The Peaceful University Communities (PUC) Project, implemented by the Ethiopian Institute of Peace (EIP) in collaboration with the Life & Peace Institute (LPI), aims to promote peace and stability in Ethiopian universities, with a focus on Hawassa and Mekelle Universities since 2022.
The project works to prevent conflict, facilitate dialogue and trauma recovery, and build relationship and trust among students through Sustained Dialogue (SD) sessions. It also enhances the capacity of university management through conflict-sensitive leadership training, conflict early warning and early response training, peer mediation, moderation skills, project management, and leadership training for students, as well as conflict management training and dialogue facilitation for surrounding communities.
➢ Key achievements of the project include reduced tensions, improved students leadership, increased relationship and trust among students from different backgrounds, strengthened university-community relations, and trauma-informed resilience support for war-affected students in Mekelle.
This info is from the Sweden Embassy in Addis Ababa.
➢ In the next phase, the project will expand SD groups, organize public lectures, and facilitate university-community dialogues to further promote peace. The project aims to empower students, university administrators, and local communities to address conflicts constructively and ensure sustainable peace on campuses and beyond.
➢ Components of the project include Sustained Dialogue (SD) groups to decrease tension and build relationships and trust, leadership and trauma recovery training to enhance leadership skills and aid in trauma recovery, university-community dialogues to strengthen local relations, and public lectures and town halls to promote peace awareness.
✔This project aims to build relationship, trust, social cohesion and inclusive peacebuilding in Ethiopian universities.
