Workshops Feb-June

In 2007, we have continued to cooperate with our partner Henry Martyn Institute in Hyderabad. This partnership was established in 2006, when ICfC facilitators took part in co-facilitating two workshops along with the HMI staff. In January, ICfC fellow Dasha Kusá co-facilitated a two weeks long Bi-annual Workshop in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding for advanced practitioners from around India. The workshop taught participants how to use art (dance, theatre, puppetry) in their work, and focused also on the role of history and memory in conciliation and the sustained dialogue approach.

2007 began as a busy year for the ICfC in Cambodia. The end of January saw a gathering in Phnom Penh of ICfC Fellows and staff from partner Henry Martyn Institute to design and facilitate a series of three workshops. Conducting two of the workshops with university students and a group of local non-governmental conflict resolution and peace-building organizations, Fellows Dasha Kusá and Adam Saltsman, together with HMI’s Varghese Chakkummootil Oommen had a chance to sit down with those groups in Cambodia tackling some of the most complex and serious issues facing the country today.

In June of this year, the ICfC in Cambodia conducted two more workshops, one for a small community development NGO mired in tension between ethnic Vietnamese and Khmer villagers.

The ICfC worked together with the Cambodia office of Church World Service to produce a workshop for ten local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on historical conciliation. This workshop was aimed not at the directors of NGOs, but at practitioners of dialogue, mediation, conflict resolution, and historical commemoration. Some of our participants work with ethnic tension on an every day basis as they try to negotiate between municipal officials, ethnic Vietnamese, and Khmer interests. Participants left with a new understanding of why it is sometimes important to consider history when dealing with conflict. They also acquired a skill-set to work with historical narratives and build empathy, particularly in a dialogue.

	ICfC Workshops in 2007		Upcoming workshop: Mediating History, Making Peace: The Henry Everett Workshop for Professionals Working with Issues of Conflict, Peace, and Justice October 19-21 2007, Boston The HMI workshop participants with puppets they made during the workshop Columbia University students engaged in a group discussion during the February workshop Students at the Pannasatra University engaged in a simulation of a negotiation in an identity based conflict. . Cambodia-Vietnam Dialogue group workshop at the Initiatives of Change in Phnom Penh Participants of the workshop organized together with the Cambodian office of the Church World Service for practitioners in the field of human rights and conflict resolution.
	India
	In 2007, we have continued to cooperate with our partner Henry Martyn Institute in Hyderabad. This partnership was established in 2006, when ICfC facilitators took part in co-facilitating two workshops along with the HMI staff. In January, ICfC fellow Dasha Kusá co-facilitated a two weeks long Bi-annual Workshop in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding for advanced practitioners from around India. The workshop taught participants how to use art (dance, theatre, puppetry) in their work, and focused also on the role of history and memory in conciliation and the sustained dialogue approach.
	Columbia University On February 11th, ICfC conducted a one day long workshop for the students from the School of International and Public Affairs and Teachers College at Columbia University. The workshop Mediating History, Making Peace: Advanced Workshop in Conflict Resolution introduced the approach of historical conciliation to students who already had years of experience in conflict resolution in international settings. This workshop will be offered on an annual basis.
	Cambodia 2007 began as a busy year for the ICfC in Cambodia. The end of January saw a gathering in Phnom Penh of ICfC Fellows and staff from partner Henry Martyn Institute to design and facilitate a series of three workshops. Conducting two of the workshops with university students and a group of local non-governmental conflict resolution and peace-building organizations, Fellows Dasha Kusá and Adam Saltsman, together with HMI’s Varghese Chakkummootil Oommen had a chance to sit down with those groups in Cambodia tackling some of the most complex and serious issues facing the country today. By sharing the Institute’s methods in working with history as a tool in resolving conflicts, these organizations and students began to look at their conflicts related to ethnic nationalism, political repression, land-grabbing, and gender violence through a historical conciliation lens for the first time. Out of this analysis, we worked together to adapt the ICfC tools to the Cambodian context to be of use to those organizations stuck in figuring out what to do with history as it continually pops up in their work. The third and longest workshop took the form of a training for a group of students from Cambodia and Vietnam who, over the years, have met to create a safe space for a dialogue that they hope will lay seeds for resolving the deep animosity between the two countries. We worked with this group to provide facilitation and communication skills in dealing with historical conflicts. The ICfC looks forward to working with this group further to support their efforts.
	In June of this year, the ICfC in Cambodia conducted two more workshops, one for a small community development NGO mired in tension between ethnic Vietnamese and Khmer villagers. The ICfC worked together with the Cambodia office of Church World Service to produce a workshop for ten local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on historical conciliation. This workshop was aimed not at the directors of NGOs, but at practitioners of dialogue, mediation, conflict resolution, and historical commemoration. Some of our participants work with ethnic tension on an every day basis as they try to negotiate between municipal officials, ethnic Vietnamese, and Khmer interests. Participants left with a new understanding of why it is sometimes important to consider history when dealing with conflict. They also acquired a skill-set to work with historical narratives and build empathy, particularly in a dialogue.