My relationship with forumZFD has been a long and fruitful one on all sides! read more
I first came to hear of the ZFD-programm when it started its programming in Uganda decades ago. Together we trained journalists in peace media skills as Uganda was facing several internal insurgencies led by rebel groups, including the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) oed by Joseph Kony. As citizens relied heavily on the media as their main source of information, it was important for the media to infuse peacebuiodinypg skills in their work. That collaboration was our entry point with ZFD. I was then the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Conflict Resolution (CECORE). Later, more intense collaboration emerged as we worked to equip communities in turbulent West Nile Region of Uganda, bordering the tyen Southern Sudan, now Republic of South Sudan, and equally disturbed Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with active nonviolence skills of resolving conflict. This was key as these efforts eventually led to the appointment of myself and CECORE to carry out a number of confidence and trust building overtures with the Government of Uganda and an old rebel group from the soldiers of Idd Amin, former president of Uganda, the Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF2). A staff of ZFD accompanied thus initiative.
More recently, during the last 16 years that I served at the African Union and the UN in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I was privileged to be invited by ZFD to participate as trainer and mentor in their Mediation program of local traditional chiefs, who play a crucial role in communities and are often consulted in by the government. All this work is well documented.
Finally, forumZFD has been reaching out to me welcoming me as a trainer and facilitator in their highly popular program at AZK in Köningswinter.
I warmly congratulate forumZFD on this momentous occasion after decades of excellence in the field of peace.
