About IAHV
IAHV Peacebuilding has been established in June 2013, with the aim to identify, articulate and develop IAHV’s unique expertise and approach to peacebuilding in order to strengthen existing peacebuilding efforts worldwide.
Its Mission is to Build a sustainable and inclusive peace by promoting the development of human values in both the individual and societies on a global scale.
Our human-centred approach lends itself to working across sectors and populations, including international organisations (UN, EU, World Bank), governments, managers and CEO’s, social and community workers, women’s groups, religious leaders, refugees, victims of violence, youth, terrorists and rebels, prisoners and children, bridging religious, ethnic and social divides.
Vision & Goals
IAHV envisions an inclusive and sustainable peace, deep rooted in the inner life of individuals and supported by societal systems based on universal human values.
This envisioned peace is inclusive of all. It has to reach the furthest corners of the earth, since world peace cannot be attained as long as one individual on this planet experiences violence.
Our Team
Dr. Katrien Hertog`
Director
Dr. Katrien Hertog is a peacebuilding researcher, trainer and practitioner with 20 years of experience in the academic and non-governmental sector.
In her capacity as Director Peacebuilding Programs for IAHV, as well as a researcher, she has been pioneering the practice of psychosocial peacebuilding (PSPB) for more impactful peacebuilding practice and advocating for its integration in international peacebuilding policy and practice. She develops, implements and advocates for PSPB programs on preventing and transforming violent extremism, trauma relief to break the cycles of violence, strengthening mediation and reconciliation processes, and training peacebuilding personnel.
Dr. Hertog has a MA in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford and a PhD from the Centre for Peace Research at the University of Leuven.
As a trainer in peacebuilding, rehabilitation, stress management and capacity development, she has trained 1500+ people, including UN and EU personnel, Dutch and UK government, NGO's and CSO's, students, journalists, refugees and prisoners. Dr. Hertog has worked as project manager for different peacebuilding INGO’s. Thanks to her book “The Complex Reality of Religious Peacebuilding: Conceptual Contributions and Critical Analysis” (Lexington, 2010), she has become an international reference and resource on religious peacebuilding.
She is also Director of the internationally renowned prisoner rehabilitation program Prison SMART for Europe and independent consultant trainer and researcher. Her working experience has mainly been in the Middle East, Asia and Russia / North Caucasus.
Nina Noorali
Program Development Manager, Brussels
Born and brought up in the Democratic Rep of Congo (D.R.C.), Nina Noorali has spent 17 years moving to different countries pursuing her career as a life insurance actuary. Not long into that field did she feel the call for more human values and deeper meaning to her life. After taking few sabbaticals to do volunteer work in India, she became a yoga teacher in 2008 and an IAHV trainer in 2009, actively working in South Africa right after her graduation. She focused her efforts on prison rehabilitation programs as well as working in townships to bring joy and stress release to child earners. She initiated stress release workshps in the D.R.C. between 2009 and 2010, reaching out to different sectors of society and mainly NGO workers, including the UN, who were overwhelmed by the political upheaval and difficult environment.
Nina is in charge of program development within IAHV Peacebuilding, based out of Brussels, Belgium, with a special focus on preventing radicalisation in schools.
Charmaine Cu-Unjieng
Executive Director for IAHV Philippines
Charmaine Cu-Unjieng is the Executive Director for IAHV Philippines. She received her training in Epidemiology and Public Health from Yale University, and Medical Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam. She worked as the UN Coordination Specialist for UNRC Philippines, where she worked on implementing the One UN Reform, among others. For 8 years, she worked at the Asian Development Bank to mainstream HIV prevention into the infrastructure sector, advising and working with ASEAN, governments, UN agencies, and development partners on the topic. She also founded several NGOs.
Filiz Odabas-Geldiay`
Governance, strategic partnerships and public relations
Filiz leads IAHV’s governance, strategic partnerships and public relations. Her engagements include serving on the Secretary’s Subcommittee for Women at the U.S. State Department's ACIEP; Lessons Learned Working Group at USIP and Board member of Atatürk Society of America.
