The Laos Peace-Building Team will be the most important development in IGE’s 14 years of engagement in Laos. IGE will train key government and religious leaders who have the wisdom and courage to engage local disputes, practically applying knowledge and skills of peace building. Earlier this year, IGE conducted its first meeting to discuss the role of the Peacebuilding Team and allow potential members of the team to start to get to know each other and explain the purpose of the team. At the workshop, a Catholic elder, also a public school teacher for many years commented that, “peace building requires citizens who understand how to be good neighbors. These values are taught primarily in the household and households obtain these values from religion.”

A more in-depth training is scheduled for August 6-9, 2014. At the future trainings, participants will learn about how to have transformative dialogue, understand the role of identify issues in conflict, understand the social and cultural context of conflicts, and how to apply problem solving skills.