Pre-Conference

Heart-Mind 2018 Pre-Conference Event

February 21, 2018

Building Peace and Well-Being Through Education

Location: Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
Address: 580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3
Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
 
"Conflict is a fact of life. Violence and conflict do not mean the same thing because conflict involves choices that include interventions before it becomes violent. We must now join hands to work towards the kind of interventions that promote community ownership of peace."
– Alice Nderitu
 

SFU Centre for Dialogue and the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education are proud to present Alice Nderitu – internationally recognized leader in the use of dialogue to advance peacebuilding and violence prevention – at this Heart-Mind 2018 preconference event. Please join Alice Nderitu, recipient of the 2017 Jack P Blaney Award, in dialogue with Maria LeRose, event moderator and award-winning television producer and interviewer.
 
The theme of Heart-Mind 2018 is Take Care of Yourself: The Science and Practice of Wellbeing. Alice has worked to promote pluralism at all levels of conflict prevention by empowering diverse voices and including historically excluded groups in the mediation process. She has also developed Kenya’s first and only curriculum manual on conflict prevention and ethnic inclusion. This powerful dialogue will explore issues surrounding Alice’s peacebuilding work –ethnicity, identity, the power of storytelling, and the role of education in building strong pluralistic values and well-being.   

About Alice Nderitu

Alice is an armed conflict mediator and Adviser to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue on Africa. She is a Member of the Women Waging Peace network and the Kenya National Committee on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and All Forms of Discrimination. She is also a member of a group of otherwise male Elders mediating confidentially between African leaders at the highest levels.

Alice was Commissioner of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission in Kenya, a founder and Co-Chair of Uwiano Platform for Peace, a conflict prevention agency largely credited with leading efforts in ensuring peaceful processes during the 2010 Constitutional referendum and 2013 Kenyan elections.

She is a 2011 Transitional Justice Fellow of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and was named a 2012, Woman Peace Maker Of the Year by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, University of San Diego, USA.

Alice now leads mediation in various States in Nigeria as the first woman to do so. She has mediated processes that resulted in peace agreements signed by 10 ethnic communities in Nakuru, Kenya, 29 ethnic communities in Kaduna State, Nigeria and 56 ethnic communities in Southern Plateau, Nigeria. Alice holds a Masters degree in Armed Conflict and Peace Studies from the University of Nairobi.

About the Jack P. Blaney Award

“There is something more important than information. Values are far more important, and it is by understanding common values that decisions are made. We come to understand values through dialogue.”
— Dr. Jack P. Blaney, President Emeritus, Simon Fraser University
 

The Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue is presented by Simon Fraser University Centre for Dialogue every second year to an individual who has demonstrated international excellence in the use of dialogue to increase mutual understanding and advance complex public issues. Nominations are encouraged from around the world in the fields of international diplomacy & conflict resolution, climate solutions, intercultural dialogue, civic engagement, and urban sustainability.

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About Heart-Mind 2018

Heart-Mind 2018: Take Care of Yourself - The Science and Practice of Well-Being explores how self-acceptance and being kind to ourselves and others improves our well-being, and makes it possible for us to be more present and caring for the children and adults in our lives. The conference brings together leading minds that share the latest science and practice of well-being in the context of education, parenting, mental health and more.  Enjoy rich opportunities to connect with others, learn, laugh, and be inspired on your own journey to well-being.