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The Graduate Certificate Program in Conflict Transformation at the
School for International Training (SIT) is specifically designed for working
professionals who want to enhance their knowledge and skills in conflict
transformation but do not wish to enroll in a full-time graduate program or master's degree.

Participants include professional mediators, social workers, psychologists,
educators, non-profit and non-governmental organization administrators and
staff, and human rights workers from the United States and around the
world.

This 14-credit graduate program combines short-term meetings with
online learning to minimize time away from jobs and families while
maintaining face-to-face contact and experiential learning. Participants may
specialize in the psychosocial foundations of peacebuilding or civil society
initiatives in peacebuilding.

Program Components and Courses The program starts with a three-week Summer Institute in June-- an intensive experiential learning program with practitioners in the field of  conflict transformation from around the world. Participants in the Graduate Certificate Program attend the Summer Institute and stay an extra four days beyond the regular course to meet the certificate faculty and prepare for the  online portion of the program. From September until May they participate in weekly online discussions of the reading assignments with their colleagues and faculty.
They meet again face-to-face as a group for a week in January (this
year in
Rwanda, previous years have been held in Cyprus and Bosnia) to see
how specific
theories are implemented on the ground. Each participant also engages
in a
practicum experience in which the participant creates and implements
a project
from start to finish under the direction of a faculty member and with
the
support and advice of classmates. Practicums are frequently part of
the
student's regular job. These learning experiences are synthesized in
a final
paper.

Participants who would like skills in training, organizational
behavior, project
management, evaluation, proposal writing and other management and
technical
skills can apply the credits earned in the Graduate Certificate
Program to a
Master's Degree in either Conflict Transformation or Intercultural
Service,
Leadership and Management at the School for International Training.
The
Master's Degree requires approximately 8 months on campus, an
additional
practicum experience, and an original research project.

About our Organization
World Learning, Inc. created the Conflict Transformation Across
Cultures
(CONTACT) Program in 1997 as part of its School for International
Training to
offer high quality, accredited academic programs with a cross-
cultural and
international focus and an experiential approach to learning.
CONTACT's courses
are taught by faculty members with vast international experience and
are
accredited by The New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

See below for comments from participants as well as repots from our
seminar in
Kigali Rwanda.

"After 18 years working with community and public policy conflicts it
was
getting more challenging to muster up the energy needed to happily
face the
controversy again and again. The CONTACT program was exactly what I
was looking
for to recharge and refocus my peace skills. I was moved beyond words
by the
courageousness and determination of my classmates from around the
world with
their daily struggle with war and overwhelming injustice. As a result
of my
participation in CONTACT I have a renewed commitment to conflict
resolution as a
vital peace building tool and am more clear about my role in bringing
about a
more peaceful world."

Jamie Damon, Mediator, Jeanne Lawson and Associates, Inc., United
States

"CONTACT has changed my outlook in development work and intensified my
commitment to work with people in conflict…I have now started
advocating for
peace building as a sustainable mechanism for development. In fact, I
have
already informed the representative of our donor agency --the
International Fund
for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-- and United Nation Office for
Project
Services (UNOPS) to introduce innovations in our project designs and
in their
other projects in the world to be conflict sensitive and integrate
peace
building interventions in conflict areas as part of a sustainability
mechanism
because development cannot take place if peace is not in place."

Orlen Ocleasa, Community & Institutional Development Specialist,
Western
Mindanao Community Initiatives Project, Philippines

Comments from students during the one-week field seminar in Kigali,
Rwanda:

"Tomorrow we will attend several Gacaca hearings -- modern versions of
traditional community reconciliation gatherings, but these are
dealing with
issues a little more intense than cattle thievery. There's all sort
of gnashing
within the country about whether or not this is the way to address to
enormity
of seeking justice and community healing from the 94 genocide, but
what path
wouldn't be? Will report more after our experience.

After the hearings we are traveling to the western part of the
country, near
Lake Kivu for the geographically enthused, in an area named Kibuye
that was
particularly hard hit by the genocide. There is a memorial there, we
will meet
with people and government ministers, and a woman who's in the Rwanda
Senate
will accompany us. We'll spend the night in a cabin on the lake. I'll
have my
mosquito net." JL

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"We spent Saturday morning experiencing Gacaca live. We first had a
briefing by
the Coordinator of the Gacaca activities in the Gikondo district of
Kigali. The
gist of his address was that after the tragedy that befell Rwanda in
1994, the
country found itself with an influx of prisoners, and had to find a
way to deal
with their cases as expeditiously as possible, for "justice delayed
is justice
denied." Therefore, they have resorted to Gacaca, a traditional form
of
restorative justice.

He gave us three phases of Gacaca which are: (1) Collecting
information (2)
Categorization of the crimes, and (3) The trials, The then went
through some
detail on the first phase which I will not go through.

After the address, he allowed some questions, and after the
discussion, we
proceeded to the first Gacaca session we attended. We arrived when a
suspect
was being cross-examined. There were nine judges, six men and three
women. The
suspect was a short, stocky man with shifting eyes. He answered
questions from
the judges and the community gathered politely, but insisted on his
innocence.
The judges pleaded with him to help the court and give them
information that
would move the case forward, but he insisted on his innocence.

The questions from the community were impressive as they tried to pin
him down
on having participated in the killing of the Tutsis in his community,
and
possessing a gun during that time. He pleaded innocence, and even
said he and
his family hid some Tutsi during that time. Two people attested to
that fact but
one claimed to have seen him committing a crime during the period of
the
genocide. The judges again pleaded for anyone else in the community
who could
have seen the suspect committing a crime to come forward and give it,
but it was
not forthcoming. They were keen to save the court the bother of
having to
continue with the same case the following week.

The judges went into a private session twice. During the time the
judges were
away, there was little discussion of the case. Instead, people just
carried on
with small talk to while away time while waiting for the judges to
return. In
the end, the verdict was that the information gathered in that
session was
inconclusive. The suspect was given another eight days to reflect on
his case,
and the community was urged to come forward and give more
information. The
court was then adjourned." -- JN