In front of  250 social workers, victim advocates and victim service providers, I had the privilege to speak before the Strategic Collaborations for Reaching Underserved Victims on October 8 at UCLA. Simply I delivered a message on the healing power of forgiveness. And what was my intended result? For those in attendance to heal eventually.…

  On October 17, 2015, the Global Empowerment Summit took place at UC San Diego. It was attended by over 250 people from all over the world. Many great speakers focused on empowerment. Although it was primarily designed to empower women worldwide and most of the speakers were women, Azim’s keynote challenged the theme to…

On September 19 and 20, I had the pleasure and honor of working with 12 participants in a Train the Trainer Forgiveness Workshop in Surrey, England. We were there to teach the steps to forgive people who have harmed us, ridding ourselves of resentment and also to forgive ourselves and rid ourselves of guilt so…

What an honor to be part of three presentations – a forgiveness workshop, an opening plenary panel, and a youth violence presentation – at the 20th International Summit on Violence, Abuse and Trauma, which took place August 23-25 in San Diego. I truly enjoyed the panel as it was diverse and the questions were great. I…

Finally home and tired. Leavenworth is always emotional. Today’s audience at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas were all inmates who are going to be paroled in the next three years. Out of 1700 federal prisoners, about 100 were present through the LCP (Life Connection Program), a voluntary program offered to the inmates ready to be paroled.…

On August 7, in a special event called “Passport to Life” at  San Diego City College www.ptlsandiego.com, Ples Felix and Azim Khamisa presented two sessions with 60 kids in each class, bringing the principles of nonviolence. All the students were high schools students and on probation or in special schools as a result of suspension…

Each year, the Hansen Summer Institute puts on an event at San Diego State University with 25 young adults chosen from a total of 1100 candidates to participate in peacemaking skill-building. This year, on July 15, I was able to bring the principles of forgiveness and peace and freedom. It was very well received, as…

At the “Hands of Peace” event on July 14 at the Pacific Ridge School, I was present for these honored high school student guests: 25 Israelis 25 Palestinians 25 American Here, we all learned of the principles on how to be  a nonviolent leader. The response was phenomenal. Every one of them came up to…

On June 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina, it was my honor to be among parents, teachers, children, PTA Board and staff and other US and global affiliates. Over 1200 people attended the National PTA convention, where I had the joy of delivering the opening plenary. I spoke on the idea of teaching principles of nonviolence…

I remember writing in my journal soon after I lost my son Tariq to a senseless shooting: “There is nothing quite so painful as a broken heart, but a broken heart is an open heart – if one can learn to live with an open heart, gentle transformations begin to happen.” When I gave a…