March 29, 2022 – Recently, WPDI’s Domestic Harmonizer Program (DHP) trainers were invited to participate as guest instructors for a group of future teacher leaders attending the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The students – all Afghan women who left Afghanistan following the recent instability in their country – received training in Conflict Resolution Education through three specialized classes conducted via Zoom using conflict and curriculum created and hosted on the DHP’s soon to be released virtual center.

This class at AUW was instructed by a professor at California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), a prior partner that was integral to the creation and evaluation of the DHP. It focused on literacy instruction and was designed to support women pursuing a Master’s Degree in Education so that they can start and support secondary schools for young women in Afghanistan in the future.   Other classes in teacher education and administration are being taught by professors from Cornell University, Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin, and Johns Hopkins University.

It is highly meaningful for the DHP to take part in empowering these amazing women who only arrived in Chittagong only in February. The women come from 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 different provinces, including  Kabul, Herat, Balkh, Paktia, Kandahar, Badakhshan, Bamyan, Takhar, Jawzjan, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Baghlan, Daikondi, Nangarhar, Faryab, Nimroz and Ghor. They comprise of ethnic Hazaras, Tajiks, Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Sadats, and Arabs and, to a person, showcased exceptional motivation to pursue their educations. Representing the diversity of their peoples, each of them is an extraordinary ordinary hero, striving to work for the future of their country even in the face of extreme adversity.

This was evident throughout the three trainings, in which the women all displayed a remarkable degree of resilience and determination to learn about conflict and conflict resolution. As Sima, one of the students, told us: “Thank you, the sessions were interesting for me. Although the classes were online, they were managed perfectly. The positive energy motivated us to take part in discussions and feel comfortable to express our ideas (about conflict), which made the classes very productive.”

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