Certified Trainers at the Center for Nonviolent Communication

I'm currently working as a project manager at Officience which has provided me invaluable insights into team dynamics, particularly during the organizational changes and challenges of the past three years, including the Covid-19 pandemic. This period intensified my focus on effective communication, conflict resolution, and creating supportive environments.  My exploration of empathic listening and facilitated discussion techniques, was driven by a desire to foster genuine connection and understanding within teams. 

Ruth Olari Proscovia is a dedicated development practitioner from Uganda with a passion for social transformation through the principles of Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

Ruth was introduced to NVC in 2019 during her peacebuilding work in the communities of the Teso sub-region in eastern Uganda, particularly in the prevention and response to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAW). Through NVC, she learned how to build and maintain relationships, partnerships, and collaborations that promote mutual respect for the feelings and needs of all, with the awareness that every human being has needs that matter.

Ruth's commitment to NVC has led her to participate in extensive NVC training programs facilitated by trainers from the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), including a 9-day International Intensive Training on NVC in Tanzania (2022), a 10-day Residential NVC training in Uganda in November 2023, and a 10-day Residential NVC training in Kenya in December 2023. These experiences have equipped her with invaluable skills for facilitating training and discussions that significantly enhance the quality of life and promote harmony in society.

Ruth has accumulated over five years of experience engaging communities and leaders in meaningful conversations aimed at addressing the deep-rooted challenges faced by underserved populations. She has done this through training, collaborations, partnerships, Alternative Dispute Resolution (mediation), appropriate referrals, counseling, and providing empathy to survivors of gender-based violence. She coordinates dialogues among community leaders—male and female cultural, religious, political, and government leaders, as well as policymakers—to influence policies, by-laws, and ordinances that support equality between men and women for peaceful coexistence in the Teso sub-region of eastern Uganda.

Ruth is currently leading a women and girls' social change initiative (the Women and Girls Empowerment Program), which seeks to empower survivors of obstetric fistula in the Northern, Eastern, and Central regions of Uganda by providing them with skills, capacity, and knowledge in civic education and advocacy. She applies NVC principles to offer psychosocial support and empathy to survivors of obstetric fistula and GBV, facilitating dialogues with policymakers, health workers, civil society organizations, government leaders, and survivors to advocate for improved maternal health outcomes in Uganda.

Through her work, Ruth passionately advocates for community engagement, partnerships, collaborations, alliances, and movements among like-minded individuals, organizations, policymakers, politicians, and government leaders to promote policy frameworks that support proper planning and decision-making for national development. Her efforts aim to uplift and empower marginalized communities, fostering a culture of understanding and empathy.

If you are seeking support with the logistics for the 2025 Kenya IIT or wish to connect with Ruth for assistance, particularly with registration, bookings, and general information, feel free to reach out to her via the form at the bottom of this page.

ORGANIZER

Sandra is a clinical psychologist and has been facilitating groups for over 20 years with her life and work partner, Yuri Haasz, seeking, in diverse contexts and groups, to promote conflict transformation and systemic change towards a more empathetic and life-centered society.

Sandra is co-founder of Sinergia Comunicativa and has experience sharing NVC in Brazil and internationally. Over the years she has been conducting and organizing several events and retreats, seeking to strengthen the practice of NVC in Brazil and strengthen the connection with the international NVC community. She was the organizer of IIT Brazil 2019 and IIT Brazil 2023.

During the pandemic she conducted support programs for health professionals based on NVC, reaching hundreds of people, and she coordinates a project to spread empathy at the Hospital das Clínicas in São Paulo.

She was a columnist for UOL and for the magazines Bons Fluidos and Viva Saúde.

Martin Kozah is the Founder and former Executive Director of Peace Empowerment Foundation. He is a Global Goodwill Ambassadors and an Ambassador with THANKS WING and Refugee International Network for Peace (RINP).

