35 Student Moderators Trained in SD in Ethiopia

Thursday, December 10, 2009

(Sustained Dialogue Campus Network)

The Peace Club at Addis Ababa University, a student extra-curricular organization formed after 2005 national elections in Ethiopia, explored how to improve relations among students and to create a shared community of inclusion and peace building on campus. Rhonda Fitzgerald, current SDCN Program Director, had the opportunity to travel to Addis Ababa to collaborate with Xavier Mudangwe of the Campus Sustained Dialogue Network (CSDN) in Harare, Zimbabwe and two associates from the Peace and Development Committee (PDC) in Addis Ababa to lead a three-day facilitation training for students in mid-November.

The 35 carefully selected student moderators received training in peace and conflict analysis, facilitation skills, relationship building across lines of difference, and how to build a shared agenda for change through dialogue. During the training, students were welcomed into the peace-building tradition in Ethiopia by invited guests from Peace and Development Committee's network of national leaders, including world-renowned distance runner Haile Gebreselassie. Nearly 800 AAU students applied for the 150 spots as participants in the dialogues the trained moderators will kickoff in the coming weeks.

The students will work closely with training co-facilitators and Peace and Development Committee (PDC) associates Hannah Tsadik and Ayten Birhanie. PDC was interested in bringing Sustained Dialogue used in Zimbabwe and the United States to Addis Ababa University because of the SD model's focus on embedding a culture of dialogue and use of tools to build community awareness which can catalyze student action.

The Peace and Development Committee is a non-governmental, non-profit making and non-partisan organization established in Addis Ababa in 1992 with the aim of promoting the culture of peace and development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. PDC's varied programs and projects include human rights education, civic education, income generation projects, gender equality education and national peace and development capacity building through a Council of Elders. The AAU dialogue project is supported by the Life & Peace Institute, an international center for peace research and action headquartered in Sweden.