Edwards Mediation Academy is pleased to announce its first EMpower grant recipient: African Peace Partners. Founded in 2013, African Peace Partners is a US-based non profit organization committed to supporting the Ihumure Peace Association in Rwanda. African Peace Partners provides training and financial resources to local mediators to support their pioneering work in healing post-genocide Rwanda.
Ihumure was founded over ten years ago after the 1994 genocide that killed close 800,000 Rwandans. Using funds from USAID and in partnership with Mediators Beyond Borders, Ihumure developed a trauma-centered mediation model focusing on 3 pillars of peacebuilding – conflict transformation, trauma recovery and economic cooperatives. This model employs workshops, focusing on people who have lived in isolation or perpetual conflict and provides the opportunity for their support and healing. Many genocide survivors have never spoken of their experiences in the genocide until Ihumure offered the opportunity for listening and support.
Through local mediators and volunteers, Ihumure also provides community mediation services working with families experiencing domestic violence, neighbors experiencing land disputes and others involved in community disputes. Ihumure volunteers include women & men, Christians & Muslims, Hutus & Tutsis, all working together to help rebuild Rwanda and promote reconciliation at a local level.
In today’s world where conflicts abound, Edwards Mediation Academy is privileged to participate with African Peace Partners to help promote dispute resolution training and mediation services through the Ihumure Peace Association.
Edwards Mediation Academy seeks to empower others by extending opportunity grants and the highest quality mediation training available, to support dispute resolution efforts in underserved communities around the world. In addition to this EMpower grant, learn about other EMA training projects here.
