Pace e Bene

By Josephine Olagunju               

Originally published in The Wolf, Winter 2008   

Featured in Living With the Wolf: Walking the Way of Nonviolence (Pace e Bene Press, 2009) 

In April 2005, while I was on sabbatical in the United States, I attended a Pace e Bene From Violence to Wholeness (FVTW) workshop.  In June of the same year, I did the facilitator training which qualified me to run the same workshop. On my return to Nigeria, in October 2005, the Centre for Renewal where I was missioned opted to use the FVTW program to celebrate its Silver Jubilee in a programmatic way. The decision seemed right in the aftermath of outbreaks of violence in an otherwise calm Plateau State. Significantly, the leaflet informing the general populace about it was issued on October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

The first workshop took place in February 2006 as three evening sessions. The night of that last day, the convent and centre experienced armed robbery attempt in which two young men eventually lost their lives, having sustained injuries from the shots fired by the police on duty. It brought to me very vividly the reality of violence in our society and the urgency of the right response. I have used both stories from the FVTW and the Nigerian reality concurrently to emphasize the evil in our society, their causes and the need for change. However, in a society where the “sins” of the fathers are visited on the sons and vice versa, where it is a close family system, sticking one’s neck out is a very slow process indeed. I have therefore emphasized for our workshops here the need to begin change from the individual herself or himself, to work from the inside out.

The alarming rate of violence in schools has been a leverage for the passion to introduce the program in schools. By relentless persistence one of my trained facilitators was in a good position to effect the running of a series of workshops for the staff of nine catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Jos, with a follow-up facilitator training in January 08. These teachers-turned-facilitators will then run workshops for students of ages ranging from 10 to 22 years. As their teachers, the facilitators know the violence in the schools and how to adapt the workshop to the students’ needs.

Over two years, we have run 32 workshops for 1,060 participants. Participants have been drawn from different groups – students, teachers, lecturers, administrators, businessmen and women, nurses. They have involved mainly Christians but we have also had Moslems participating. This last reality recently in another State led to further adapting FVTW to meet the mixed audience. Earlier adaptations were for couples, women and catechists.

By the time this article is read, 35 facilitators will have been trained for ongoing multiplier effect. Some of them were involved in the last series of workshops for staffs of 10 schools and parish leaders. The Centre for Renewal, my primary place of ministry, has generously enabled and involved themselves in the success of the workshops. The seeds of nonviolence are sprouting in Nigeria.

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