Meet Luiza Romanadze – Mediating Change, Empowering Generations

Meet Luiza Romanadze – Mediating Change, Empowering Generations

Last year I met with Luiza Romanadze, President of the Ukrainian Academy of Mediation (UAM).  Luiza had recently attended the CMC Academic Forum and we were meeting to discuss a student competition being run by the CMC that Luiza wanted to replicate in Ukraine.

I asked Luisa about her day so far and she explained that her days were long as although she was now based in Hampshire for research work at the University of Southampton, her day job involved keeping in contact with mediators back in Ukraine and working with those who had been displaced around the world.  That morning her day had started at 7am with online mediation training launched for military veterans who had been injured in the war and who could no longer serve in a military capacity.

Luiza, who has a background in law and psychology, described how veterans and civilians undertook the training together to be able to support communities who were impacted by the conflict. Veterans she explained had a unique ability to connect with others who had experienced the worst of the conflict and she said that she had learned a lot from delivering the training, especially the value of ‘giving space for delegates to tell their stories’.  Although the training was a relatively new venture, veterans reported that the training had supported the expression of their own feelings around conflict as well as helping them to reintegrate in to civilian life and continue to serve their communities.

The UAM was set up in 2014 and has achieved a lot in under ten years, not least the incorporation of mediation centres in courts to support civil and inheritance disputes.  The Academy has implemented the EU project  ‘CONSENT’ which seeks to promote mediation and create a cultural shift away from litigation.

Luiza explained that the war had affected their work in different ways. Despite the constant stress, Ukrainian mediators continued to make efforts to develop mediation and support Ukrainians in peacefully resolving various conflicts. Ukrainian mediators had been quick to respond to changing conditions and adapt to work in wartime and with new types of conflicts. For obvious reasons, the majority of practicing mediators in Ukraine were now women, and they had seen how living under prolonged stress could affect morale and increase tensions in communities without adequate support. Luiza explained that the role of community mediation in Ukraine was growing due to the effects of the war, and that special initiatives had been launched in the west of the country to provide mediation support to internally displaced persons.

The work of the UAM is not restricted to Ukraine.  It has also set up a website to support Ukrainians who have moved away to other countries with conflict resolution.  Luiza explained that refugees with host families where relations have broken down could connect with mediators through this website and the same mediators could support Ukrainians in their communications with authorities around issues such as housing, education and medical needs in the locations where they are now based.

Luiza spoke passionately about the importance of working with the next generation and described a number of initiatives to include the creation of an EQ-Jenga game with words on the blocks to help children find the right language to support conflict prevention. There was also a ‘text quest game’ for older children to learn conflict resolution strategies and online lessons for children on legal and mediation issues. The aim, she explained, was to help children to make sense of the world and find humanity in their relationships with others.