{"id":33826,"date":"2017-06-21T15:52:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T19:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=33826"},"modified":"2017-06-21T16:34:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T20:34:06","slug":"winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone leaves loved ones behind to come to the Summer Peacebuilding Institute<\/a> at Eastern Mennonite University. However, gender-focused interfaith peacebuilder Theresa \u201cTessy\u201d Gusim-Ndasule left an especially curious six-year-old son back in Nigeria who clearly intended to hold his mother accountable. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, we talk and he says, \u2018Mom, how are your classmates today?\u2019 and I say, \u2018They are fine,\u2019 and then he says, \u2018Mom, what did you learn about peace today?\u201d And then she gives a full report.<\/span><\/p>\n

She also missed her daughter\u2019s second birthday. But Gusim-Ndasule says her daughter will forgive her. \u201cShe\u2019ll be happy when she grows up that I missed her second birthday because I was working in the pursuit of peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gusim-Ndasule\u2019s \u201cpursuit of peace\u201d is partly because of a childhood tragedy she hopes her children will not experience. As a young girl, she lived among neighbors of different faiths, tribes and ethnic groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had many Muslim friends,\u201d she said. \u201cWe went to school together and played together. I could perform the ablutions and I knew the call to prayer. My parents didn\u2019t have a problem with it and neither did theirs, and it was that way until 1999, when everything changed. After that, Muslim people weren\u2019t as free to have Christian friends and Christians too as it concerns Muslim friends because of the challenges and politicization of religion that has now polarized us. People you had grown up with became strangers almost like enemies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Peacebuilding a third career
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n

Years later, working as a journalist during a time of intense Muslim-Christian conflict, \u00a0Gusim-Ndasule witnessed dead bodies, burned homes, and the fear and mistrust among former friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

These difficult memories motivated her to leave a long career in banking and begin working in conflict transformation. As a program officer involved with the Baptist Church and the Women\u2019s Missionary Union, she focuses her efforts on facilitating dialogue with women of Muslim and Christian faiths in the city of Kaduna. To help her gain skills in this work, she was awarded one of two 2017 Winston Fellowships to attend the Summer Peacebuilding Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Winston Fellowship<\/a> provides professional development for people who are relatively new to the peacebuilding field through a full-tuition scholarship that also covers travel expenses and lodging. To fulfill the fellowship\u2019s requirement for post-SPI service and mentoring, Gusim-Ndasule plans to work with Carefronting Nigeria<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gusim-Ndasule may be \u201cnew\u201d to peacebuilding work herself, but she\u2019s certainly been immersed in the concepts and the activity of peacebuilding for many years. She is married to Maji Peterx Ndasule<\/a>, an experienced peacebuilder who works for Carefronting Nigeria. He is lead facilitator for the Alternatives to Violence Project (more popularly known as AVP) and the trauma consciousness and resilience program and has offered trainings around the world on a variety of peace-related topics.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘The pain is too real’
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n

At SPI, Gusim-Ndasule took a course in faith-based peacebuilding with Roy Hange and formation for peacebuilding practice with Professor Johonna Turner<\/a>. A benefit of both courses was hearing from other people working on the same topics. She was particularly intrigued by the dialogue roundtables implemented by Elizabeth Krishna<\/a>, from Fiji. \u201cYou don\u2019t even need to address conflicts but you bring people together to ask them, \u2018What does your faith say about this topic or that topic?\u2019 I can see that working well.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Gusim-Ndasule had particularly been looking forward to Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience<\/a> (STAR) training, her final course of the institute. She hopes to continue her training in the future with STAR II. While women can make an impact on interfaith violence, many are so troubled by trauma that they are unable to move forward. \u201cThey are not ready to talk to people on the other side of the conflict because the pain is too real. I wanted to learn what is happening to them and how they can begin to open up, to tell their story and to hear the stories of others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the patriarchal Nigerian society, women are often less involved in decision-making yet are often the \u201cthe worst victims of these crises,\u201d Gusim-Ndasule said. \u201cWomen have input as mothers, sisters, and wives. We have a strong influence on our children, our husbands and our siblings. I believe when women are allowed to speak and work out solutions, we may not get where we want to be, but it will move us along.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gusim-Ndasule hopes to train Christian and Muslim women together in conflict transformation skills and form a group to visit rural communities and Internally Displaced Persons camps. The sight of women of different faiths coming together to promote a culture of peace \u201cwill send a strong message to the women in the camps who are nursing grievances and holding onto grudges for what has been done to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As she continues to think about ways to build trust, Gusim-Ndasule says she\u2019s taking her experiences at SPI with her into that challenge. Participating in SPI has been \u201ca blessing,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve seen how the community here lives and nobody looks at you by who you are or where you come from. It\u2019s the humanity that matters. That is something I am taking in and taking with me. You see a light in everyone, no matter your race, your gender, your faith.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone leaves loved ones behind to come to the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University. However, gender-focused interfaith peacebuilder Theresa \u201cTessy\u201d Gusim-Ndasule left an especially curious six-year-old son back ... read more about Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":33828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12503,17562,14145,12537,12499],"tags":[16985],"feature":[17427,17424,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-33826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cjp","category-digest","category-peacebuilding-and-development","category-star","category-spi","tag-johonna-turner","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-featured-graduate","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nWinston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith - 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\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everyone leaves loved ones behind to come to the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University. However, gender-focused interfaith peacebuilder Theresa \u201cTessy\u201d Gusim-Ndasule left an especially curious six-year-old son back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-21T19:52:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-21T20:34:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/\",\"name\":\"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-21T19:52:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-21T20:34:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith - EMU News","og_description":"Everyone leaves loved ones behind to come to the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University. However, gender-focused interfaith peacebuilder Theresa \u201cTessy\u201d Gusim-Ndasule left an especially curious six-year-old son back","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2017-06-21T19:52:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-06-21T20:34:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/","name":"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg","datePublished":"2017-06-21T19:52:17+00:00","dateModified":"2017-06-21T20:34:06+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/06\/Theresa-Gusim-10.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winston-fellow-tessy-gusim-ndasule-seeks-build-peace-among-nigerian-women-faith\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Winston Fellow Tessy Gusim-Ndasule seeks to build peace among Nigerian women of faith"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33826"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33831,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826\/revisions\/33831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33826"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=33826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}