I am full of gratitude for the week of rich learning we shared in Sierra Leone, living out Constellating Peace from the Inside Out. As part of that thanks, I offer the poem below. For me, our week together was an embodiment of the summons this poem offers.
A Transformed Tomorrow
As all around us torrents
of tears from suffering sisters
and brothers, from infants
to elders, drench the Earth
we are despoiling, and old
forms like ….Keep reading this post >
We twice had a bonfire on the beach we shared together during our week of Constellating Peace From the Inside Out.
Our last participants have left this beautiful beach for their homes, and now the work of carrying these lessons forward begins. There were so many new connections fostered, so much knowledge and experience shared, so many beautiful goodbyes — including this poem from Stephen Wicken, which he wrote ….Keep reading this post >
The learning experience for Constellating Peace participants was especially deepened by the midweek visits to the communities that had engaged in the People’s Planning Process. It took several hours of driving to reach the different communities, and the group went to a variety of locations, to be able to witness different dimensions of the program in action.
The visits to the villages gave the participants a direct experience of the ….Keep reading this post >
“Imagine a community as like a bowl. Humanitarian aid, whether for peacebuilding, health, education, economic development or any other purpose is like a bottle of water. When there is a crisis, resources get poured into the bowl — but they just go right through. The bowl is cracked. And if you keep pouring water into a cracked container, it widens the cracks and can damage it further — while also ….Keep reading this post >
Catalyst for Peace and Fambul Tok opened our first global learning event outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, today — or rather, the Peace Mothers of Fambul Tok, gathered from across the country, sang the event open from just after sunrise, a beautiful and joyous gesture of gathering that called everyone together for the day.
Throughout the day, the crowd of more than 80 people, gathered from 15 countries and doing work in ….Keep reading this post >
Pioneering Global Learning Event Brings 80 Peace Leaders to Sierra Leone
to Collaborate in “Building Peace from the Inside Out”
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – More than 80 people from around the world are gathering in the capital next week for “Constellating Peace from the Inside Out,” a week-long immersion learning event exploring the lessons of an innovative partnership for peacebuilding and development. The event is being hosted by the Government ….Keep reading this post >
The Government of Sierra Leone is pioneering a national policy framework that will put its people and communities in the center and at the helm of the country’s planning and development. (For more on the process of our partnership with them in its development, you can check out these posts.)
You can read and download the complete Draft Framework here.
Here is a brief overview and list of highlights of the Framework ….Keep reading this post >
How can government and funders support community healing and people-led planning and development? That was our focus at planning meetings at Ulster University in Belfast in mid-November. Senior government leaders from Sierra Leone gathered to focus on the planning and rollout of the flagship Wan Fambul National Framework for Local Governance and Rural Development, along with partner organizations (I was there representing Catalyst for Peace and John Caulker from our ….Keep reading this post >
In mid-January, Catalyst for Peace (CFP) co-hosted a retreat with Kenya-based Green String Network (GSN) to Celebrate and Nurture Women’s Leadership in Peacebuilding.
Women came – and some men (invited for selected sessions) from many corners of Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, the United States and Zimbabwe. Some led organizations, addressed policy, while some gathered friends, family and fellow community members to heal their trauma and make their communities better. Some ….Keep reading this post >
Our thoughts are with Sierra Leoneans as they hold their national elections and await the outcome. You can read below the full statement to press that we issued yesterday together with our Sierra Leonean partner Fambul Tok, calling for peaceful elections and cohesive work to fulfill the nation’s promise after the elections. You can also listen here to the jingle we produced that is now airing across the Sierra Leone, ….Keep reading this post >
