By Rukiya Abdulrahman | Program Officer, Somali Program
From the sunny shores of Mogadishu, our Somali Team Program Officer Rukiya Abdulrahman, greets our GlobalGiving supporters and provides an update on what we have been doing since the launch of our campaign. Growing up between Nairobi and Mombasa, Rukiya was exposed early on in life to Kenya’s amazing multiculturalism and was encouraged by her parents and her Muslim faith to value service to humankind, equality, justice, tolerance, and forgiveness. Rukiya has used her education in Gender & Development Studies, Peace & Conflict Management, and Peacebuilding Leadership throughout her career with various organizations working to ensure people can live peacefully together despite their differences. She is passionate about empowering women and increasing their capacity to promote peace and reconciliation. She is the leader of Conflict Dynamics’ project on Supporting Somali Women for Peace and travels across the country implementing workshops and activities.
Our Somali Team has been busy since the launch of our GlobalGiving campaign on Giving Tuesday of last year. In December 2018, the Team met with the Mudug Women Peace Committee in Galkacyo to discuss partnership and activity implementation. In the city of Galkacyo, contested between the Puntland and Galmudug administrations, women from both ends of the city are hard at work developing a peaceful solution to the struggle. These women have established a joint peace committee to mediate the conflict between both sides and this committee has given them a voice and space in the local peace process. The committee was excited to meet with Conflict Dynamics and has requested support for training in peacebuilding, leadership skills, and mediation skills. We look forward to a potential collaboration in the future!
What do we have coming up? Last week, the Team was in Mogadishu to plan for experience sharing workshops that will be held for local peace committees and other women actors. CDI will bring women members of these committees together to learn about best practices for addressing gender-related incidences of local conflict and learn from each other’s experience as members and leaders of local peace committees. These workshops will facilitate discussions on the challenges and successes of Somali women in peacebuilding and will include the participation of women whose work focuses on human rights, gender, advocacy, and more.
In addition to gathering women members of local peace committees together to share their experiences, Conflict Dynamics is working to create a core group of dedicated women leaders in order to strengthen their skills to advance and advocate for women’s rights and priority issues. Women have been left out in key decision-making spheres and CDI wants to make sure that they are participating in the federalism process through their knowledge and input. As active members of society, they need to have a voice in the process and a space to engage. We want to thank you for your support and for joining us on this journey!
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