Catalyst for Peace’s work with Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone has shifted from its initial focus on post-war community reconciliation. As we have written about elsewhere, building on the lessons of that work, we are focused now on creating spaces for communities to lead in their own development, supported by an inclusive governance infrastructure. Simply stated, the work has moved from peacebuilding to development (and inclusive governance) – while still ….Keep reading this post >
CFP continues its decade-long partnership with Fambul Tok (FT) in Sierra Leone to support communities in post-Ebola healing that leads to engagement in healthy partnerships for long-term peace and development. The People’s Planning Process places people and communities in the very center of recovery and on-going development. The PPP is growing from village to section to chiefdom to district to, ultimately, the national level. Using an inside-out approach, this process is ….Keep reading this post >
“Sheku IS Fambul Tok,” said John Caulker (the ED of Fambul Tok) when we spoke after learning of the sudden passing last week of one of the founding leaders of Fambul Tok, our dear colleague, friend and brother, Sheku Koroma. And while John’s statement helps explain the depth of the shock and grief at Sheku’s loss, it also illuminates a core strength, promise and power of Fambul Tok, and indeed ….Keep reading this post >
Local people – and especially local women – are the real experts in keeping their communities Ebola-free. Fambul Tok’s “Peace Mothers” – local women who have been leading their communities in healing the wounds of Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war – have used their networks, skill and commitment to provide critical leadership in preventing the spread of Ebola. They show how working locally and over the long term helps create resilient ….Keep reading this post >
We don’t see sustainable peace being led from the bottom-up, or from the top-down–but rather, from the inside-out.
Making visible the concentric circles of roles in the peacebuilding system, and the international aid system more generally, allows us to see the multiple points of action and impact, and the complete set of relationships, necessary for sustainable peace. Each level is important, and interconnected.
In our approach, we examine relationships between each level ….Keep reading this post >
Why do I tell this story now? Because it shows how creative, expectant, appreciative perspectives from outside a community in conflict can support that community as it works to build peace from within.
It was November 14, 2007. John Caulker and I gathered with a handful of trusted colleagues in the Carlyle Hotel in Washington, D.C. to plan the launch of an as-yet-unnamed program of community reconciliation in Sierra Leone. John ….Keep reading this post >
Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone has pioneered a large scale, but fully locally-owned and led post war reconciliation and community building process. The key to local local ownership is in the PROCESS Fambul Tok uses facilitate community agency, collective decision making, and collective action.
So – how exactly does that process work?
Download our How It Works chart here [PDF].
The first step of any Fambul Tok process is a consultation. Sierra Leone ….Keep reading this post >
Adapted from the original written by Jina Moore.
Good leadership is critical to the success of any program. But when a process is meant to be community-owned and led, the kind of leadership required to support and sustain that process is unique.
Listening to community stakeholders in Pujehun District, Sierra Leone
Fambul Tok has pioneered living out this kind of leadership in practice for over 8 years, so it exemplifies the ….Keep reading this post >
Interweaving peacebuilding and film yields transformation.
There are occasional moments in this work when people, activities, resources, and timing all align, and there’s a powerful experience that grabs you in the pit of your stomach, leaving you feeling – This is what it is all for. Thursday, May 10, 2012 was one of those moments for me, with the workshop Fambul Tok held in Waterloo, just outside of Freetown (Sierra Leone), for a group ….Keep reading this post >
