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Carl Stauffer with the leadership team past and present.

In 1991 Creators of Peace was launched in Caux, Switzerland. This summer 200 delegates from many of the more than 40 countries where Creators of Peace has a presence, came to explore the ever elusive challenge of actually "Living Peace" and how this can change the global narrative from the current inevitability of violence and despair to one of compassion and hope. The women attending, who came from such countries as Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Syria, Lebanon and Pakistan, shared powerful stories of overcoming personal and community violence and tragedy to take responsibility for building a better future.

Five Caux Scholar alumni attended. Tata Mbugua, Ph.D. (CSP 1992) from Kenya and USA, was honored as a Founding Mother of Creators of Peace, working to build the vision with the originator and former Parliamentarian, The Honorable Anna Msekwa from Tanzania. The most recent alum of the five was Jini Agrawal (CSP 2015) from Nepal. Both Tata and Jini of them have shared their impressions of this celebration. The other Caux Scholar alumni present were Clementine Lue Clark (CSP 2002) who bases in Geneva and gave conference support, Asiya Mohammed (CSP 2006) who ran a workshop on becoming a social entrepreneur and Nelly Njoki (CSP 2010), who participated as part of the Creators of Peace Kenyan delegation.

	Tata and her daughter Noni

Tata Mbugua has been a professor of education at the University of Scranton in the United States for the past 17 years. Her focus remains a triad: a) preparing teachers for culturally responsive teaching with a genuine compassion and sincere care for others, b) encouraging them to use the gift of their profession to advocate for young children's education and their families, and c) fostering in them a keen interest in society's poor and marginalized populations, as a human right and a social justice issue. Her research agenda includes the educational and psycho-social needs of HIV/AIDs orphans in Kenya. For the past 12 years she has been travelling to Kenya with her graduate students from the University of Scranton to share with them the spirit of caring and giving while learning in our global community. She writes:

"It was humbling to be 'bestowed' the honor of a Founding Mother of Creators of Peace, since this was not anywhere on the radar in 1991, when I joined the team to brainstorm and champion the role of women as peacemakers under the guidance of the Honorable 'Mama' Msekwa. The following year I joined other scholars for the Caux Scholar's Program.  

"These two experiences have had a tremendous impact on my personal and professional growth and especially on my choice of work and service in our global community. I invited Rajmohan Gandhi, biographer and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and former president of Initiatives of Change International, to give a lecture at the University of Scranton to over 600 people. I traveled to Nepal, Slovakia, and Turkey with a theme of peace for our highly diverse, interconnected, and interdependent global community. I remain committed to imbue my students, friends, family, and colleagues with the spirit of being of service to humanity and especially in advancing a purpose for living, using all our gifts, including our professions, to advance peaceable coexistence so that the God-given potential in each person can flourish.

"Being in Caux this summer was rejuvenating and inspiring and brought the idea full circle - a culminating reflection and experience that brought to the fore the importance of counting my blessings and reflecting on vital philosophical questions of who I was, who I am and what my purpose in life is. Being in Caux with my daughter Noni and other family members in 2016 was indeed God's design. It is God who has the next grand design for all of us for the next 25 years and beyond. As for me, I remain humbled with an open mind and heart to serve humanity using my gifts and talents for as long as I live!"

Jini Agrawal has been leading the organization "Miyamoto Global Disaster Relief" in Nepal. She writes:

Jini on the platform at Caux

"This is my first experience with Creators of Peace and being in the organizing committee of the conference has helped me begin to understand what living peace is.

"During the conference, I was inspired by delegates who shared their personal stories of 'living peace' with head, heart and hands and living peace by forgiveness. I personally realized that choosing to 'live peace' is a tough thing to do, and is a daily commitment and continuous journey, whether it be practicing peace within or making peace in a society that has visible and invisible conflicts." Read more

Here's a rather daunting statistic: 62 million girls are not in school. And for those that are, they often face constraints and obstacles unique to their gender for remaining in school and transitioning to full participation in social, political and economic life as an adult. This circumscribing of girls' lives is unfortunately a global issue. Even in so-called developed countries, girls struggle with mixed messages about their value, worth, and potential. And yet we know that when a girl is educated, the development benefits are multi-fold. Educated girls get married later, have better spacing between their children, and reduced incidence of under-five child mortality. Their families have better nutritional status and their children are much more likely to get an education as well. An educated woman stands to earn 10% more income for each year of secondary school completed. Countries with greater degree of women educated have higher rates of agricultural production and GDPs. In short, educating girls is the closest thing we've got to a silver bullet in development. 

In March 2015, the First Lady Michelle Obama launched a powerful whole-of-government initiative entitled Let Girls Learn, inviting US government agencies to join their programming efforts to synergistically address this problem. The Peace Corps is one of the lead agencies helping to implement Let Girls Learn. With over 7000 Volunteers in the field in 65 countries around the world, as well as an alumni base of over 220,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, the Peace Corps is uniquely placed to accompany communities in their development efforts. Upon the request of communities and organizations, Peace Corps Volunteers live at the level of the people served, assisting with capacity building and behavior change interventions. As welcomed and integrated members of communities, Peace Corps Volunteers build lasting relationships of trust that endure beyond their two years of service. We ask that our Volunteers carry their service home, educating Americans about the lives, dreams, and aspirations of their adopted community members. 

We hope you enjoyed this issue of Cauxmunique. Please share this newsletter with your friends and forward it to those you know have a passion for peacebuilding.