Johaina Talhami (left) and Shauk Atamleh (right) traveled from Israel in May for the course, Practice: Skills for Peacebuilding. They were chosen for their roles as leaders in the School of Nursing and at the Hospital, as well as their existing foundations for conflict resolution.
Skills for Peacebuilding
Every summer, the Center for Peacebuilding and Justice at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA, offers a series of courses on restorative justice, organizational leadership and practical skills forpeacebuilding. This is the fourth year that we have sponsored staff from Nazareth to attend the Center’sSummer Peacebuilding Institute, a reflection of The Nazareth Project’s commitment to the difficult work of reconciliation (emu.edu/cjp/spi).
Over the seven-day course, participants from conflict areas worldwide examined skills for transforming conflict: Listening, identifying the issues, identifying common ground, problem-solving, and group facilitation, to name a few. The strategies explored in the course can be applied to peacebuilding on both a large and small scale.
Johaina Talhami has served as Charge Maternity Nurse since 1999, supervising 30 members of staff. A midwife, she is dedicated to her profession and to the hospital, and is a member of the Child Safety and Non-Violence Committees. She is married and has three daughters and a son. The family lives in Shfa-Amr, north of Nazareth. She said, “I took the course for my work. At least that’s what I thought in the
beginning. But I realized that it won’t just help me facing the conflicts in my job, but it will also help me in my home, neighborhood, and hopefully, my country.”
Shauk Atamleh has served as instructor for maternity nursing at the Nazareth School of Nursing since 1998. She is married, has two sons and a daughter, and lives in Raineh, just east of Nazareth. Shauk found the course relevant to her work at the nursing school, where the cultural differences can present challenges. “It was nice to meet people from all around the world and to hear their stories and to learn from them about how they manage their problems.”
