{"id":9256,"date":"2019-09-18T12:26:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T16:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=9256"},"modified":"2019-11-01T14:27:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T18:27:02","slug":"tecla-namachanja-wanjala-honored-as-cjps-2019-peacebuilder-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2019\/09\/tecla-namachanja-wanjala-honored-as-cjps-2019-peacebuilder-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Tecla Namachanja Wanjala Honored as CJP’s 2019 Peacebuilder of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Tecla Namachanja Wanjala MA \u201903, CJP Peacebuilder of Year, with longtime friend and former CJP staffer Jan Jenner MA \u201899.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tecla Namachanja Wanjala MA \u201803<\/strong> was honored as the 2019 Peacebuilder of the Year in May during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. She accepted the award on behalf of her family, several of whom were present, but also \u201con behalf of Kenya, and not just Kenya, but Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to think that this is just my honor,\u201d she said, adding thanks to EMU and to her fellow CJP alumni working together in Africa on peacebuilding initiatives.<\/p>\n

Over nearly 30 years, Wanjala has worked in many countries, including Sri Lanka, Cambodia, South Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Somalia and Rwanda, in various aspects of peacebuilding, from arbitration and mediation to reconciliation and trauma healing.\u00a0Currently the board chair for the Green String Network, she has served as commissioner and acting chair of Kenya\u2019s Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission\u00a0and in other roles with organizations such as PeaceNet and Pact International.<\/p>\n

Wanjala\u2019s peacebuilding work began with Somali refugees in 1991, encountering \u201ctrauma when we didn\u2019t know what trauma was.\u201d\u00a0 She came to EMU after meeting\u00a0Jan Jenner MA \u201899<\/strong>, then a co-country representative with Mennonite Central Committee in Kenya. (Jenner ultimately became the first director of\u00a0CJP\u2019s Practice and Training Institute and then of the Women\u2019s Peacebuilding Leadership Program.)<\/p>\n

\u201cJan is the one who identified me in a small village and saw my potential,\u201d said Wanjala, who was working with Catholic Relief Services on resettlement issues. \u201cShe brought me on the national level, encouraged me to come to EMU. I looked for funding and she said come by faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

At EMU, Wanjala took five courses in trauma, including Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) trainings. She created an independent study to synthesize concepts, \u201cto\u00a0think about how we do this in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, she collaborated with colleagues from the Green String Network who also were familiar with STAR materials: \u201cWe communicate best through folklore, stories and images, and so we took the STAR material, translated it into Kiswahili and developed images for each session. This is how Kumekucha was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kumekucha program \u2013 Kiswahili for \u201cIt\u2019s a new dawn\u201d \u2013 empowers local leaders to create \u201cspace for people to talk, to cry, to affirm each other\u201d in dealing with the country\u2019s historic and current trauma, Wanjala said. The social healing program has expanded from communities to police and prison wardens.<\/p>\n

Wanjala was among six Kenyans and three internationals selected as commissioners to the Kenya Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, established to investigate human rights violations and other historical injustices in Kenya between 1963 and 2008. She eventually became acting chair, leading efforts to record and witness testimony.<\/p>\n

Though implementation of the commission\u2019s recommendations has not been fulfilled, she says that is not a reason to give up on the hope of reconciliation and the creation of healing spaces in communities. It is important to be ready to see \u201cwindows of opportunity\u201d and to gain supporters who agree in the approach and importance of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cStart small, people will hear and join the river along the way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tecla Namachanja Wanjala MA \u201803 was honored as the 2019 Peacebuilder of the Year in May during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. She accepted the award… Read more about Tecla Namachanja Wanjala Honored as CJP’s 2019 Peacebuilder of the Year<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[310,1544],"issues":[1540],"class_list":["post-9256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magazine","tag-jan-jenner","tag-tecla-namachanja-wanjala","issues-2019-20"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9256"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9303,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9256\/revisions\/9303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9256"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=9256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}