leadership in global community.
Emmanuel G.V. Dolo (IF'09, Liberia) on March 4th, 2011As I return home to embark upon my peace initiative in Liberia, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my iLEAP family for their continued support and collaboration.
I am thanking them because three years ago, I found myself in a serious situation where I needed a group to help me overcome a challenge to respond to the call of my fellow Liberian war wearied refugees.
In 2008, roughly after 5 years of testing out peace-building and reconciliation work in the Buduburam Refugee camp (Ghana), refugee tribal elders and their traditional leaders called on me and my organization (PCO) to extend our peacebuilding effort in the camp, to Liberia.
This was a huge challenge for me and my group because we needed to be able to first rise above our own fears, pains, and all the traumatic experiences we encountered during the civil war in our country before we could help others to do the same. Secondly, we needed to increase our leadership skills and understanding of how to lead such a critical effort that include rebuilding trust, healing war inherited wounds and effects, and promoting national unity and reconstruction in a post conflict country like Liberia.
In search for solutions, I came to iLEAP in 2009. Since my acceptance, the iLEAP international training programs provided me a better understanding of the concept and principles of the Change Theory. I have also learned more about leadership, digital literacy, social innovation, and the list goes on and on. With these skills, I am now able to rise up above whatever personal experiences or trauma I may have encountered, to see the bigger picture of things. I am confident that my team and I will be able to organize and mobilize our targeted communities to take on positive social change through our peace-building efforts.
With these skills, I feel more prepared to take on the elders’ call for me and my group to establish a national peace building and reconstruction initiative.
I’d like to therefore thank the iLEAP family for their support. Especially, I’d like to thank Prof. Britt Yamamoto and the iLEAP staff and International Faculty around the world. I extend my gratitude to JB and the iLEAP board, Antioch University, and all of iLEAP’s partners. I’ll like to also thank all of our professors who helped to mold our minds.
Finally, I’d like to thank my sweetheart Bet for her continued love and support in all my endeavors and for saying “yes” to me. I’ll be back with you soon.
I will keep you posted
Tags: Emmanuel, Emmanuel G. V. Dolo, Liberia
2 Comments to “Goodbye for now”
Leave a Reply
Madeline Says:
Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9
Danny Says:
Time and distance may turn out to be non-sustainable, meaning that they come flash by like a lightning, instantly past our learning journey for enternity without us taking time to immediately notice it until they are hone. However, learning and experiences gained in those split moments linger within us that surface as the essential essence of work that we are committed to do. Such reflections of knowledge, skills, experiences and the insight inspirations received are very renewable resources. They become reusable only when we make meditative reflections, to which Ii value such approach as more inspirational tool because of one reason, reconnecting myself to the sources (family of iLEAP). You acknowledgements are the precious gifts that you can share and I believed that it is a most humble servant way to say thankyou. I can see that you are really burning with a great zeal of curiosity with love and passion to expand the boundaries of your organization. It is very tempting to say good for you Emmanuel, go ahead. Instead as a family (iLEAP), I would encourage you to seriously reconsider the decision to take a quick motion of expanding your organization. Have you given yourself enough time, to critically thought about how you would design approaches of expandion and leafing a bigger group in a sustainable but strategic way? You have a great vision and it is not bad. I mean have it as a measuring to to guide as you venture with putting pieces together driven towards that great dream, which is you destiny.