Hi! My name is Whitney and I currently work for my family’s small business. I am a former Young Adult Volunteer and served in Guatemala. I was first exposed to nonviolence and peacemaking during my undergraduate studies but it was not until I was a living in Guatemala and working with people affected by a violent civil war that I started to truly embrace non-violence in my own life. I spent one month as an accompanier with the Presbyterian Peace Peace Fellowship in Colombia and listened to the stories of individuals and communities who were violently displaced from their homes.  These communities used nonviolent actions to protest their displacement and resist the continued displacement of other communities. I am excited to go on the delegation to Iraqi Kurdistan because I want to learn more about displacement in this region and and how these communities are using non-violent resistance against military operations. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn firsthand about a region of which I have little knowledge beyond what I hear in the news.