{"id":3361,"date":"2013-01-11T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T18:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2013-01-11T12:03:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T18:03:11","slug":"csop-instructor-ouyporn-khuankaew-activist-peace-trainer-role-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2013\/csop-instructor-ouyporn-khuankaew-activist-peace-trainer-role-model\/","title":{"rendered":"CSOP Instructor Ouyporn Khuankaew – Activist, Peace Trainer, Role Model"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CSOP<\/a>
CSOP 2012 Instructor Ouyporn Khuankaew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January 11, 2013 –\u00a0<\/i>Ouyporn Khuankaew travelled a long way to teach at the 2012 Canadian School for Peacebuilding (CSOP) at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) last summer \u2013 and she says that it was well worth her journey.<\/p>\n

Khuankaew is a Buddhist feminist peace trainer who has been working with activists in South and Southeast Asia since 1995. In 2002, she co-founded International Women\u2019s Partnership for Peace and Justice (IWP) which runs its own center and workswith activists in Burma, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, teaching Buddhist peacebuilding, non-violent action, counselling for trauma survivors, leadership for social change, gender, and sexuality, feminism and Buddhism for change, and meditation retreats for activists. On a personal level, she is a domestic trauma survivor \u2013 and that experience, along with the injustices and gender inequality she has witnessed in South and Southeast Asia \u2013 led her to pursue a life dedicated to peacebuilding, and to inspiring a new generation of women to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding was wonderful,\u201d Khuankaew shares. \u201cI loved how the event was organized, with an emphasis on small groups and integrating diverse groups of people. Everyone was so welcoming, so eager to know each other. We were really able to accomplish a lot in a very short period of time. The students especially were very analytical and engaged \u2013 especially the young women \u2013 and it was exciting to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that the course that\u00a0I\u00a0taught inspired them,\u201d she continues. \u201cWhen I was young, we didn\u2019t have role models for women doing this kind of work. I hope that I can be that kind of mentor, increasing women’s confidence and helping them connect with likeminded people so they don\u2019t feel alone in their passions and their efforts. I feel a responsibility to help create a space for women to feel connected and empowered. No one is alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeacebuilding has become one of the major issues of this generation. We are all in need of peace, whether in family conflicts or widespread war,\u201d\u00a0says Kuankaew. \u201cI admire CMU\u2019s commitment not just to peace, but to peacebuilding, and the way they are involving women in the solution. In my work, I have seen the impact of feminine involvement. In Burma, when we teach women to be peacebuilders, they can go back and teach men and women, and they help to increase the role and status of women in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khuankaew feels strongly about equipping women as leaders in the peacebuilding process. \u201cIn our culture, we assume that women are natural peacemakers,”\u00a0she says.\u00a0“We see this role at work in our families \u2013 and as important as that is, this role should not be confined to the home. We need it on a global level. A woman\u2019s perspective and approach is different than a man\u2019s. We are uniquely qualified to be peacebuilders. From a young age, we are trained through gender roles to be caring and loving, to share and listen and experience \u2013 and that is the foundation of peacemaking. It doesn\u2019t need to be taught. We intuitively understand the emotional and psychological aspects of peacebuilding. We need to be committed to deliver the training required to empower women to take that understanding and use it to impact the world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to use our hearts, and use more than intellect and logic to solve our issues,” says Khuankaew. “Our world is in trouble because we use our heads without our hearts. When we use our hearts, there\u2019s no argument or anger there \u2013 it equalizes us. Women are more in touch with that. But in the end, we all need to work together. It\u2019s not a matter of men versus women, it\u2019s humans working toward a solution, together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian Mennonite University, through its Menno Simons College (located at The University of Winnipeg) and its Winnipeg Shaftesbury campus, and through CSOP, offers one of the most comprehensive undergraduate programs in peace and conflict studies in the world. Located in Manitoba, CMU has over 1,600 students enrolled through its two campuses and its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Visit\u00a0www.cmu.ca<\/i><\/p>\n

For\u00a0CSOP 2013 information:
\nVisit\u00a0www.csop.cmu.ca<\/a><\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0contact:\u00a0csop@cmu.ca<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Article: by Linsday Wright for CMU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 11, 2013 –\u00a0Ouyporn Khuankaew travelled a long way to teach at the 2012 Canadian School for Peacebuilding (CSOP) at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) last summer \u2013 and she says that it was well worth her journey. Khuankaew is a Buddhist feminist peace trainer who has been working with activists in South and Southeast Asia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3364,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions\/3364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}