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Summer, 2006
The Center for Mediation, Peace, and Resolution of Conflict -
International is pleased to present its e-Newsletter.
In this issue, you will find:
- You are Invited: Taste of Ecuador Dinner Event
- Pastors for Peace in Pijal
- From the Executive Director
- Curriculum Kit for Children's Conflict Resolution Course
- President's Letter
- CEMPROC Patrons
You are Invited to the CEMPROC Taste of Ecuador Dinner Celebration
Join us for an outdoor dinner celebration Saturday, September 30, 2006 to benefit the Center for Mediation, Peace, and
Resolution of Conflict and to make possible life-changing conflict resolution programs for
leaders, students, and children in Latin America and the United States! Enjoy lively
entertainment, Ecuadorian food freshly prepared using organic ingredients from Cane Creek
Farm in Forsyth County, as well as sampling food from all around Latin America cooked by local chefs.
Dinner will feature
a delicious selection of traditional Ecuadorian dishes, prepared with fresh, organic ingredients.
Entertainment will include Latin American music and a live folkloric dance presentation,
a silent auction, a special CEMPROC
video presentation, and much more. Tickets are $25, half price for children under 12
(click here for directions and
details on ordering tickets).
The cost of one ticket will provide training and materials so that a dozen children in Cumming, GA can
learn about effective and nonviolent conflict resolution. When a couple buys tickets, they are providing
sufficient support to allow an Ecuadorian indigenous church leader to receive an intensive 20-hour
practicum in peace and conflict resolution in the Christian life. Together with you, we are creating
peacemakers, one person at a time!
Pastors for Peace in Pijal
"Rita" (name has been changed) is a young indigenous mother who helps out as a health promoter in the after school
program at her church in a small village in rural Ecuador. She is already a leader in
the community, and she dreams of finishing her high school education and getting medical
training so that she can bring a healing touch for the local children. At a recent CEMPROC
conflict resolution training, she eagerly participated in the lessons on communication,
conflict resolution, and resolving interpersonal problems. Taking notes, creating and
acting in dramatized conflict situations, and tying the course concepts to real-life
situations, she did her best to learn as much as she could about these important practical
skills in order to be able to serve as a peacemaker in her church and community. As the short
course drew to a close, Rita and her pastor, impressed with what they had learned, requested
that CEMPROC return to offer a more intensive course for even more indigenous Christian leaders
from the entire community. Their reaction was consistent with that of past participants, who
have said, “I pray that God continues to use you to train many more people, because for me it
has been a privilege. God bless you,” and “It was very practical and applicable to the reality
of our culture and context.” We are pleased to announce that there is a full-length 20 hour Pastors for
Peace course scheduled for this September, and you can help make it possible! In order to offer
this important opportunity to other leaders like Rita, individuals and groups in the U.S. are
invited to sponsor a Pastor for Peace with a donation of $55, which will cover the expenses of providing this intensive
and potentially life-changing course for one person. For more information, see
www.cemproc.org/pforp.html.
From the Executive Director
Dear Friends,
One of our major focuses here at CEMPROC has been to emphasize sustainability and results--working to
make sure that all of our conflict resolution programs are producing concrete,
sustainable results with the people we serve. With adults,
we want to make sure that the participants begin applying the skills they learn within their
daily lives, and when possible, to use their conflict resolution and leadership skills to
create permanent structures to support community conflict resolution, such as mediation centers,
public campaigns, and networking. With children, our hope is that by training many children
within a school or other group, as well as the teachers and parents, we can foster a positive
and supportive peacemaking environment around the children which will support them as they learn
and apply conflict resolution skills. CEMPROC is currently launching with the Ecuadorian
Ministry of Education an initiative to do just that in two pilot schools in Quito, providing basic
conflict resolution courses for all students and intensive advanced training for teachers and
parents. Also, we will provide technical assistance as the schools set up permanent in-house
conflict resolution/ peer mediation centers using trained students as mediators under the supervision
of a trained teacher/coordinator. The project will ultimately be evaluated in terms of how much
information the students learn and retain, as well as whether there is a reduction in the actual
number of violent incidences in the school. This is one example of our commitment to providing in-depth services
with sustainable outcomes (and hopefully concrete, measureable results). We are also currently expanding
our Seeds of Peace children's course in Forsyth County, GA, USA by holding a series of 'Trainers Academies'
to train teachers and volunteers in the children's curriculum so that we will have more instructors
available and can expand the scope of the program. If you are interested in being trained as
a facilitator, please e-mail me at info@cemproc.org. I always enjoy hearing the positive feedback
that we receive after giving conflict resolution courses, but to me it is even more rewarding to
hear about and be a part of making the results of the courses sustainable as an ongoing part of
people's lives: An adolescent girl who had been a bully and a troublemaker had become a peacemaker when,
after she had gone through the CEMPROC course, her school principal invited her to help mediate the
conflicts of other peers and classmates; A church leader who participated in a Pastors for Peace course
began regularly and effectively using mediation with her own children; Colombian and Ecuadorian leaders
from the Breaking Cycles dialogue and training series last summer have banded together to form a
steering committee to establish a permanent mediation center for refugee and immigrant-related conflicts
in a local social service agency, and are currently writing grants to support this project in its
inital stage. To me, these examples of sustainable outcomes are key to CEMPROC's effectiveness and success.
