Dr Charity Meki-Kombe in Austria

Dr Charity Meki-Kombe, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Education Management, Law and Policy (EMPS) was among researchers and practitioners invited to attend the Session 589 - ‘Learning from the Past: Sharing Experiences across Borders to Combat Extremism’ seminar.

 The activity which was held at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria in November 2017 brought together participants from across the globe who explored and debated the most effective ways to study and combat rising intolerance and extremism, and to promote peace, understanding, and human security within their own societies. Session 589 is part of the Salzburg ‘Global’s multiyear Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Programme’, which has been held in partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since 2010.

Dr Meki-Kombe participated in the seminar as part of the collaboration between the University of Pretoria and University of Leeds to evaluate a project known as the ‘Change Makers Programme’ (CMP) piloted in South Africa and Rwanda. Using lessons from the Holocaust, apartheid and genocide in Rwanda, the objectives of the CMP is to build resilience, encourage resistance to extremism and to inspire the new generations that did not live through the atrocities that impacted both countries to become up-standers and leaders of change. The CMP was evaluated in order to assess its effectiveness and possibility of expansion across other African countries in 2018.