For many of us, this is a time of year to contemplate peace, celebrate light in the darkness, and appreciate our connection to one another.
As we appreciate these connections, we are mindful of the hard work it takes to build them. In our recent workshops with Sri Lankan community religious leaders following the brutal civil war, we discovered that some participants had never spoken to a community member of a minority faith. The idea that all religious traditions can foster love, compassion and justice was a new concept—one that we are now building upon in our work together.
 Please consider making an end-of-year gift to Karuna Center. Your support will help break cycles of violence in critical areas, from post-war Sri Lanka to villages in Rwanda and Senegal. We continue our work with Nepali political leaders as well. We are thankful for the opportunity to be doing this work, and for your support. We are still short of our fundraising goal for 2011, and in a small office like ours, every gift, of any size, is put to good use. If you have already given this year, please forward this email to a friend who may be interested.
Warm wishes,
Olivia, Paula, Darren, Laura, Satoko, and Laurie
Karuna Center staff and volunteer interns
photo: Sri Lankan religious leaders in the area of Trincomalee open a Karuna Center workshop.
DOWNLOAD OUR COMPLETE 2011 NEWSLETTER (PDF, 3MB)
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Youth power and peace advocacy in southern Senegal
Our work to provide peace advocacy training to grassroots peace committees and community-based radio stations in the Casamance region of southern Senegal continues, in collaboration with World Education. In the summer of 2011, Karuna Center Peacebuilding Associate Adin Thayer facilitated a three-day training in Peace Advocacy in Oussouye immediately following a three-day trans-border festival of youth culture for 500 youth from Casamance, Guinea Bissau and Gambia.
Read more about Senegal's peace committees on our blog.
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Using conflict resolution to help stop global warming
This summer, we were invited to bring our experience in conflict resolution to the issue of climate change. Olivia facilitated a Green Summit between environmental leaders who hold differing views on the best approach to “carbon pricing,” a strategy to limit carbon emissions that threaten the health of our planet. Our purpose is to help climate advocates more forward with greater clarity, unity, and success.
Read more about the Green Summit on our blog.
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Legacies of peacebuilding in Bosnia
This summer, Paula returned to the cities of Sanki Most and Kozarac in northern Bosnia, where we led peacebuilding programs with women and educators from 1997-2002. She met with former Karuna Center workshop participants who now lead successful independent peace centers inspired by our work together, such as the Center for Peacebuilding, at left, founded by Vahidin Omanovic (recent recipient of the Bremen Peace Award) in 2004.
Read more about re-visiting Bosnia on our blog.
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Assessing the future of conflict in Rwanda
Over the past couple of years, we have been providing peacebuilding training and conflict analysis to decision-makers in international development. This fall, we had the opportunity to draw upon our years of peacebuilding experience and contacts in Rwanda as the lead consultant on a USAID team for a conflict assessment for Rwanda. The assessment will help inform USAID’s strategic plan for the next five years, and we were happy for the opportunity to highlight the work on reconciliation that still needs to be done and to give voice to the concerns of grassroots communities.
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