CNVC Project in Africa

Coordinated by Dunia Hategekimana

Purpose of the Project

to strenghen training programmes that enable communities, organisations and groups to evolve compassionately and peacefully when confronted with hostility and scarcity, through integrating the skills and knowledge of Nonviolent Communication in their social transformation work.

History and Background

Early 90s Dr. Rosenberg and other NVC trainers training Africans. Sporadic trainings have occurred in various African counties, continuing to build on these efforts. In 1993 visit, Dr. Rosenberg met and trained Dunia Hategekimana, who has continued as a volunteer to coordinate training and promotion for the Center for Nonviolent Communication in Africa from his base in England. In 1999, Hategekimana recognized the need to coordinate the activities promoting NVC in Africa and he began to train teams of African trainers and investigate potential human resources and sources of financial support.

From 1999 to 2002 The Africa Project work mainly on:

• Building on the base of swelling interest in African Countries by
  meeting and networking with individuals and groups who have contacted CNVC and are supportive of our work with Africans (some of the countries : Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Belgium, Canada, D.R.Congo, Egypt, Kenya, USA,Tanzania, Nigeria, Mali , Malawi, Cameroun, Ivory Cost, Uganda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Rwanda,Uganda);
• Extending the pool of experienced CNVC trainers able to run introductory training programmes in Africa, including existing skilled trainers who have little or no experience working in Africa and those who are experienced in working in Africa but need additional skills in training NVC; (Belgium, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Mali, UK...);
• Enabling African refugees to use NVC as a means of handling tensions and conflicts and preventing violence in their relationships and directly/indirectly strengthening peace in their home countries in Africa.

Current Status of the Project

For the last two years Africa Project has continued reaching out to people and groups in offering them the possibilities of using Nonviolent Communication. We focus on consolidate skills and knowledge to help people and groups to work collaboratively with/in groups.

We have been supporting relationships building between local/regional institutional via networking and visiting programmes. We are designing and supporting development of sustainable programmes for social change. We are also assisting people (in Rwanda, Kenya) to communicate compassionately so that the needs and requirements of individuals in funding organizations are met. We have responding to demands of presenting NVC trainings and follow ups as well as setting up strategies for attracting local interest and fundings (from national and International). We combine follow ups programme with assisting people/groups who are struggling to stay with the process in their environment.

We continue working on short term projects for introduction and promotion of NVC in countries like Mali, Ivory Cost, Benin , Nigeria,
Through networking we are establishing links (in Kenya and Uganda) to support our semi permanent office in Central and Eastern Africa.
We are designing projects for the phase of integration of NVC in institutions/groups which are well-rooted in social fabic that can carry change into society. For that we invest lot of our time in researching and networking.

Plans for the coming year

Noticing the powerful effects our trainings have had on people, even with little time spent promoting Nonviolent Communication, we would like to embark , by early 2005 on providing possibilities of integrating Nonviolent Communication in established organisations, communities and institutions in some African countries since groups that are well-rooted in the social fabric can carry change into the society.

Through programmes that are intended to facilitate the integration of NVC into people's lives in their communities, groups and organisations, at local , national , regional, levels we will provide opportunities to learn and integrate Nonviolent Communication processes in ways that are relevant to their particular situations and issues.

The key issues that will be the backbone of the Africa Project and become the programmes through which training in Nonviolent Communication will be delivered are:

• Education and reintegration of street children and demobilised soldiers programmes (Contact in DRCongo, Rwanda);
• Economic development and governance programme with the emphasis on gender, civic engagement and employment (Contact in Rwanda, Kenya);
• Justice and returning home programmes with an emphasis on restorative justice, and compassionate and peaceful cohabitation (Contact in Rwanda, Burundi);
• Health and social care programmes that promote physical and emotional wellbeing (Uganda,Rwanda, Burundi).

These programmes will demostrate the adaptability and effectiveness of the process and attract local/regional and international resouces .The proximity effect will mark our presence and reduce communication and air fair costs for the benefit of our other purposes.

How can you contribute to this project?

You can contribute in various ways for the early part of the programme. We would enjoy receiving any form of support(financial, material. . .) in relation to:

• the running cost of the Africa Project Coordination and the Coordinator honorarium
• contribution to the Funding Development Programme (financial and or material support, ideas, time, etc.)
• funding for the programme or part of it, resources.
• supporting Marshall and Dunia organizing and running workshops for specialized training for trainers.
• contacts for funding bodies (ideas on how to get support for projects which are focused on the needs of a particular country).
• liaison for a twinning project between a partner from Europe or America and Africa.
• writing a proposal for fund raising.
• designing a programme for writing proposal for fund raising for a school programme.

For further information you can contact Dunia Hategekimana:

email Dunia

or via

telephone/fax: +44.20.8341.1872