From: David Zarembka
Dear All,
The Friends Church Peace Team (FCPT) has decided to do an assessment of the situation of the internally displaced people on their return to their home communities and how the communities have received them.
Chair of the FCPT Counseling Committee, I led a meeting last Tuesday to discuss this. We decided to visit as many of the "satellite" camps (as they are called since the big camps in Turbo and Eldoret were broken up and the people moved to small camps in their home communities) as possible in the ten communities where we have been working. We have developed a set of questions as guidelines, one for the returning community members and a parallel one for the receiving community members. In each location teams of two people will go to the two communities and interview both returnees and receivers to learn their views of the current situation and what their major needs are. The Friends Church Peace Teams expects to use this information to write a report for the government. FCPT will then decide what their next steps will be. We hope to finish the interviews and report by the end of the month.
Unfortunately I will not be present for the process. I will be on a speaking tour in England and the United States. Below is my schedule in case you can come to hear me speak. In England I will be touring with my daughter, Joy Zarembka, who will be discussing her book, "The Pigment of Your Imagination".
England/Scotland Schedule --
October 5--Bristol Meeting, 1:30 PM
October 7--Westminster Meeting, 1:00 PM
October 9--Goodenough College, London, 7:00 PM
October 12--Sheffield Area Meeting, 2:15 PM
October 14--Craig Institute, Glasgow, 3:00 PM
--Glasgow Meeting, 7:00 PM
October 16--Dundee and St Andrews meetings, Scotland
October 19--Westminster Area Meeting, 2:00 PM
United States Schedule --
October 22--Wilmington College, Wilmington, OH
October 30--George Fox University,
November 1--Bainwaithe Island
November 2--Reedwood Friends Church, Portland, OR
November 4--Baltimore, MD
We have successfully finished the first seven practice HROC workshops in Kenya. Following is a brief from Florence Ntakarutimana of Burundi who was one of the lead facilitators training the new Kenyan facilitators.
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"Dear David,
"The workshop I did after the AVP International Gathering was in Kisii. We were staying in the house of the chief, Francis (HROC facilitator). The workshop brought together three tribes; Kisii, Kipsigis and Masai. When we started the workshop, you could read hatred in their eyes. They were throwing bad words to each other at the beginning. Actually, they were affected by the crisis between them as in Burundi or Rwanda. But as we continued with the workshop, they started to reconcile themselves. During the time of sharing about the experiences, people had a lot of tears.
"I remember a man from Kisii tribe who stood up and shook the hands of a Kipsigis and said: 'You were my enemy, I have planned to kill you with a spear. Now you become my friend.' Everybody was glad of that. During the workshop, people continued to give testimonies of reconciliation and forgiveness. They that they are going to organize themselves, with the help of Francis the chief, to spread the word of Peace and to help others to do something on their trauma.
"At the end of the workshop a Masai called Michael, a chief of the Massai community who attended the workshop, called me and told me that he is going to talk to the chief of Masaba District about how they can stop killings between them.
"Participants requested more HROC workshops. And I saw that the need is great.
"The new facilitators were doing great as it was the first workshop they facilitated. I was with Zipora and Francis. I hope after the second phase of the ToT [training of trainers], they will be able to lead a workshop by themselves. Teresa Tyson from Brasil/USA participated in the workshop. She enjoyed it so much and said that she wants to attend the next HROC Training of Trainers in Burundi or Rwanda.
"The participants were all men, except one lady. Next time we would wish to have a mixed group. I enjoyed to stay with those people and witness their stories of committing to change.
"I reached home on Saturday 27th, tired but very glad of that work.
"Blessings
Florence"
-- -- -- --
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
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