Nalyanya and 12 others from Kenya, Somalia and Somaliland became the newest graduates of the Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program (WPLP) in December, when members of two classes received their graduate certificate in peacebuilding leadership.

They join 29 previous graduates from Africa and the South Pacific who are making similar advances and repairing the fabric of their communities, thanks in large measure to the tools gained since the program started in 2012 at ��ݮ����‘s .

Funding for WPLP is primarily provided through USAID Kenya and East Africa and by international development organizations that administer USAID grants.

“All of the women are doing amazing things in different sectors of the peacebuilding field,” WPLP acting director says. “They are all having big impacts in their communities and thinking about ways to scale it up and make larger systems change. They are just all really impressive women.”

The women are selected through an application process that seeks candidates with leadership skills and practical experience as well as a platform from which to engage their communities, Werner says. Studies begin with five weeks at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Harrisonburg, followed by coursework and a hands-on conflict analysis and development of an intervention plan in their home country. A mentor walks with them through the program.

Participants in WPLP often come from different tribes, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds but find common ground in the peacebuilding work.

“That’s one of the benefits of having the women together as a cohort,” Werner says. “They get to talk about those things. It’s pretty inspiring. They put those differences aside for the larger interest of their country. They want a peaceful Kenya or a peaceful Somalia, and peace for people in general. They learn from each other and begin to think about the ways that divisiveness has been created.”

Beyond expanding their leadership skills and bringing about change in their communities, the women also gain in confidence and increase their sphere of influence, Werner says.

Seven of the 13 women were present for the official graduation ceremony along with representatives from MCC Kenya, USAID Kenya and East Africa, and community members. Several mentors, friends and family members also attended, including Nelson Makanda, deputy general secretary of the All Africa Council of Churches, and Faustin Ntamushobora, former director of African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM).

Also present were SPI attendee Samson Sorobit and two women with long ties to CJP and to the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program: Tecla Wanjala, MA ’03 [read more about in Kenya] and local partner Doreen Ruto, MA ’06, who brought staff and board members from her organization, (DiPaD).

WPLP’s fourth class, with eight women from Kenya, will begin in May. Applications will open for the fifth class, with eight women from the Horn of Africa, in the fall of 2016, with coursework to begin in May 2017.

Editor’s note: As this article was being published, the CJP community learned of Doreen Ruto’s untimely death on Jan. 21, 2016. She is remembered with both joy and sadness in .

Stella Tamang

Stella Tamang of Nepal completed a five-day workshop on “trauma awareness and resilience” at ��ݮ���� on Oct. 7, the day that the Nobel Peace Prize was announced. She and 10 others among the “1000 PeaceWomen” have links to EMU.

Tamang was among the women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a Switzerland-based committee. The committee combed the world to find 1,000 women to represent the millions of women who have devoted themselves to a future free of violence, according to the committee�s website, .

The committee spent almost three years seeking the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for representative women peacebuilders from more than 150 countries. That effort ended when the peace prize was awarded to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Egyptian director general, Mohamed ElBaradei.

From Oct. 14 to 23, a Zurich museum will feature the women with their photographs and stories. On Nov. 21, a 2200-page book with more than 800 photos on the women will be available for $45 through the committee�s website.

“I see this as an honor not for me – I don�t feel I deserve it for myself- but as a special recognition of the peace work being done by women around the world,” Tamang said at EMU.

Tamang is a powerful advocate for women’s rights and minority groups as a result of facing discrimination in Nepal on two fronts: she is from the indigenous Lama community and a Buddhist in the world’s only Hindu kingdom. The name of her organization, Milijuli Nepal, means “together.” Her message is that diverse groups in society can work together for their respective rights, with mutual toleration, without violence.

Eight of the 11 EMU-linked nominees have received training through one of EMU�s three flagship programs: (1) its two-year masters program in , (2) its six-week , or (3) its five-day session called “,” underwritten by Church World Service.

These eight hail from six countries � two from Kenya, two from the Philippines, and one each from Nepal, Russia, Rwanda, and Somalia. The two women from Kenya are one-quarter of those on the Kenyan list. The Somalia woman is one of two from her country.

Three others on the 1000 PeaceWomen list belong to EMU�s peace network. One of the American women who won, Elise Marie Biorn-Hansen Boulding, is a Quaker who helped guide EMU�s in its early years by serving on its first board from 1995 through 1998. Two other nominees have collaborated in Eastern Europe and the Philippines with persons holding EMU masters degree in conflict transformation.

“When EMU started its graduate peace program 10 years ago, we hardly dared dream of being a major player in the world peace arena,” said , co-director of EMU�s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP).

“Now we are running into our graduates everywhere, and we are learning about the impact they have on others. It�s a huge ripple effect,” she said.

Over the last 10 years, EMU has seen nearly 3,000 people from more than 80 countries come through one of its peacebuilding programs.

The Nobel peace nominees linked to EMU tend to be in their 40s or 50s. They came to EMU for additional training after many years of working in the field of justice and peacebuilding. Along with the other nominees, “they rebuild what has been destroyed, they mediate in conflicts between enemies, and they fight poverty,” said the nominating committee. �They step in for access to land and clean water, they defend human rights and denounce every sort of child abuse. They create alternative sources of income, they care for HIV patients and take care of their children. They organize vigils and they document the atrocities of war.”

Tecla Wanjala

Tecla Wanjala of Kenya, for example, came to EMU after having worked in refugee camps. She earned her masters in conflict transformation from EMU in 2002 and then returned home to focus on post-conflict reconstruction as part of the Coalition for Peace in Africa.

After attending EMU�s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 2001, Miriam “Dedet” Suacito returned to her native Philippines and offered trauma-healing sessions for war widows and for former hostages of a radical kidnap-for-ransom group. She also runs community-based anti-poverty programs and inter-religious dialogue.