Peace Practice Initiatives

In January 2024 a public awareness-raising event was conducted in Rubavu District, Bugeshi Sector, aimed at preventing and combating the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with albinism through community engagement, education, and advocacy. The event gathered 452 people, including local residents, community leaders, community health workers, youth, faith-based organizations representatives, school representatives, and persons with albinism. During the event, community family volunteers spoke to raise awareness in breaking the generational cycle of hatred and prejudice. Local organizations committed to creating a platform for networking and sharing information on the improvement of the rights of persons with albinism. Faith-based organizations and local government representatives committed to enhancing advocacy and actions to respond to and protect the rights of persons with albinism. A press release was published to increase awareness of the rights of persons with albinism. The event helped to reduce stigma and stereotypes, dispelling myths and misconceptions surrounding albinism, and following the event head teachers reported an increase in school enrollment and attendance rates of people with albinism.

Glory led an initiative aimed at building youth and local resilience to violence and crime, and exploring the role of art and culture as vehicles for youth engagement and empowerment. The initiative gathered 40 youth from different backgrounds. A workshop was provided focused on understanding risk and protective factors to youth violence and crime and effective approaches to prevention interventions (e.g., informal education, life skills training, youth mentoring programs, family support, positive parenting, sport-based interventions). In addition, the youth involved were provided with one-on-one counseling services. This was the first time these youth received such training in their community. Participants reported having increased understanding and consideration of their views of conflict, increased ability to view problems more objectively, increased knowledge on healing from trauma, and a more optimistic outlook on ending crime and violence in their neighborhood. Glory is working on sustaining the initiative by recruiting supportive volunteers to continue the work.

Hosted by Climb Your Everest (CYE), founded and led by Sara Safari, the objective of the Empower Her workshop was “to equip Nepali women with the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to empower themselves, foster gender equality, and drive positive change within their communities” (CYE, 2023). Sara and her team held three leadership skills workshops in three different cities in Nepal. Each workshop was two-days and included mostly teachers and principals of the schools. A total of 200 people participated in the workshops. Over 90% of participants reported change in their lives and learning new skills that they can apply in their daily lives. Sara plans to continue the initiative, and has more workshops in Nepal scheduled.

Joseph developed a multi-pronged initiative aimed at supporting young people to mitigate issues of drug abuse, early teenage pregnancy, and low quality education and embark on a better future. The initiative worked with young people between 10-25 years old in the Northern Province, Koinadugu District, Kabala. The initiative involved education on self-compassion and self-love, network building amongst schools and communities, student mentorship support, and a referral-program to support victims of drug abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. The Future Starts With Me launched with two campaigns gathering 200 students across four schools. Areas of impact amongst students who participated included increased knowledge about the risks and consequences of drug abuse and early teenage pregnancy, improved attitudes towards healthy lifestyles and positive behaviors, and increased awareness among teachers and community leaders on the importance of quality education.

The mentoring program of Radiate Life aims to empower and help women-leaders from Ukraine, who fled home because of the war, to restore their life and build their life strategy. This initiative reached 44 women, and involved a workshop on inner peace, a series of webinars on regenerative leadership, asset-based partnerships, and nonviolent communication (NVC), and 1-1 mentoring sessions (85 in total). The mentoring program specifically aims to build a sense of sisterhood, restore inner peace, and enhance skills needed to help cope with new life challenges, with an emphasis on NVC. While the women who participated are now spread across 20 different countries, they regularly convene to support each other and have cultivated a trusting, supportive community. After four months of the mentoring program, 95% reported a greater understanding of nonviolent communication, 75% reported starting to use NVC in their personal and professional lives, and 99% integrated mindful practices into their daily routine. They have also developed a list of initiatives aimed at supporting and making a positive impact in their home communities in Ukraine.

As women and girls in Afghanistan are not able to attend school or go to work, the Light of Peace initiative aimed to bring hope to young women, and support them in their life trajectories, personal peace practice, and leadership skills. This initiative brought together 20 young Afghan women for seven online sessions focused on integral peace leadership, with two of these sessions collaborating with fellow PPA participants and their communities in Nigeria to share ideas and experiences about peace. The initiative also invited the participants to create and lead peace leadership exercises at a local orphanage, practicing their own leadership in peace education through art, drawing, poems, and interactive activities with children. More than 85% of participants reported a significant boost in their self-assurance and their ability to effectively implement peace education. The initiative also significantly bolstered participants’ motivation and hope in shaping and strategizing their future trajectories, and increased their personal peace practices.

