Peace and Reconciliation Initiatives

The media tell us a great deal about war and conflict, but they don't tell us much about the many organizations and initiatives around the world devoted to peace and reconciliation. Below are links to some of these underreported peacemakers. Click on them to reinvigorate your sense of hope for the world - and by all means, get involved! And if you know of others, please tell us about them so we can add them to the list. You can write to us at haveyoursay@philia.ca or post a comment below.



Buddhist Peace Fellowship
Buddhist Peace Fellowship's engagement with the world is expressed through expanding programs in the US and Asia. Through BPF, Buddhists of many different traditions are developing individual and group responses to socially conditioned suffering. BPF draws on diverse sources to accomplish this work: the wisdom and compassion of Buddhist tradition and practice; contemporary North American peace and social justice movements; other nonviolent, progressive, faith-based movements for social change.

The Center for Nonviolent Communication
The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) is a global organization whose vision is a world where all people are getting their needs met and resolving their conflicts peacefully. In this vision, people use Nonviolent Communication to create and participate in networks of worldwide life-serving systems in economics, education, justice, healthcare, and peace-keeping.



Centre for World Dialogue
The Centre for World Dialogue is founded on the conviction that all people have the right to engage in the free and open discussion of ideas. The Centre believes that dialogue and the exchange of views have a vital role to play in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. These basic principles underpin the Centre's commitment to promoting greater understanding and co-operation at all levels through initiating and encouraging discussion on issues of global concern.



The Compassionate Listening Project
TCLP is dedicated to teaching skills for everyday peace-making in the family, community, workplace, and international arena. Compassionate Listening is a based on a simple yet profound formula for resolving conflict: adversaries giving the gift of listening. Among TCLP's programs are citizen delegations to Israel/Palestine, Jewish-German Compassionate Listening, and trainings and workshops for citizens and facilitators worldwide.



International Fellowship of Reconciliation and FOR-USA
Since 1915, The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) has carried on programs and educational projects concerned with domestic and international peace and justice, nonviolent alternatives to conflict, and the rights of conscience. An international, interfaith organization, FOR promotes nonviolence and has members from many religious and ethnic traditions. FOR-USA is a part of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), which has affiliates in over 40 countries.



Interfaith Encounter Association
The Interfaith Encounter Association is dedicated to promoting peace in the Middle East through interfaith dialogue and cross-cultural study. They believe that rather than being a cause of the problem, religion can and should be a source of the solution for conflicts that exist in the region and beyond.



The Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group of San Mateo
This Dialogue Group, formed in California in 1991, is composed of Jews, Palestinians and supportive others who meet monthly in each other's homes to hear each other's stories, practise compassionate listening, and envision their shared future. They have also initiated dozens of educational activities and projects, and worked with government and civil society to make dialogue integral to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.



Sulha Peace Project
Sulha is an indigenous, Middle Eastern way of reconciliation. The goal of the Sulha Peace Project is to rebuild trust among neighbours, Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians, heart to heart, as a contribution to peace in the Middle East. A grassroots effort, the Sulha Peace Project complements diplomatic channels to prepare the peoples in the area for peace "from below". In addition to annual gatherings, Sulha hosts educational workshops and forums, as well as a Sulhita Youth Project.




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