Ground-breaking Trip to Liberia

In January/February, Susan Partnow (Founder & Executive Director) spent several weeks in Liberia, joined by Harriett Nettles (Liberia Project Director) and Alexandra Valin (volunteer).  They were welcomed by our Liberian partners, Population Caring Organization (PCO).  Their days in Monrovia were filled with meetings: they visited over 18 organizations, including The Carter Center, Justice & Peace Commission, Inter-Peace, Council of Churches, OSIWA, WANEP and MARWOPNET.  All of these NGOs were impressed with the LPI and found its design to be complementary to work they are doing, in terms of the intended skill training and the network building.  They are open and willing to partnering with us.  We also build relationships with potential advisors and board members, including an accountant.

We were thrilled to have the chance to meet the President, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, as special invited guests of the National Traditional Chief.

We hosted a very successful mini-summit in Gbarnga (central Liberia), gathering a diverse group of 27 participants for 2.5 days.  The participants ranged from illiterate traditional leaders to skilled mediators and facilitators, including women, youth, locals, Muslims, Christians, and participants from Monrovia and Sapo in the South.  The training in Compassionate Listening was welcomed with open hearts and transcended all language barriers:  participants were deeply touched to listen with their hearts, not just the head. 

Our lively role plays of restorative justice circles validated the compatibility of these skills with traditional practices.  Dialogue around forgiveness and reconciliation was deep and inspiring, as the circle came to understand forgiveness is for oneself, not the 'Other.'   The group also stepped right up to the empowering practices of the Town Hall, engaging in a World Café dialogue and Open Space, where many topics were raised and explored.   All in all, the mini-summit gave great value to the participants and validated the design we are planning for the larger initiative.  We were delighted to have participants from the Carter Center and Justice & Peace Commission, who have received extensive training in the past and who are building networks of community workers:  they confirmed that LPI will add to the work of peacebuilding in Liberia in valuable ways.

Check out the captioned photos to learn more:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150478&id=659683957&l=43870084ec

Susan's Ghana side trip provided a wonderful sequel to GCJ Ghana 2006:  "I was able to spend a weekend at Western Heritage Home and enjoyed the absolutely wonderful accommodations there.  The Home is beautiful, well kept, and filled with positive spirit.  The completed building is amazing -huge and lovely!  There are great classrooms and a nearing-completing computer lab.  The children are a shear delight:  it was very fun and rewarding to read to them and help them with homework. And many of our local GCJ delegates from 2006 showed up for a wonderful reunion/circle time:  Gifty (and her husband); Moustapha (and his wife); Dina; Patrick; Anna Esi and Annie; Bentil.  I also got to see James in Takarodi and Frank in Accra."

• The impact of the US role from Liberia's founding by ex-slaves to tactics during the cold war years
• The challenges of building a national identity for Liberia, with over 16 ethnic groups
• Ingredients for a genuine sustainable peace at the grassroots in a nation that has 80% under age 30 growing up during more than 15 years of civil war.