Background and Purpose
In the summer of 2008, Bruce enrolled in the International Nonviolence Summer Institute at the University of Rhode Island. After successfully completing the two-week intensive training program in Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, he was awarded certification as a Level I Nonviolence Trainer with the URI Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies. He was the first officer working with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections ever to earn such a credential. In the summer of 2009, Bruce returned to URI to successfully complete the next stage of training and earned certification as a Level II Advanced Nonviolence Trainer, awarded to him by legendary nonviolent civil rights activist, Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr. During his two summers of training, Bruce was a friendly and positive presence with everyone he met, but he especially enjoyed all of the international participants, with whom he became good friends.
Funds provided by this scholarship help to support the training and education of a future generation of global peacemakers, whose initiative, leadership, and courage help to spread the will and skill of nonviolence methods and peace education to conflict communities and regions throughout the world. Preference is given to international participants.
Contribute to the Bruce Tancrell Scholarship for Nonviolence Training & Peace Education
2019
Adepeju Oti (Nigeria) is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Arts & Social Sciences Education, Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. I am the founder of the Global Youth Leadership & Girl-child Foundation and Convener of the Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference (Raising Girls’ Ambition – RAGA) since 2015. She is an advocate for girl-child’s human rights to education, equality and safe schools. The current spate of violence in her country is keeping children away from school. Peju’s personal goal is to advocate for and influence policy on mainstreaming nonviolence and peace education in the school curriculum at all levels.
2018
Acenel Laurent (Haiti) specializes in Agroeconomy and graduate of Tourism & Cultural Heritage. He co-founded Passion Tours et Evenements (Passion Tours and Events) an operator tours who make tourism inside of Haiti and in the Caribbean. In 2015, Acenel co-created Volonté des Citoyens Conséquents pour le Développement des Nippes (Will of Consequence Citizens for the Development of Nippes). Currently works as a Reporter for Dadio Melodie FM Haiti & a consultant for social organizations and businesses. He is currently establishing a Nonviolence Center at the University in Port au Prince, Haiti.
Amir Amjad (Pakistan) has a Masters in Peace & Conflict Studies with a focus in Political Science and International Relations. Amir has a profound interest in equal human and civil rights and peaceful conflict resolutions through nonviolence means. Currently working as a Senior Program Coordinator with a German organization, looking after the program planning, implementation, training and capacity building, and coordination with different civil society organizations and marginalized groups, i.e. minorities and women.
2017
Thupten Gyaltsen (Tibet/India) is a a Tibetan political refugee in India and works as a nonviolent trainer and researcher at Active Nonviolence Education Center in Dharamsala. He teaches nonviolence philosophy and pragmatism at Tibetan schools, settlements, nunneries and monasteries in workshops and universal nonviolence training programs. Together with the Department of Education, CTA, he recently published three storybooks about nonviolence. They will be mandatory reading assignment in Tibetan school curriculum. His goal is to educate young Tibetans about nonviolent activism and teach them practical and creative methods of nonviolence.
2016
Amani Matabaro (Congo) is a Civil Society Activist and Community Builder in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He is the founder of Action Congo for the Welfare of Women & Children. The people in his war-torn country are hungry for peace and Amani intends to bring nonviolence back to train civil society leaders, police, former child soldiers, and power holders at different levels inside the community. He plans to rebuild a new and more peaceful country based on the Kingian nonviolence approach.
Babu Ram Poudel (Nepal) has worked with Pro Public for the last 16 years where he focused on community mediation, civil peace service, dialogue facilitation, and reintegration. Currently he is the Program Manager of the From Combatants to Peacemakers Program supported by USAID in the 16 districts of Nepal that aims to increase social harmony and peace. He has completed a Master’s in Arts in sociology and is pursing a thesis of his second Master Degree in “Conflict, Peace & Development.”
Etiene Martins, (Brazil) a former police officer, is now a Federal Judge serving at the Mediation Center in São Paulo. Kingian Nonviolence is a set of tools that is continuously being used in his day-by-day routine in the courtroom. In the future, Etiene plans to establish a program teaching Kingian Nonviolence tp Brazilian police officers.
2015
Shangrila Thapa (Nepal) I earned my B.S. in Environmental Science from Tri Chandra College, affiliated with Tribuvan University in Kathmandu. I am completing my Masters Degree in Conflict Peace & Development Studies. Due to the internal armed conflict in Nepal many women and children were affected, so I am focused on this issue. I want to attend this Level I certification training because I want to learn more and hope to work for women rights and conduct nonviolence workshops throughout Nepal. This exposure will help to enhance my career and bring positive change in my community.
2014
Eric Sumo (Liberia) is the executive director of Village Ministries, a Nongovernmental Organization that provides vocational schools for ex-child soldiers and vocational training for over 6 women who lost their husbands in the civil war. All these activities are to promote forgiveness, reconciliation and reintegration of perpetrators and victims of the civil war. In our attempt to manage recovery and reduce violence in Liberia.
2013
Alfred Arthur (Ghana) is the executive director of Family Focus International, an NGO devoted to promoting and strengthening the family as the fundamental unit of society. He is committed to addressing the problems of the families in Ghana and the rest of Africa. His organization is implementing an innovative program to link deprived families with well-to-do families as a way of empowering poor families.
Purnima Basnet (Nepal) is a social worker working with prison inmates and their children. She believes that being a Level I Nonviolence Trainer will help her interactions with the inmates and give her the knowledge and skills to provide nonviolence training for them. Her organization, the Early Childhood Development Center, provides a safe, secure, and nurturing environment for the young children of incarcerated women. This Center houses, feeds, and educates children who would have to live in prison with their mothers, and gives them hope.
2012
Caroline Gbah Toe-Diggs (Liberia) is a coordinator working with the Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy. Her commitment to delivering empowerment and support programs to uplifting women from the direst poverty stricken urban and rural areas of Liberia. She is truly a young African woman who is making a difference in the lives of many by promoting social justice and women’s rights in her country.
Ahmadullah Archiwal, (Afghanistan) founder and Director of OSCAR, Organization for Social, Cultural, Awareness, and Rehabilitation was also honored for his courageous work to promote nonviolence through his civic mobilization training programs in Afghanistan. His pioneering efforts promoting nonviolence education and peaceful civil society building in his war torn country of Afghanistan, in the face of terrorism and extremism is nothing short of heroic.
2011
Nana Osei Yaw Darkwa, (Ghana) Founder & Director of the Youth Icons organization in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Through the support of the Bruce Tancrell Scholarship, paying for his fees and two weeks of on-campus housing, Nana was able to attend the URI Summer Institute and complete the Level I training certification course. Since returning to Ghana, he has been working tirelessly to bring nonviolence training and education to the youth of Ghana. Nana believes that Bruce’s spirit of nonviolence lives on through him.