Best wishes,
Jeff Pugh
Founding Executive Director
Curriculum Kit for Children's Conflict Resolution Course
Based on its continuing series of successful children's programs,
CEMPROC is happy to offer a complete curriculum kit to equip facilitators
with everything they need to teach the Conflict Resolution for Kids
course in their own school, church, or other group. The kit comes with
a facilitator's guide, materials, music/audio CD,
finger puppets, and posters for the Conflict Resolution
for Children course in Spanish. To find out more, or to purchase a curriculum
kit online, see the
Online Resource Catalog. We are also currently training additional bilingual or
Spanish-speaking facilitators who can offer the children's course throughout the community,
preparing them through a one-day Trainers' Academy and a curriculum kit. For more information
about the children's program, to sign up for a Trainers' Academy,
or to schedule a course for children in your school, church, community, or group,
contact info@cemproc.org. Thanks to Target and the North GA Conference of the
United Methodist Church for their support of this program.
President's Letter
At the end of September we will be having our first significant fundraising event in over two years. Our
intent is to gather with CEMPROC’s friends and supporters to have fun, to share something of the Latin
American culture with our US friends, and to say thanks for your past support. We will also have
information to share with new friends who are interested in learning more about what is going on with the
organization and our programs…we encourage current CEMPROC supporters to invite friends you think might be
interested in what we’re doing. Also, if you as an individual or business have something you’d like to
offer to be included as an offering in the silent auction, we’d greatly appreciate that support. We will
have a number of items brought back from the Otavalo market in Ecuador, including beautiful woven shawls,
hand-carved manger scenes and tagua nut carved hummingbirds. You can add to what we can offer at the silent
auction with items ranging from the simple and inexpensive, like a home-made pie or loaf of bread, to
products or services from your business, to a vacation week at the beach or the mountains. We need to
broaden our base of support and raise some of the funds that will be necessary to expand and replicate our
programs in Latin America and in the U.S., creating Peacemakers at the grass-roots community level by
providing tools, training, and services in effective communication, mediation, and conflict resolution.
Jeff was able to make some great new contacts during his month in Ecuador this summer that should allow us
to significantly expand the outreach of the children and adult programs that CEMPROC has been offering in
Ecuador for the last three years. Also, after a successful pilot last year, we now have the approval from the
University of Georgia for a UGA-sponsored study abroad program for course credit that will begin in the summer of 2007.
We’ve now completed two pilot programs in Forsyth County, Georgia, of the Children’s Conflict Resolution
Course, offered in Spanish to Spanish-speaking children. We’re training additional instructors, and the
availability of the course curriculum kits and the 1-day Trainers’ Academy can make it much easier for
schools and churches serving Hispanic children to offer these courses in your area. Let us know if you are
interested.
We are pleased to announce the addition of Ms. Leslie Buice to the CEMPROC International Board of
Directors. Leslie is an accountant in Forsyth County, Georgia, a graduate of Forsyth Central High School and
North Georgia College and State University. Leslie brings much talent to the board, and we are excited to
have her join our team. She has already “jumped in with both feet”, as she volunteered to coordinate the
preparation and mailing of invitations for our September fund-raiser dinner.
We look forward to seeing you in September. If you can’t join us, please consider a contribution to support
our expanding programs.
Sincerely,
Chuck Pugh
President, CEMPROC International Board of Directors
CEMPROC thanks the generous individuals, organizations, and corporations
whose contributions of time and resources this past term make possible
its programs to
reduce destructive conflict in Latin America and the United States.
Together, we are creating peacemakers...one person at a
time. CEMPROC would like to recognize in particular the following
individuals as CEMPROC Patrons:
CEMPROC Patrons:
- Bob & Becky Hitch
- Scott & Angie Hitch
- Carolyn Mills
- Chuck & Lynn Pugh
- Jeff Pugh
- Myrtle West
- Carol White
Other supporters, partners, and volunteers this period:
To find out more about the CEMPROC Patrons program, or to become a Patron,
visit our Support
page.
We greatly appreciate all of our supporters.
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Creating Peacemakers...One Person at a
Time
Dr. Salomon Cabezas
Bishop of the United
Methodist Church of Ecuador, former Vice-Rector of the Central University
of Ecuador
Dr.
Edward J. Larson
Pulitzer Prize winner, Professor of History
and Law at the University of Georgia
Dr.
Fabiola Cuvi
Director of IECAM, a UN Focal Point,
former Undersecretary in the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health
Dr.
Brenda Vanegas
Mediation Coordinator,
CECIM, and author of Human Rights and Gender Equality in Mediation
Dr. Fausto Sarmiento
University of Georgia
International Board of
Directors
Chuck Pugh, President
Scott Hitch, Secretary
Sam Bagwell, Treasurer
Kathy
Bryson
Eduardo Stevens
John Cromartie
Leslie Buice
Board of Directors
CEMPROC - Ecuador
Jeff Pugh, President
Dr. Roberto Contreras,
VP
Dr. Diana Palacios, Secretary
Jack Rodriguez,
Treasurer
Monica de Contreras
Executive
Director
Jeff Pugh
Director for Ecuador
Dr. Diana
Palacios
Children's Program Coordinator
Any Stevens
Coming Events:
August 26
Trainers' Academy, Cumming
Aug 30-Sept 2
Pastors for Peace course, Pijal
Aug 28-Sept 8
Conflict Resolution and Culture of Peace school pilot program, Quito
September 30
Taste of Ecuador Dinner Event, Cumming
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