Richard  Weeks has worked with MRA/IofC in Canada as a fulltime volunteer and fieldworker since 1972, in a variety of administrative and program roles. He served one earlier term on the Council of Manage, before being elected again last year.
Throughout his years with IofC, Richard has been involved internationally with MRA/IofC’s programs and its governance. He was a founding member of Initiatives of Change International, serving a five-year term as a member of its Executive.

As part of the Agenda for Reconciliation program, he helped to introduce the approach of IofC into the reconciliation process in Rwanda. In February 2012, Richard was recognised for twenty years work on behalf of democracy and human rights in Burma and as a co-founder of Canadian Friends of Burma. Early in 2012 he spent four weeks in Burma to reconnect individuals and groups with the IofC international network. This resulted in the attendance of a delegation of seven from Burma at the Caux Forum for Human Security Forum in July 2012. Richard has been involved in developments leading to the launch of an initiative for national reconciliation in South Sudan in April 2013.

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ELIZABETH SLANKE (MONTREAL)

Elizabeth, initially from Riga, Latvia, met IofC in 1999 in Caux and ever since has been fascinated with the ideas of the movement. At that time she was working for the global anti-corruption organistaion Transparency International, being involved with administration and fundraising.In 2001 Elizabeth participated in the first Action for Life program, which developed her capacity to create and deliver youth programs.

She lived in the IofC centre Asia Plateau, India in 2002 and 2003 helping with training programs. In 2005 she studied Emotional Intelligence with Ren-Jou Liu from Taiwan, who has helped hundreds of families to be happier through learning to love and understand oneself. Another IofC member, Bhavesh Patel, inspired Elizabeth to take a coaching class in London, UK, and also to learn the Open Space group-work facilitation technique that has been used successfully in IofC meetings. Elizabeth has helped organise several Caux conferences. In 2005 she did an internship with IofC France, learning about their community building work, then later studied Human Resource Management in Paris.

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RICHARD BATSINDUKA (GATINEAU)

Richard Batsinduka is a Conflict Resolution advisor in the Federal Public Service of Canada since October 2002. Prior to joining the public service, he worked for the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution as an ADR trainer and practitioner from July 1996 to August 2000. During his career at the Institute, he initiated a training project in peaceful conflict resolution for Rwanda after the genocide. The title of this project was: "Community-Based Conflict Resolution in the  Rwandan post genocide setting." At the end of the project, more than 1,000 Rwandans were trained, 7 of them were traned as trainers at the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution in Ottawa, and with that team, s Centre for Prevention and Conflict Resolution was established within the National University of Rwanda, Campus of Butare.

It is during the execution of this project that Richard had the experience of forgiveness when he met with one of his elder brother’s murderer in August 1998. When he became an Initiatives of Change member, Richard had an opportunity to share that experience in  Caux in 2001; his testimony was entitled:  “Meeting with Vincent's murderer”.

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AUGUSTINO LUCANO (CALGARY)

Augustino grew up in Ngatuba village in South Sudan and attended school under a tree. In 1983 the civil war broke out between South and North Sudan and his education was disrupted. On November 28th, 1986, the rebels and government soldiers clashed in the small town of Chukudum and thousands of us were displaced. At the age of 15 he joined friends who walked barefoot to Kenya to escape the civil war, leaving parents, friends, and relatives behind and spent 4 years in a Kenyan refugee camp.

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