June Newsletter 2016

Exciting Events | Recent Revelations

 

What does it mean to be transformed by this work?

Read below for one man’s beautiful personal reflection written after a recent Gender Equity
and Reconciliation workshop:

“I’d like to thank you again for the skill, care, warmth and delicacy with which the workshop was facilitated. 

The Gender Equity and Reconciliation workshop gave me many tools and a good head
space to approach reconciling with my partner, for which I am so, so grateful. I think we’re in a much stronger and very exciting stage in our relationship now. I’ve been sharing the [gender] reconciliation cycle far and wide!

I’ve also been really grateful that I feel I can access so much more empathy for men and for the suffering and issues specific to our experiences of masculinity. This is good for my own healing and self-reflection, no doubt(!), but has also been so important for starting my work as a volunteer running workshops for boys. I’ve been really struck by the insight that men’s suffering and women’s suffering are linked and that you can work for a better gendered society on both fronts. I’ll continue to aspire towards the same level of facilitation I was privileged to experience!”

-Male participant, London, UK, February 2016

Join us July 29 – 31
Gender Equity & Reconciliation Workshop
North of Seattle, WA

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Congratulations to Our Recent GRI Graduates!

With  great excitement, we are pleased to announce the graduates of the
2015-2016  Gender Equity and Reconciliation Training in Cape Town,
which completed  in February 2016.  Congratulations to graduates:

Kenna Cormie, Desireé English, Mandy Antzoylatos,
Lucille Meyer, Nogwaja Mkhanyisile, Arnold Motsau, Elsabe Pepler, Yasmeen Rubidge,
Jennie Tsekwa, Blessing Tsiga, Samantha van Schalkwyk

Thank you for bringing your hearts, minds and
spirits to this work so fully.

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2016 – 2017 Professional GRI Trainings
India, South Africa, United States

We hold gratitude and appreciation for the incredible cohort of 70 trainees –
– in the United States, India, and South Africa — who are conscious of the
myriad gender injustices that exist throughout the world.  Thank you for
choosing to step into your own personal truths for this transformative,
experiential yearlong training.

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HIGHLIGHTS from GRI Training
in United States

We’re delighted to welcome 29 women and men into Module I of the 2016-2017 U.S. Gender Equity and Reconciliation Training program.  The participants, from multiple countries (France,Lebanon, Liberia, Russia, South Africa, and the U.S.) gathered at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico from April 23-28. Module II will be at a retreat center just north of Seattle, Washington, August 7-12.

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HIGHLIGHTS from GRI Training in India

Twenty GRI trainees came together earlier this month in Bangalore for Module II
of the Gender Equity and Reconciliation Training. Dream a Dream staff, along with
professionals from Mumbai and Delhi, and students from Pune experienced hands-on
learning in the art of facilitating GRI activities. Judy Bekker, GRI Director of
Training in South Africa and Rob McLeod, GRI Trainer also from South Africa traveled
from Cape Town to co-lead the training.

Many thanks to Dream a Dream for their partnering with GRI to offer this Gender
Equity and Reconciliation Yearlong training.

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HIGHLIGHTS from GRI Trainings
in South Africa

New Training Begins in Cape Town!

A new training group of 19 women and men met in Cape Town in March to begin Module I of the GRI training. The group connected deeply as they learned to navigate the often turbulent and challenging terrian of the gender conversation. Trainers lead them through GRI activities addressing issues intersectionality of gender, race, and class. This cohort meets again for Module II, July 27-31.

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WELCOME TO OUR GRI Interns!
Arunima, De Anna, and Scott

	Arunima Chouguley, MA, holds a Masters degree in Gender and Peacebuilding from the United Nations Mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. While living in Mumbia, India, Arunima felt a passion to be an advocate of human dignity and be a voice  to the suppressed trafficked victims which inspired her to join a non-profit organization that was actively involved in providing a safe place of refuge to the women and  children trapped in prostitution. She served five years as coordinator at this trafficked girls shelter before going for a second masters degree at UPeace. She accepted the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International internship because she firmly believes that  GRI provides a unique solution to the problem of human exploitation and grief by healing the root of this problem, which is the culturally created unequal power structures between men and women.
	De Anna Le Pree, MA, recently completed her Master’s degree in Gender and Peacebuilding from the U.N. Mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. De Anna’s background  is in Public Health and she is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer where she served two years in the Kyrgyz Republic as a Health Volunteer. Interning at GRI, she hopes to gain a fresh perspective on ways to bring healing and transformation to shift a gender-torn world toward one that is filled with hope and compassion. She feels that GRI is unique to the gender field, which frequently represents one voice with a one-sided fight for justice; whereas GRI encompasses all voices and strives for collective healing.
	Scott Van Note, MA, is a high school teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico, working with students diagnosed with language-based learning difficulties.  Scott has a Master’s of Arts in Eastern Classics from St. John’s College, focusing on early Buddhist  scriptures.  He is currently finishing a Master’s of Arts in Counseling at Southwestern College, with an emphasis on somatic therapies, including movement and dance. Scott discovered the Gender Reconciliation work a year ago, and has become passionate  about healing wounds between men and women at the personal and societal levels. Scott is a trainee in GRI’s Yearlong Professional Immersion Training.

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NEWS from South Africa

GRI and its South African non-profit affiliate, Gender Works, have been exploring
ways to bring Gender Equity and  Reconciliation work to broader and more diverse groups in South
and Southern Africa.  Read on to learn more about exciting new connections!

GRI Presents at UWC launch of new diversity center

GRI and its South African non-profit affiliate, Gender Works, have been exploring ways to bring Gender Equity and Reconciliation work to broader and more diverse groups in South and Southern Africa. Read on to learn more about exciting new connections! GRI Presents at UWC launch of new diversity center GRI welcomed the invitation to present at a conference at the University of the  Western Cape (UWC) in March, to inaugurate the Centre for Diversity in Counselling and Psychotherapy (CDCP). The Centre was established in partnership with the University of Toronto, Canada, the University of Verona, Italy, and the Christ University,  Bengaluru, India.

Two GRI graduates from the recent 2015 Facilitator Training, Desireé English and Madoda Gcwadi, facilitated the experiential session that included academics, clinical psychologists, students and health practitioners.  The session was  received enthusiastically. One delegate who is conducting research on students’ campus life said afterward that Gender Equity and Reconciliation should be rolled out at the university to address the gender-related challenges in residences and on campus.

We are grateful to Dr Michelle Andipatin, head of the UWC Psychology Department, who continues to be a key champion for the Gender Reconciliation work and is committed to implementing GRI’s programmes at UWC.

– Written by Zanele Khumalo, GRI Programme Officer and Lead Facilitator, South Africa