Vahidin Omanović
Co-Founder and Co-Director
Vahidin Omanović
Vahidin is a professional trainer in nonviolent communication and conflict resolution. For years he believed that revenge would relieve him of his anger and heal the scars he carried from the war. However, from 1997-2002, Vahidin experienced a personal transformation while participating in interethnic dialogue and trauma healing sessions sponsored by an American organization; he found that reconciliation was the only way forward for his community and country:
“[It] opened my heart and made me able to transform the hate and anger that was eating me up for years, to love, compassion and understanding. It taught me that this beautiful transformation was possible not only for me but for anyone who is brave enough to allow him or her to be vulnerable and go through a healing process.”
Before founding the Center for Peacebuilding in 2004, Vahidin received a Master’s degree at the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont in International Relations with a concentration in Conflict Transformation. Additionally, Vahidin served as a teaching assistant in SIT’s Conflict Transformation Across Cultures (CONTACT) program, where he taught classes on forgiveness and conflict transformation. He has attended peace workshops and trainings throughout the world, including in Switzerland, the Philippines, and Nepal, where he helped to found a peacebuilding organization. In 2011, the Threshold Foundation honored Vahidin with the 5th International Bremen Peace Award, naming him the year’s “Unknown Peace Worker.”