FOUNDER'S STORY

Doreen’s peacebuilding work, anchored in Kenya, spanned multiple countries in Africa, as well as the United States of America. She co-founded DIPAD which was inspired by her own healing journey after the tragic loss of her spouse in the 1998 U.S Embassy bombing in Nairobi. Doreen passed on in January 2016. 

Her educational journey also played a big role in her work as a peacebuilder. Doreen earned a bachelor’s of education degree from Kenyatta University in 1991 and worked as a secondary school teacher until 1998. She earned a master’s degree in Human Resource Development from the University of Manchester (UK) in 2003, and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Conflict Transformation at Eastern Mennonite University's (EMU), Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), Doreen also participated in a survivor’s group, then in Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) training at CJP.

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In her own word of why she established DIPAD, Doreen says: “After my studies, I came back to Kenya. One of the main aims of establishing our organization was to find out the intersection of trauma, cycles of violence, peacebuilding, and development. There is a kind of connection between violence, trauma caused by violence, and unhealed trauma that can lead to more conflict and destruction. It just takes two unhappy individuals who have a traumatic past and they can bring all that development crashing down.Whether you build hospitals, roads, schools, or infrastructure, it can be destroyed by a few individuals who haven’t been able to deal with their past or are responding to violence differently.”

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Doreen has served as a mentor to many women in East Africa and beyond through her work with the Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program (WPLP), STAR, and other trauma and peacebuilding-related initiatives. 

“The main aim of our organization was to create a link and to make it very clear that any time violence has happened, it needs to be addressed. It should not be ignored. That was what we are developing; we should also develop alongside issues that cause violence, like structural violence, historical injustices, religious issues, and also have a dialogue around issues of pain and unresolved conflicts that end up coming back to cause destruction.” 

Doreen’s legacy and life’s work is still carried on by DIPAD and the many communities she worked with to explore what truth, justice and peace means.