Healing Centered Peacebuilding Training in Somalia

Training | October 2024

The Well-Being and Resilience (WebR) Framework

Towards the objective of contributing to national reconciliation, the project recently implemented a series of trainings on healing-centered peacebuilding for FCA Somalia country office staff, officials from the Ministry of Interior, Federal Affairs, and Reconciliation (MoIFAR) and Federal Member States (FMS), as well as religious leaders and traditional elders.

Network member Greenstring Network (GSN) implemented the trainings using their WebR Framework for Somalia. The WebR Framework is a healing-focused peacebuilding approach, helping individuals and organizations in violence-prone environments understand how interventions and programs are impacted by stress and trauma. Unlike traditional western approaches, the WebR model leverages relationships and existing community resilience. The framework uses storytelling and images to make materials accessible, promoting conversations about grievances, injustices, and the future. It is cost-effective and sustainable in communal societies, designed for a healing-centered system of support, drawing from various disciplines. Studies show sustained poverty and violence negatively impact brain development, creating a cycle of violence passed down generations. The WebR includes modules on stress and trauma awareness, wellbeing and awareness practice, creating foundations for safety and security, healthy relationships, exploring identities, qualities of resilience, and healing applications for leaders and community processes.

Starting the training process

The first training was conducted in August 2024 for 15 staff from FCA Somalia in Mogadishu. The second five-day training in August was conducted for 15 participants from Hirshabelle and Galmudug member states. The participants were drawn from the Ministry of Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation (MoIFAR), Ministry of Women and Human Rights, Ministry of Youth and Sports, civil society organizations and traditional elders. The third training was conducted in the month of September in Baidoa for 15 participants from MoIFAR and civil society. The fourth training was conducted between the 19th and 24th of October for participants from Banadir region of Somalia targeting religious leaders and traditional elders recommended by the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs (MERA), MoIFAR, and other stakeholders from Banadir region.

Participants from the training in Mogadishu, Somalia. 2024.

The training sessions took the participants through concepts on trauma healing, stress and trauma awareness, wellbeing and awareness practice, healing and transformation, healing process and journey, as well as how to identify and deal with stress in post conflict settings. The trainings deepened participants’ understanding of healing centered approaches to peacebuilding and helped them relate the skills and knowledge acquired from the training to their feelings and daily activities. The trainings enhanced the capacity of participants from the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), Federal Member States (FMS), and civil society to cope up with stressors, able to create foundations for safety and security, creating healthy relationships, exploring identities, developing qualities of resilience, and healing applications for leaders and community processes.

Ongoing training in Mogadishu, Somalia. 2024.