth organizations is , of which Myers is founder and executive director. In her organization, youth develop life skills through coaching, mentoring, advocacy and volunteering for peace and development (for information about MOP-Liberia’s accomplishments, click ).

Women鈥檚 leadership program built her skills

When reached for comment, Myers, who is currently residing in Washington D.C. as a fellow at the with the Institute for Global Engagement, called the appointment 鈥渋nspiring, humbling and exciting.鈥�

鈥淭he tasks ahead are daunting,鈥� Myers said, 鈥渂ut with the team鈥檚 effort and the anticipated collaboration, we will overcome all obstacles along the way as we promote the Amman Declaration on Youth, Peace and Security and advocate for the active and meaningful involvement of youth on peace and security issues within our region.鈥�

She praised the preparation she received through the WPLP program and at the as 鈥済reat help with my advocacy for sustainable peace and development,鈥� she said. 鈥淓MU has equipped me with the right tools to carry on this task.鈥�

Myers was a member of the first WPLP cohort with three Liberian women and others from the South Pacific and Somalia. She earned a graduate certificate in peacebuilding leadership in 2014.

鈥淲e here at WPLP and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding are聽thrilled about Gwen’s appointment,鈥� says WPLP director . 鈥淗er passion and energy are well-suited to this role and her past experiences speak to her ability to lead in this capacity. Gwen’s聽appointment聽is an excellent聽example of the leadership positions that women in WPLP are equipped to take on. We expect to see more graduates soon following in Gwen’s footsteps into positions of peacebuilding聽leadership.鈥�

Several WPLP participants have gone on just as Myers has to have dramatic impacts in their countries and to be recognized for their peacebuilding efforts. This summer, , of Somalia, and , of Kenya, were awarded USAID鈥檚 prestigious .

With the support of two recent grants, WPLP is for a cohort of women from Kenya and Somalia, starting in May 2016. A second cohort of eight women from the Horn of Africa region will enter WPLP in May 2017.

Peacebuilding advocacy in Liberia

This summer and fall, Myers was instrumental in a nation-wide campaign in Liberia to publicize the Amman Youth Declaration. This document was drafted with input from 11,000 global youth at a conference in Amman, Jordan, in August 2015. It presents a 鈥渃ommon vision and roadmap towards a strengthened policy framework to support [young people] in transforming conflict, preventing and countering violence and building sustainable peace,鈥� according to the United Nations.

MOP-Liberia, led by Myers, celebrated International Peace Day with a week of activities in Monrovia, which included media engagement, interfaith interactions, community outreach into underprivileged communities, and a main event for the official launch of the Amman Declaration on Youth, Peace and Security in Liberia on the University of Liberia campus.

More than 500 youth representatives of national organizations joined the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Republic of Liberia to show support for the Amman Declaration on Youth, Peace and Security 鈥撯�渢he first time that all Liberia rallied around any youth declaration unconditionally,鈥� Myers wrote in a for the United Network of Young Peacebuilders.

Myers aided six peacebuilding youth from MOP-Liberia Inc together with the youth liaison adviser to the President of Liberia in introducing the document to the Liberian president; the two houses of Liberian legislature, the office of the chief justice, UN entities, the Carter Center, Action Aid and a number of local youth and civil society organizations.

Now in its third year, the WPLP admits students in cohorts from specific areas of the world to develop and leadership skills over an 18-month period, culminating in a graduate certificate from 草莓社区鈥檚 . EMU works with partner organizations to identify candidates, and matches students with mentors. Previous cohorts have come from Somaliland, Liberia and the South Pacific.

Below are short profiles of two of the Kenyan women now on campus at SPI.

A mind in motion at SPI

On a typically warm, green, sunny and peaceful late afternoon at SPI, Eunice Githae鈥檚 mind is not entirely at rest. After a presentation on domestic violence earlier in the day by professor , her mind is wandering back home to Kenya, where internalized traumas are giving rise to widespread social troubles.

