Alumni in Kenya Provide Inspiration Last June I had the opportunity to visit Kenya – the subject of pages 12 through 21 – to meet with alumni of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) and with partner organizations. I also participated in program review and in discussions of additional initiatives on behalf of building a just and sustainable peace in Kenya, Sudan and Somaliland. It was inspiring to listen to the stories of the work being done by our alumni and by the organizations in which they often play leadership roles. Their expressions of appreciation for EMU and for the programs they attended here reinforced my own commitment to continue the tradition of excellence established by CJP. Many voiced a desire to replicate our programs on their own soil, an aspiration that CJP supports.
Lynn Roth
Our alumni would like to see CJP provide more training in organizational leadership for those who now occupy leadership positions where they must juggle personnel, budgeting, strategic planning, and outreach responsibilities for their organizations. They must also find ways of handling conflict within their own settings and of working productively with other groups. Last, but not least, our alumni value the help CJP gave them in recognizing that self-care is vital, that allowing oneself to “burnout” helps nobody in the end. CJP has designated “worker care and resilience” as one of its three strategic priorities, in addition to capacity-building, as can be seen in Sierra Leone (pages 8-11), and continuing the CJP leadership role in the peacebuilding field, as seen in Coming to the Table (pages 2-4). We welcome 2009 and hope you feel the same. We hope that you are inspired by the CJP people represented in this Peacebuilder. We are grateful for your support and partnership.
Lynn Roth Executive Director