What about Haramaya Univeristy to maintain peace? Here is…
Haramaya University in collaboration with USAID provided students organizations with capacity building training from March 22-23, 2022 in order to enhance their capability for maintaining peace in higher education institutions.
At the training opening ceremony, Professor Jeylan Wolyie, the University’s Vice President for Administration and Student Affairs, said the aim of the capacity building and empowerment training program is to create informed, disciplined and principled student organizations that have the capacity to guide student services, solve problems creatively, and address conflicts amicably in collaboration with university management. The training was initiated with the belief that student organizations members must know their roles and responsibilities and how they can function properly and soundly to maintain peace in the University, according to Professor Jeylan.
Professor Jeylan added that Haramaya University believes that active participation in student organizations is an opportunity for students to learn how to solve social, inter-personal, administrative, institutional and relational problems. It is also believed that participation in student organizations sets a critical ground for students to learn how to become influential public figures and social agents. “As you may know, some of the greater leaders of our world such as Barack Obama learned how to deal with complex social and political problems mainly because they made active and enthusiastic participations in the leadership of student organizations. Their experiences clearly suggest that if they properly managed and supported, University-based Student organizations can serve as sites where patriotic, visionary, and transformative citizens are cultivated,” noted Professor Jeylan.
During the training, Mr. Endalkachew Abera, a lecturer and one of the trainers, said that peace building training should be given to students in order to have a peaceful learning process. In addition to Haramaya University, Dire Dawa and Jijiga Universities have also been provided with peace building training and are working to establish a student forum of public Universities in Eastern Ethiopia.
According to Haramaya University Students’ union members who participated in the training said the training strengthened their capacity to maintain the current peace in the teaching and learning process. The trainees also said that it is a training that will enable them to shoulder their responsibilities for peace building in any area by resolving any disputes in a peaceful manner.
The trainers and trainees group photo.
By: Aweke Ayalneh
Camera: Tewodros Lishan