Meeting people who think and hold different opinion from us is an everyday experience in human relationship.Therefore Peace Builders and especially practitioners in the field must learn to relate with everybody including those who hold different opinion from them.
These opinions may be about content or procedural,it may also be from individuals or group who operate differently and think differently .Your ability to relate with them will always help you and increase your confidence when you go to any community that is in conflict.
Some conflicts that we go to Communities to mediate started as a result of minor disagreements by individuals or institutional opinions that were different and they could not be reconciled.Therefore learning to relate peacefully with people who hold different opinion from us practitioners is a great asset.
During the session on Who are the Peacebuilders? and Challenges to Peacebuilding by Prof Pushpa who was supported by Sujata Moorti and Joseph Book,participants where led to discussed what they have learned from the different teachers in this summer peacebuilding program and their styles of presentations.One strong message that resonates and got me thinking is how peace builders can learn from disagreements ,because out there you will meet with many peace workers who have different views and approaches to the issues and conflict.
One thing we most make honest efforts to do to be successful and effective in our practice is to listen to others opinion that are different from ours and learn how to manage the disagreements .We can not be peace builders who are helping communities in conflicts to build peace but do not manage our disagreements.
