Journey of self-discovery

Londoner Jonas Truneh (25) and I are sitting on a bench, watching participants in the Caux Scholars and Caux Peace and Leadership (CPLP) programmes playing something resembling football. As he deflects the ball from crushing my laptop (thank you Jonas), he describes what his experiences at Caux over the last three years have meant to him.

This year, Jonas was one of the organizing team members of the Just Governance for Human Security conference (JGHS) and took part in the CPLP. His parents and grandparents have been involved in the work of IofC (then Moral Re-Armament) in Ethiopia and around the world since the 1960s. So the ideas of IofC have been a recurring motif throughout his upbringing, though his own interest was only sparked in his later school years, when he began to engage with issues of politics and social justice.

He first came to Caux in 2017, to attend JGHS, a five-day intensive conference on the fundamental pillars of human security. This coincided with his choice to study religion and politics at Kings College, London, in what he describes as a ‘culmination’ of his desire to becoming a more active global citizen.

Jonas’s curiosity was sparked by the topics covered, the speakers’ presentations and the Forum’s participatory and self-reflective ethos. He returned in 2018 as a Caux Scholar. He found the experience ‘humbling’ and ‘inspiring’; a journey of self-discovery, as part of a global network of bright and diverse young leaders. Constructive introspection and self-analysis are even more embedded in the CPLP programme, he says.

Both the CPLP and the Caux Scholars Programme (CSP) are rooted in IofC’s core values and offer the space for self-development within a framework of leadership and peacebuilding. As the names suggests, the CSP is more academic, and the CPLP more leadership-focused. Both put you in touch with yourself as well as an extensive group of intelligent young people. Jonas has maintained contact with the CSP alumni network, which he describes as a ‘base of support’ for reintegrating back into normal life after the month is out. His one regret is that the programmes are too short.

Jonas is adamant that the directors of both programmes do not get a fraction of the credit they deserve, for the effort they put in and the programmes they offer. They give support to each individual’s personal journey above and beyond what is expected. The confidence participants take away from Caux is due to the tone and ethos set by the programme directors and their teams. It is the people that make the experience, he says, and he is eternally grateful to be part of the Caux family.

I leave him in peace to finally join in the football fun.

Report: Emma Beuster

Photos: Paula Mariane