{"id":1943,"date":"2009-05-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/blog\/news\/?p=1943"},"modified":"2009-05-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-12T04:00:00","slug":"summer-institute-at-emu-trains-peacebuilders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2009\/summer-institute-at-emu-trains-peacebuilders\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer institute at EMU trains peacebuilders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Program Draws Activists From Around The World To Valley<\/h4>\n

By Jeremy Hunt, Daily News-Record<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"SPI
Folks representing cultures from all over the world dance Monday at an event marking the end of the first of four sessions of a peacebuilding program at Eastern Mennonite University. Photo by Jeremy Hunt <\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Fiji is a beautiful country with picturesque beaches and stunning landscape. <\/p>\n

But the Pacific Island nation struggles with inner turmoil and unrest. <\/p>\n

A 2006 coup ousted the ethnic Fijian-dominated government and replaced it with a military government. It’s come under international criticism recently, with neighboring countries saying the government rejects democracy, freedom and human rights. <\/p>\n

Koila Costello-Olsson finds herself in the middle of all this. In fact, it’s her job. <\/p>\n

"A lot of it is old and deep-rooted and it’s transferred over the years," she said. <\/p>\n

Costello-Olsson is the director of Pacific Peacebuilding, a nongovernmental agency in Fiji that aims to facilitate dialogue among opposing groups and train conflict resolution. <\/p>\n

The most recent coup was one of several that have contributed to Fiji’s instability. <\/p>\n

Among the issues that cause conflict are poorly managed resources and discriminatory policies, Costello-Olsson said. <\/p>\n

To assist in her work, she studied at Eastern Mennonite University’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute<\/a> in Harrisonburg. She graduated the program with a master’s in 2005. <\/p>\n

This year, she is teaching a course in the program, which is run through EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a>. <\/p>\n

"For me, this is my support group," she said. "They have supported myself and my community tremendously." <\/p>\n

The summer institute consists of four sessions that run over six weeks. The first session ended Monday, and the institute celebrated with food, music, dancing and a "cultural fashion show." <\/p>\n

The summer institute brings together more than 200 participants from throughout the United States and more than 30 nations, including Bolivia, Afghanistan, Israel, China and Kenya, said Sue Williams<\/a>, the institute’s director. Read more about these peacebuilders from 35 nations gathered to study healing and peace. <\/a><\/p>\n

Some of the participants are earning course credit, Williams said, but more than half work for nongovernmental agencies for peacebuilding and conflict resolution. <\/p>\n

The participants share ideas and discuss programs that have been successful in their countries, Williams said. <\/p>\n

"The main focus of this institute is people who do this work," she said. "In my experience … nothing is directly exportable, but the ideas can be adapted." <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program Draws Activists From Around The World To Valley By Jeremy Hunt, Daily News-Record Folks representing cultures from all over the world dance Monday at an event marking the end ... read more about Summer institute at EMU trains peacebuilders<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,12503,4513,12499],"tags":[6890,11371,7443,11874],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-1943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-cjp","category-student-life","category-spi","tag-fiji","tag-global-peace","tag-peacebuilders","tag-sue-williams"],"yoast_head":"\nSummer institute at EMU trains peacebuilders - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2009\/summer-institute-at-emu-trains-peacebuilders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summer institute at EMU trains peacebuilders - 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