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.