Wednesday, October 19, 2011

As a follow up to the Kenya I Care peace workshop that took place towards the end of August 2011 in Ndaragwa, Mike Muikia and John Njoroge from Subukia IofC team had a follow up workshop on 3 September 2011 with 29 young people, who were victims of the 2007/2008 post election violence. The theme of the day was forgiveness and reconciliation.

The participants re-visited the learning from the past peace outreach and some of them shared what it had meant for them and their lives. At the previous outreach they had watched the film An African Answer and another film of Imam and the Pastor visiting Rochester prison in UK. Afterwards one of the participants shared; ‘I have been challenged by the life of Pastor James and Imam Ashafa, both who had decided to spend the remaining part of their lives healing the past through preaching peace. I have seen what real forgiveness means. I always think of how to defeat my enemies but the more I try, the more I do not get any peace of mind. I have nursed bitterness against them but now I think it’s wise to let go of my hatred.’

A lady who was displaced from Eldoret, expresses herself; ‘In my life I have never taken time to look at my relationships. As a teacher I tend to love some pupils more than others. I do not treat them equally. Seeing the wrongs in others has made me think that I am always right. But after the relationship scatter-gram exercise I am now going back to see where I need to forgive and apologize. I have tried to be a role model to my siblings but I now realize that I need to be more practical and honest.' 

On the same day as the workshop, a few of the participants who still live in displaced people’s camps had had a long and uncomfortable night after heavy rains had hit their area. Hailstones had brought down their tents and they had no option other than to stay awake until dawn. However, three of them still managed to attend the workshop. 'Everything has been destroyed including our food crops. But I still had to come here because in the previous workshop, Initiatives of Change had changed my life. I still want to learn how to care and love more, despite all the challenges surrounding us’, said one of them. 

The four values exercise had the most profound impact on individual transformation. In four groups they discussed and put down the attributes of each value; absolute purity, absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness and absolute love. The participants brainstormed on how the values could build trust between conflicting groups all over the world. This became an input for everyone to examine themselves and identify where they need to put things right.

By Michael Muikia