Martin is also the Former national organizing Secretary of Civil Society Advance Forum on Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria and a member of International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA-Nigeria Chapter). He worked as a Hausa interpreter with certified trainer Duke Duchscherer and Sister Franca Onyibor from the Centre for Nonviolent Communication to facilitate NVC Training in Adamawa, Kaduna, Kogi, and Plateau State of Nigeria and to intervene in the Fulani Herdsmen/Farmers Clashes in Adamawa using restorative cycle. He is also part of the team that is working on bringing NVC to Nigeria. He has undertaken several courses in the area of Social Development which include Negotiation and Conflict Management, Conflict Analysis, Interfaith conflict resolution, Understanding the right of women and girls, Workforce collaboration and development, Servant Leadership and Community Organizing for action. He loves volunteering.

You can contact him for any tourist attraction needs and issues in Nigeria.

Being born and raised in Switzerland I always dreamt of another life in a warm country and so, in 2006, I left Switzerland. I did not imagine it would be a goodbye for good but I have not returned to live there since. After traveling the world for some months, I ended up in Costa Rica, the place not only where my son was born but where I was reborn.

I love to connect with nature and I am a big animal lover. Going on my daily beach walks with my dogs early in the morning is my meditation and it is where I can get grounded and connect with mother earth and myself. Costa Rica has a wonderfully special energy, which invites you to look deeper and reconnect with yourself and nature.

I was gifted with a son whose soul clearly came to this world to guide and transform me. It very soon was clear, I cannot parent this child the way I was parented. It would mean rebellion and constant conflict and a lot of power over and lack of autonomy and freedom of choice. This did not align with me at all and I decided to look for support.

Finding NVC was like finding the language to describe what I feel in my belly, what my intuition tells me, or in other words, I discovered my feelings and needs and started to understand them. It was such a relief for my mind, to finally be able to understand what my heart always knew and have a concept for what I always felt. 

Since I can remember I have this deep desire to be an active part of change in this world. I have been working with the local community for over a decade, first through a project where we held workshops about menstruation and handed out free menstruation cups to the participants. Now I am eager to bring NVC into our canton, which is the least developed and poorest of Costa Rica and an area often forgotten by the government.

I want to share NVC because I truly believe in its power and magnificence. My dream is to spread NVC in Latin America and make it accessible also to the ones with less resources. I am currently on the path to become a CNVC certified trainer. I am also active in creating NVC community within Costa Rica, especially where I am at home, offering NVC workshops for free or at an affordable price to low-income communities.

Begüm has worked in the International Financial Reporting field for 14 years, and is a permaculture designer who hasworked with communities who support community supported agriculture and ecological food. She is a mother of two children, a son and a daughter.

Begüm began her involvement with Nonviolent Communication after she gave birth to her second child, and witnessed behavioral change in the elder child. By that time, she discovered that NVC was her healing field rather than her children’s. With the help of NVC, she empowered to be centered in herself and to connect with others and herself empathically. She has met with her "self-actualization power” in NVC fields.

Over the past five years, Trang's journey as a practitioner and advocate of Compassionate Communication in Vietnam has allowed her to nurture many meaningful friendships and apply NVC’s principles to her work in education and community engagement. More than just a communication technique, for her, NVC is a transformative practice that enables individuals to cultivate self-awareness, connect authentically with others, leading to effective collaboration and sustain wellbeing for all.

Working and living in an international environment enriched my appreciation for the diversity of the world’s people and their cultures, making me improve and deepen my communication skills. My natural interest in interpersonal relationships and the inner world of each individual has led me to discover NVC. Since my first NVC retreat, I have gotten a completely new perspective of myself and the way the force of Life is expressed through me. Needless to say, it has also changed the way I communicate with others. My wish is to guide by example and to help others not only to discover their needs but also to find a unique way to authentically actualize them. When I started walking this path I began accepting who I am and what my needs are – now my mission is to support those who decided to go on that journey too. Organization of NVC reatreats and workshops is a small step of making a social change.

Organization Assistant

Speech therapist specializing in voice, actress, voice actress, systemic family constellation therapist, trauma-informed professional and NVC instructor for 8 years.

https://www.danieleputnoki.com.br/