Githae sees the individual casualties in her work as a counseling psychologist and in the subject matter of her ongoing doctoral research into the role of family in alcoholism treatment and recovery.

鈥淲e are a society that has not come to terms with what happens within ourselves,鈥� says Githae, also a lecturer in counseling psychology at Kenya Methodist University鈥檚 Nairobi campus.

She needs more time to process what she鈥檚 been learning about trauma, to confront the helplessness she sometimes feels when she considers the vast challenges facing her country. These are just the inevitable bumps along the way, though; don鈥檛 mistake this for defeat.

鈥淚鈥檓 really taking it as a step back so I can leap farther,鈥� she says, of her time at SPI.

The term 鈥減eacebuilding鈥� itself was an unfamiliar one to Githae when she first saw an advertisement for the WPLP. As she read more about it, though, she realized that she was already putting many of the everyday skills and theoretical understandings of peacebuilding into practice through her work as a counselor and a psychologist.

She applied, and now she鈥檚 here imagining all sorts of new possibilities. While counseling focuses on individual healing, peacebuilding expands that focus to the individual鈥檚 community. Therapy for an individual who lives in a broken community, Githae is realizing, is like treating someone for cholera without cleaning up the water they drink.

Many, many people are going to need to be on board with these ideas to enact any appreciable change, she says. There is work to be done, and as the sunlight grows softer, Githae鈥檚 mind continues to spin.

A young Kenyan leader looks beyond politics

Though it sits just outside Wajir, a major town in Kenya鈥檚 North Eastern Province, the small village of Leheley has yet to join the electrical grid. The people who live there are poor and therefore marginalized. Running power lines there simply isn鈥檛 a priority to those in charge.

鈥淢y people support the leaders 100 percent, but their support is not reciprocated with any kind of development in the village,鈥� says Shamsa Omar, who grew up in Leheley and is attending SPI through the WPLP.

Education was Omar鈥檚 springboard out of Leheley and on to bigger ambitions. After earning top-notch grades at Wajir Girls Secondary School, she won a scholarship from a Kenyan bank to study at Moi University. And while still finishing up a BA in sociology, Omar launched a campaign to represent the Lagboghol South ward on the Wajir County Council, determined to let Leheley be ignored no longer.

She ran an enthusiastic campaign and says she鈥檇 drummed up widespread support until, just days before the March 2013 election, things came to a screeching halt. The elders in the community decided that Omar shouldn鈥檛 run, and that was that. What the elders say goes, even when you鈥檙e a young, status quo-bucking political candidate like Omar.

鈥淚 was very discouraged because I had the support of the people,鈥� says Omar, now 23 years old.

Omar returned to university to finish her degree and, since September, 2013, has been working for the Center for Victims of Torture, an American NGO based in St. Paul, Minnesota. She now works as a psychosocial counselor in northeastern Kenya鈥檚 Dadaab, the world鈥檚 largest refugee camp, home to hundreds of thousands who have fled conflicts in countries all over East Africa. In the camp, Omar leads individual and group therapy for victims of torture and gender-based violence 鈥� intense and sometimes distressing work that has caused nightmares.

It has also exposed her to an inspiring resilience that she sees in some of her clients. Before she began working as a counselor, Omar wasn鈥檛 convinced that sitting around and talking would do any good solving people鈥檚 problems. Now, she鈥檚 a believer.

She鈥檚 applying a resilience of her own to her goals for her home. After her run for office was cut disappointingly short, Omar realized that there are 鈥渕any other ways鈥� to lead. Accordingly, she founded the Wajir Young Women鈥檚 Association, through which she hopes to work with like-minded young women to improve the lives of women throughout the region. She also serves as a mentor to current recipients of the same scholarship that allowed her to get her undergraduate degree.

Omar says her experience so far in the WPLP has opened her mind, inspired and energized her 鈥搕hrough the things she鈥檚 learned and her peers in the program.

鈥淚 cannot walk alone on this journey. I need so many people to help me out,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 have so many things in my mind. I have big dreams for my community.鈥