Creators of Peace Circle Facilitator Training 

Over a three-day Waitangi Day weekend from 6-8 February ten women participated in the Creators of Peace facilitator training at Avalon in Wellington. For some of the participants the training was a refresher while for others it was their first introduction to the facilitator training modules.

Jumoke Giwa writes: “The training provided an opportunity for me to interact with women from diverse cultures, faith and demographics that I otherwise would not encounter in my normal day-to-day life. Many aspects of the modules required inner reflection and this enabled me to reconcile my actions and my thoughts. A key challenge for me was the exercise of story sharing.

I’m not particularly comfortable talking about myself or discussing personal life matters in public. I found it commendable that most women in the room felt comfortable sharing their stories because they considered that they were in a safe space and could express their voices freely.

“Over the course of the three days I saw and experienced this safety and freedom as well. This experience made me feel better and more comfortable sharing some of my observations and reservations with the group. I came away from the training with a key and unique take-away challenge for myself; that is to learn to trust women more and cultivate stronger ties with them. In addition I gained more confidence, trust and willingness to further engage in peace building.”

Two young women from Fiji joined eight women who are based in New Zealand while Shoshana Faire, CoP International trainer, came from Australia.