Support Local Peace Building Organisations

Despite the challenges, local peacebuilders continue to do incredible work, every day, to stop war and violence.
Since our last report, we’ve been able to support local peace people building peace in the world’s most war-torn areas.
The conflict in Burundi is one that’s often hidden from the mainstream media, but one that’s seen hundreds of people unfairly imprisoned, and suffering from terrible torture and violence. But with generous support, we’re helping local people to change that. This is Benjamin’s story.

When he was just a child, Benjamin’s family were killed in the Burundian civil war. At the age of 12, he joined an armed rebel group as a child soldier. It was suspected that the army were responsible for killing his family. As the army were predominantly from the Tutsi ethnic group, he came to see all Tutsi’s as a threat. He could never imagine being able to interact peacefully with them after what had happened to his family.

But some time later, he was given the opportunity to turn away from violence. He told us, ‘’I was invited to take part in training on non-violence and reconciliation for young people of different political parties’’. At first he was hesitant, he couldn’t imagine sitting in a room with people he called his enemies. But after some time, out of sheer curiosity, he decided to go to the training.

After the training, he realised that those he thought were his enemies were suffering for the same reasons he was. ‘’During the talks with others, I realised that we have the same problems. We are all victims of those who take advantage of us for their own interests without worrying about our common future’’.

With your support, we can help spread the word about hidden conflicts like that in Burundi. We can help more people living in the world’s deadliest war zones to work together to find peace.

Every day, there are extraordinary people working to stop violence where they live. Regardless of the circumstances, people around the world continue to strive for peace, often against incredible odds. Gulalai Ismail is one of these people.

On the 21^st of April, Gulalai Ismail, founder of Aware Girls, spoke about her experiences of building peace in Pakistan. Aware Girls is our local partner organisation based in Peshawar, northern Pakistan, and was founded by Gulalai and her sister when they were just teenagers. As young girls, Gulalai and her sister had watched countless young people be persuaded to go and fight in the name of religion. They then watched as their families were devastated by their deaths.

Where Gulalai had once been keen to go and fight herself, in search of glory, she soon realised the damage these ideas were doing. Instead, she wanted to give young people the opportunity to choose peace. Founding Aware Girls, she began encouraging women and young people to put aside their religious differences, and follow a path of peace and tolerance.

Gulalai told her riveting story in a TED Talk, broadcast to people all over the world, something which she never imaged she would be able to do.

She was only able to share her story thanks to the generosity of Peace Direct supporters who help fund Aware Girls. There are many people like Gulalai who work tirelessly in their communities, but whose stories never make it onto the international stage. We will support local people building peace until we have stopped wars, one person at a time.

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• Read more stories of incredible people building peace