She partnered with the UN to engage students globally with service projects in her previous position as the executive director of an INGO. A former journalist, she was selected as one of the Nation’s Top 90 Women Mentoring Leaders at the Global Women Mentoring and Philanthropy Summit; recipient of the Capitol Hero Award from the American University; Vishalakshi Service Award from the Art of Living Foundation; and was nominated for People Who Make a Difference Award by the Helena Rubinstein Inc.
Filiz holds M.A. in Communications and Conflict Management from American University and teaches stress-management and meditation courses.
Christian Matta
Training Consultant
Christian Matta is a passionate and senior IAHV Peacebuilding trainer with over 15 years of experience with the International Association for Human values (IAHV) and the International Art of Living Foundation (AOL). Christian has worked with children, youth, and adults from various cultures, traditions, and living conditions, in Canada and the Middle East.
He has also recently completed training over 6,000 vulnerable children and youth, and hundreds of frontline workers in Jordan and Lebanon, starting with basic Stress Management, building up to Peace Ambassadors training and Training of Trainers.
Christian has helped manage and supervise dozens of Peace Building community projects implemented by youth Peace Ambassadors, and helped new trainers become ready, qualified, and confident HRE (Healing, Resilience and Empowerment) trainers.
He has also trained prison inmates in Lebanon as well as school students through the Yes! for Schools Program in Canada and Lebanon.
Manal Karrara
Training Consultant
Training consultant for the Peacebuilding Programs of the International Association for Human Values and The Art of Living foundation - former manager for its branch in Egypt.
Since 2006, she has trained people from all walks of life, including ministers, parliamentarians, ex-fighters, refugees, juveniles and sexual assault survivors, through various programs in Middle East, Africa and Europe. She also facilitated PTSD-relief programs for thousands of children, youth and women in communities struggling with political and economic instability with IAHV.
Our Advisers
Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen
Peacebuilding Adviser
Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen is an extra-ordinary peacebuilder and human being, co-founder and Director of the Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR). He is an international expert in mediation and peace processes, systemic peacebuilding, design and implementation of early warning and operational and structural prevention, post war recovery, Strategic Conflict Analysis (SCA), Cumulative Impact and Needs Assessments (CINA) and policies and proposals for improving peacebuilding and peacemaking practice, effectiveness and impact. He consults for governments, foreign ministries, and international and national organizations, including as an advisor to the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UN country missions, and the All Party Parliamentary Working Group (APPG) on Conflict Issues of the British Parliament.
John Paul Lederach
Peacebuilding Adviser
John Paul Lederach is one of the best and most widely known peacebuilding authors and practitioners in the world. Consistently emphasizing a human approach to his work in conflict transformation, Lederach has designed and conducted trainings in 25 countries, across 5 continents including South America, Asia, and Africa. Lederach’s framework for peacebuilding is founded upon three pillars: peacebuilding must be inclusive across all levels of society; peacebuilding must link short-term goals to a long-term vision of interdependence between people and groups; peacebuilding must balance critical issues with structural conditions. Lederach’s peacebuilding framework places him at the forefront of human-oriented approaches to sustainable peacebuilding. His deep and honest reflective practice calls upon everyone in the peacebuilding field to be critical about the difference we make in people’s lives and how we do that.
Dirk Van Eeckhout
Policy Adviser
Partners
Funding and Finance
IAHV Peacebuilding is mainly volunteer-driven. Operating with a minimum of logistical and administrative infrastructure, we are able to spend 90%+ of funds directly on project implementation and management.
The initial investment to set up IAHV Peacebuilding came from C3 System sprl and private donors.
Current donors: European Commission
Financial reports available on www.iahv.org.uk
Quality Assurance
The International Association for Human Values, in partnership with its sister organisation the International Art of Living Foundation, certifies its trainers in three training centers around the world including Germany, Canada and India. IAHV trainers have extensive experience leading workshops for prisoners (Prison SMART), trauma survivors (IAHV Trauma Relief), war veterans (Project Welcome Home Troops), gangs, ex-combatants, refugee populations, international institutions, state officials, security personnel, corporates and students. The trainers go through required, continuing certification every two years and vigorously maintain a balanced personal resilience and empowerment program guided by the organization. IAHV, in partnership with leading peacebuilding professionals and institutions across the world, provides ongoing training in peacebuilding skills and encourages knowledge sharing to ensure high professional standards.