Nelly designed and led an initiative to support 25 moran herders from Kituruni, Marsabit County in Kenya, to participate in a night school for six months. The areas of learning focused on basic literacy skills such as numbers, letters, and basic peacebuilding and conflict transformation skills such as dialogue in conflict resolution, to change from negative moran cultural traditions (cattle rustling, early marriages and banditry) to embracing diversity, education and alternative sources of livelihood. As a result, the morans who participated can read basic words, more effectively use mobile phones to write messages, make money transfers, and write simple text messages The morans can also write their names and append their signatures, which they could not do previously. They have boosted their confidence to participate in community activities. By equipping them with basic peacebuilding principles and skills, they are able to be peace ambassadors among the youth in their communities. Within the period of implementation, there were no cattle raids in the area, indirectly attributed to the project support and change in attitudes and conflict transformation. After the night school morans are attending community public meetings and advocating for their issues, have organized a welfare group to champion their issues and create a change in the culture of violence, and several aim to continue formal adult learning courses to further their education.

At Chapman University in California, Nick Irwin developed a hybrid model of the Peace Practice Alliance program for five enlisted male student veterans from different ethnic backgrounds. They engaged in all modules of the PPA, in-class discussions, healing circles, personal peace practices, and experiential activities. 100% of participants reported greater understanding or awareness of peace leadership topics covered, and greater confidence in their ability to apply what they learned. The combination of each of their personal growth and new friendships created led to their collective action to improve conditions and experiences for student veterans on campus. This resulted in two key partnerships developed on campus to provide military-connected students access to free courses and certificates to help them advance post-college, and to establish a Student Veteran Lounge on campus as a safe space for students to congregate, study, and be their authentic selves, and advance the student veteran Chapter program on campus. Together they have now increased membership, built a community of belonging for student veterans to not feel alone, launched a mentoring program, and created the first student-veteran focused segment of orientation for new students. This will be an ongoing effort.

The Social Integration Initiative is an ongoing effort by Rashidah. For this initiative, they conducted peace training sessions with nursery and lower primary children at different schools in the region of Rwamwanga refugee settlements in Kamwenge District. They also hosted sports sessions with youth from different backgrounds across the local and refugee populations. Through these sessions, the initiative directly involved 400 individuals. Reported impact from the initiative in the Rwamwanga settlements included increased knowledge in peace and conflict resolution, with 85% individuals reporting greater understanding and 82% reporting greater confidence in applying the practices in their lives. Incidents of conflicts and fights reduced by 50% within the school premises. Teachers and parents reported observations that children were more empathetic and understanding towards others after the training, noting increased cooperation and respect among children from different backgrounds; and 90% of participants in the sports sessions reported feeling more connected to peers from different backgrounds.

Hosted by his organization Re-Imagining New Communities, Sahlim and his team focused their efforts on deepening their work in their Children-Led Community Peace Labs program (CLCP-Labs) and their Faith4Peace program. As part of their CLCP-Labs program, they hosted a 2-day workshop for 12 educators across 4 primary schools in informal settlements in Nairobi. Educators were trained on conflict resolution skills, promoting peaceful coexistence and dialogue as essential tools for resolving disputes within their school communities. After the workshop, the participants established CLCP-Labs in their schools which Sahlim’s team visits on a weekly basis, supporting peace activities within the schools and peer mentoring across schools. Through their Faith4Peace program, the team provided support to pastors and church leaders across 3 churches in Nairobi to enhance and streamline conflict resolution mechanisms within their churches and organizations. Data gathered across the two initiatives shows a 70% increase in participants’ understanding of conflict resolution techniques, 85% reporting feeling more equipped to manage conflicts constructively. Support for the pastors has led to reduction in conflicts between and among the leadership and congregation, and online mentorship sessions for teachers led to 60% increase in integrating peacebuilding concepts into curricula. Both of these are ongoing initiatives within Re-Imagining New Communities.