International Rescue Committee programs working in conflict-affected communities across Africa are marking the International Day of Peace (officially September 21) with activities promoting peace, protection and reconciliation. Here’s a snapshot:
• The IRC and thousands of Burundian refugees preparing to return home after more than a decade of civil strife marked Peace Day in the Kibondo and Kasulu Camps in Tanzania. Activities included an education campaign and discussions on the prevention of sexual violence.
• In Southern Sudan, which is recovering from decades of violent conflict, 20 church pastors trained by the IRC on the causes and consequences of sexual violence gave sermons yesterday on women’s equality and family harmony.
• Also in Southern Sudan, the IRC is teaming up with a youth organization, the Hajer Cultural Group, to spread messages of peace. The IRC runs workshops about child rights for the group, which includes former child soldiers. Hajer, in turn, puts on dramatic community performances about the importance of education, human rights and issues around child labor and early marriage.
• The IRC organized a first-ever International Day of Peace celebration in the town of Kitale, Kenya, where post-election violence spurred by ethnic and economic tension led to mass displacement earlier this year. Residents, scouts, school choirs, the business community, local officials and others came together for a peace parade. Speeches, songs and dancing followed, with remarks focusing on the need for lasting peace and reconciliation.
• IRC staff members in Kitale, Kenya have also organized a drawing competition this week for students in four schools that were hit by the ethnic violence. In line with the Day of Peace, students have been asked to illustrate peaceful solutions to conflict.
• At the IRC-managed Oure Cassoni Camp in Eastern Chad, home to some 29,000 refugees from Darfur, hundreds of children also took part in Peace Day drawing activities as well as sports matches and kite-flying.
• In Somalia, despite chronic insecurity, IRC teams are launching a hygiene education campaign in Gaalkacyo, where the IRC provides water and sanitation services for thousands of people uprooted by violence. The teams will broadcast health messages on a local radio station, distribute instructional pamphlets on good hygiene practices and train local health committees.
• In western Côte d’Ivoire, where some 45 villages are recovering from unrest and seeing the return of displaced families, the IRC organized a gathering of nine peace committees to celebrate Peace Day and to share information on the challenges of the return and reintegration process.
• In Karamoja, northwest Uganda, 13 peace committees formed and trained by the IRC are spreading messages of peace and reconciliation to local communities that fall victim to violent cattle raids which leave many people dead every year. The committees are staging dramas and sing songs, talking about the harm raiding does to local communities and calling for an end to the violence.
• Also in Karamoja, Uganda IRC teams are rehabilitating water sources to ensure communities have sufficient water for themselves and their livestock. In this arid, drought-prone region, water is often a source of conflict with rival clans fighting over scarce supplies, so the IRC is digging wells and desilting dams as well as encouraging communities to share these new resources peacefully.
