Omar and I welcoming the students to the Mennonite Church. Photo by Aziz Abdul.
David Sulewski, together with his wife Tibrine da Fonesca, works with MCC in Quito, Ecuador, coordinating the Refugee Project, a ministry of the Mennonite Church in Quito to refugees, the majority of whom are fleeing from the armed conflict in Colombia. This post was taken from their personal blog, Gathering Peace.
In June, I participated in a three-week summer course entitled “Conflict Transformation Across Borders” offered through the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security and Global Governance in the University of Massachusetts, Boston, McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. In the course, we examined border zones, namely between Colombia and Ecuador, as areas of both conflict and cross-border peace initiatives, and in workshops led by practitioners and scholars we developed practical skills in conflict analysis, negotiation, mediation, and cross-cultural nonviolent communication. As part of the course, the class visited the Refugee Project of the Mennonite Church to learn about a new initiative supported by the partnership between the Mennonite Church and the Center for Mediation, Peace and Resolution of Conflict (CEMPROC) to train a group of refugees and church members in mediation and to form a community mediation center in the church. The following is a personal reflection on the visit.
“Never in my life did I imagine I would be a refugee,” Miriam* shared aloud to a group of graduate students visiting the Refugee Project as part of a summer course in Quito offered through the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Working with internally displaced persons in Colombia as a social worker, “I saw the precarious situations they lived in, but I never thought I would be in their shoes,” Miriam continued. One day, the FARC tried to recruit her, threatening her with death if she refused. Fearing for her life and for her children, she came to Ecuador in search of safety.
“I did not want to own the label ‘refugee,’ that is not who I am,” Miriam said, still a little visibly uncomfortable with the word. In need of international protection, Miriam decided to go through the uncertain process of refugee status determination, telling her persecution story in detail to government officials. “Now I am a refugee; it is written on my visa.” Starting from zero was not easy for Miriam, but with support from the network of NGOs and churches, she feels that she is slowly rebuilding her life and moving forward.
After Miriam recounted her story, Milena spoke up to share hers. The violence of the Colombian armed conflict compelled her to flee her home on Colombia’s Pacific coast. An Afro-descendent, she experienced discrimination in Quito because of the color of her skin and her accent. Over and over again she had doors slammed in her face when she looked for an apartment or for work. After all she had suffered in Colombia only to put up with rejection and scorn in Ecuador, Milena asked herself, “Did I escape from the violence in my home country only to suffer another kind of violence here?”
Pausing to reflect on her overall experience in Ecuador, Milena continued: “At first, I faced only barriers in Ecuador, but it has all turned out to be a very rich experience for me. I have met good people with open hands and open hearts and in this church I feel especially at home.”
The group of fourteen students representing nine countries, such as India, Indonesia, Colombia and Brazil, listened attentively and thoughtfully. For many, the refugees’ stories struck a personal chord. Though they came primarily to listen, a few of the students shared their own migration stories, brushes with discrimination and personal testimonies of living through volatile periods of interethnic strife.
From this shared moment of storytelling arose the recognition and acknowledgement on the part of all—students and refugees—that they desired to transform their experiences with violence and discrimination into positive energies to study and work for peace, dialogue and understanding.
Not only the students, but also the refugees in the church are studying peace and developing their abilities as peacemakers. For the past few months, CEMPROC has been training both refugees and church members in mediation. The training prepares them to be facilitators for reconciliation and equips them with skills in conflict resolution, all with the aim of forming a healing community of faith in favor of peace.
Omar Rodriguez, director of CEMPROC, said, “We are not lawyers or psychologists, but regular people learning to pursue dialogue and non-violent communication to help people resolve their differences peacefully.” At the conclusion of the training, the group will continue serving as volunteer mediators in a community mediation center that will operate within the church.
In the workshops, participants like Miriam and Milena, practice their mediation skills through role-play. They draw examples of disputes from their daily lives and then practice mediating them with some participants acting out the conflicting parties and others the mediators. The mediation training will conclude at the end of this month and already its impact on the participants is noticeable. Miriam shared: “Coming to the workshops has been very helpful for me. They completely changed my mentality. I had a hot temper and would be quick to respond. Now, I calm down, listen and have a more constructive response.”
Jeff Pugh, professor of conflict resolution at UMass Boston teaching the summer course and founder and executive director of CEMPROC, spoke of the importance of creating a community mediation center in the church: “Community mediation and informal reconciliation can be powerful grassroots processes to build peace and empower people to be able to resolve their own conflicts in a constructive way. Given the power imbalances between forced migrants and local citizens, and the fear and distrust that some forced migrants may feel toward state institutions, access to informal conflict resolution processes can bridge the gap in formal services and address small problems before they escalate. The historical mission of the Mennonites as a peace church and CEMPROC’s decade of experience with peace education in Ecuador make these two organizations the ideal partners to develop this space.”
Engaging in an icebreaker game. Photo by Aziz Abdul.
Accompanying refugees through my work in the Refugee Project and participating in the summer course with an inspiring, diverse group of participants furthered my conviction that a way to peace is always possible. Working for peace is not just for the experts, but a responsibility we all share, a common vocation to which everyone is invited to respond. Many refugees, like Miriam and Milena, have experienced unspeakable atrocities in their lives in Colombia and were forced to flee to Ecuador in search of safety. Though they may have left everything behind, they carry with them the seeds of hope for a peaceful future. They want peace, and they are working for it and sharing this precious gift freely with others.
* Names and details of the refugees’ lives have been changed for this post.