Libby Hoffman is founder and president of Catalyst for Peace, 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 speaks Monday, March 21, in a Suter Science Seminar at Eastern Mennonite University about how community reconciliation networks in Sierra Leone responded to the Ebola crisis in 2014-15. (Courtesy photo)

Peacebuilder draws attention to power of local networks to respond to humanitarian and public health crises

Libby Hoffman returns to Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), where she attended the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 1996 and 2000, to talk about humanitarian aid and crisis response. Hoffman is co-founder of Fambul Tok (Family Talk) in Sierra Leone, the world’s first large-scale community-owned and community-led reconciliation program. The title of her talk is “The Answers Are There: How Changing Our Lenses Opens Up Critical Resources for Peace, Development, and Community Health.”

She speaks at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 21, in Suter Science Center 106 as part of the Suter Science Seminars. 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 article.]

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’s 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 Catalyst for Peace, 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’s degree in political science from Williams College. She lives in Maine, and is married with three children.

The seminar is co-sponsored by EMU’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies.

Discussion on “Peacebuilder draws attention to power of local networks to respond to humanitarian and public health crises

  1. Congratulations on the world’s first large-scale community-owned and community-led reconciliation program. That is an amazing accomplishment. We are definitely moving forward.

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