Alumni News

: Harriet Ahalo; 13 September 2018

Empowering Youth for Better Security Awareness

Kenya is a youthful nation, with approximately 65 percent of the population under the age of 35. Frustration with unemployment and lack of education and opportunities for political participation and governance are among the numerous problems that Kenya faces. These challenges pose great threats to the youth and make it more likely that they will be involved with criminal and extremist groups. Kenya is a breeding ground for radicalism and terrorism. Groups involved in such activities are recruiting from among the youth. Being unemployed and uneducated means they can easily be indoctrinated into these groups’ version of “jihad.” They have misinterpreted jihad, which means “to struggle” in the Muslim faith^1, and have been successful at increasing the number of young terrorists. Establishing a caliphate is the main goal of their jihad. In 2013, one such group carried out an attack on a mall where 68 people died², and in 2015, 148 students lost their lives in an attack on a university^3.

Enabling Possibilities and Championing Peace Through Youth

“Composing the music, playing the instruments and performing the dance” is how Jeanyline Alvarado describes her work in peacebuilding and her need to multitask in implementing the projects in which she is involved. Jeanyline is an alumna of MPI’s 2013 Annual Peacebuilding Training, having taken the course Strengthening Peace Education Training Skills. She works at Southern Christian College (SCC) in Midsayap, Cotabato, as the Community Development Coordinator under the Office of the Vice President for Research and Extension in the Office of the Director for Extension.

Jeanyline has been very involved in the SCC Peace and Tri-People Dialogue Project. She has worked with Agenda 1: Transformative Education and Peace, which focuses on the youth. These youth come from SCC partner communities and organizations, such as the Mindanao Peoples’ Peace Movement and Balay Rehabilitation Center.

Becoming a Catalyst for Peace Activism

I distinctly remember how on the 6^th of May, 2018, I had landed in Davao City in Mindanao, Philippines, and was anxious about finding my route to the venue for the Annual Peacebuilding Training of the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. (MPI). MPI had sent a volunteer and a driver to pick up a participant from Sri Lanka and me from the airport. With a beaming smile, they welcomed us, and within a few minutes, they started sharing many things from snacks to jokes and put us at ease. MPI knows more than a thing or two about making utter strangers turn into friends in a very short span of time. Dazed by travel exhaustion, I hoped that my next three-week experience at MPI would be one of such warmth.

Little did I know then that the MPI Annual Peacebuilding Training would turn out to be one of the best experiences I have had in my life! Looking back, I know that it was intensely enriching for many reasons. It was truly an immersion in global citizenship. I gained invaluable international, intercultural and even intersubjective experience; got wholesome food for the soul; picked up skills to handle conflicts and build peace; and overall, felt humbled as a learner and expanded as a human.

My sense of the world’s geography, histories, cultures, conflict contexts, and peace approaches grew immensely in those three short weeks at MPI. I had soul-stirring interactions with participants from Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Afghanistan, Fiji, Bangladesh, Switzerland, Bougainville, Germany, Pakistan, Laos, Kenya, Vietnam, Japan, etc. I’m sure many of those who attended with me would have similar accounts to highlight. Such exchanges inform us how beautiful and necessary cultural sharing is. And what do I tell about my Filipino friends! They were so adorably warm and friendly! I learned a lot in their company.

Reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Post-war Sri Lanka Book Launching

A new book entitled Reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Post-war Sri Lanka: through the Healing of Memories and the Role of the Catholic Church was launched in Colombo on June 2, 2018. Fr. J.M. Joseph Jeyaseelan, CMF (Claretian Missionaries), an MPI alumnus from 2018, is the author of the book. Gracing the occasion as chief guest was His Excellency Most. Rev. Dr. Pierre Nguyen Van Tot, Apostolic Nuncio to Sri Lanka. Honorable Mano Ganesan, Minister of National Coexistence, Dialogue and Official Languages; Very Rev. Fr. Dilan Fernando, SSS, the President of the Conference of the Major Religious Superiors in Sri Lanka; family members; and friends of Fr. Jeyaseelan; members of the Claretian family in Sri Lanka; and representatives from religious, non-governmental and civil society organizations also attended. The book was introduced by Dr. Jehan Perera, Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka and reviewed by Prof. Shirley Wijesinghe of the University of Kelaniya. A message sent to the author by Rt. Rev. Dr. Winston Fernando, SSS, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka was read out during the launching event.

Reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Post-War Sri Lanka by Fr. J. M. Joseph Jeyaseelan, CMF

The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. is please to share with you that Claretian Publications is publishing a new book by MPI Alumnus Fr. J. M. Joseph Jeyaseelan, CMF (2018) titled: Reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Post-War Sri Lanka: through the Healing of Memories and the Role of the Catholic Church.

The Claretian Missionaries in Sri Lanka are organizing a book launching for Saturday, June 2, 2018.

About the Book

This book explores the role of the healing of memories for post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka. In the intervening years since the 26-year civil war came to an end in 2009, hardly anything substantial has been done in terms of healing the past wounds and building a new and reconciled Sri Lanka where all her citizens could live with equal dignity and in peace. Moreover, even in the meager post-war reconciliation efforts that are in place, the efficacy and role of the healing of memories have been grossly disregarded. Anyone interested in the role of the healing of memories for post-conflict reconciliation, explored primarily through the lens of practical theology, will find in this book useful insights and recommendations that can be adapted to other contexts as well. Since healing of memories is related closely to psychology, this book has integrated insights from the field of modern psychology, namely cognitive theories. The concept of the Moral Imagination has also been applied to come to certain conclusions and recommendations. This book suggests many ways the Catholic Church can better contribute to the post-war reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka, and initiate certain projects geared toward this end, using the healing of memories as a primary route.

J. M. JOSEPH JEYASEELAN is a Catholic priest and a member of the Congregation of Claretian Missionaries. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Peradeniya; a Bachelor of Theology from the Pontifical Urban University, Rome; and a Doctor of Ministry from Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, USA.

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