Catalyst for Peace is growing a community of global learner-practitioners in conversation about the lessons, challenges, and inspirations they experience as they depart from business as usual and apply inside-out principles in their contexts.
In each moment of our journey where we have had the privilege and opportunity to bring together others working similarly from a vision of wholeness and community-centered healing, we have learned a great deal with and from each other. In November 2016, working with Fambul Tok, we brought Peace Mothers from communities across Sierra Leone together, followed by a gathering of district leadership from three districts — two gatherings which laid the groundwork for the Wan Fambul National Framework..In January 2018 in the town of Malindi, on Kenya’s beautiful coast, we convened a gathering of 50 women leaders from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and the United States. They exchanged ideas and inspiration, celebrating the power of female leadership and supporting each other to amplify their voices.
In these gatherings, we invite practitioners representing the whole system — local and national governance, national and international NGOs, international funders and community activists — for conversations centered, in the words of one of discussants, “on what is strong in communities, not what is wrong.” We are committed to furthering mutual learning and encouragement while also acknowledging – and discussing with frank, honest, and respectful dialogue that is the fambul tok way of working —that there are major challenges to working in this way. Mindsets must shift, practices must change, and structures must be reimagined.
We continue exploring these conversations , workshops, and trainings; in collaboration with organizations like the International Peace Institute; in sustained engagement with practitioners during moments of unique growth and opportunity; and in nurturing ongoing global conversations, virtually and in-person. This is the work we are living into.
