Thirty-one members of Farmers’ Dialogue from fourteen countries (East Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia) met in Kigali (Rwanda) in an informal and stimulating setting to consider the various missions of the programme and the team's commitments as a result of their missions. This diverse group of people took time to think about the roots of their programme and the impact it could have on their way of thinking and their commitment.

Zachariah Muturi, a young man from Kenya, shares some of his experiences learnt from his recent visit to Rwanda.

‘I was almost giving up on peace and all these peace trainings. I have attended so many of them but none of them has been practical and effectual. Apart from Peace Circles, all the other trainings have been theoretical, and they are facilitated by people who don’t believe in what they are telling others to do.’ 18 women attended the 3 days of Creators of Peace Circles facilitation training from 30 March - 1 April, 2011 at Amani Communities Africa (ACA) offices in Ngong, Nairobi.

Terre des Hommes NGO invited Daphrose Ntarataze, a Burundian now living in Geneva, Switzerland, for an exploratory visit to her country to get to know the Terre des Hommes team and to explore the possibility of leading Peace Circles there together with them. She was joined by Christiane Garin Al-Azhari, President of the Creators of Peace Association, who also had the opportunity to present the history and methodology of the Creators of Peace network to the staff at Terre des Hommes.

A new website has joined the IofC family of websites, the Initiatives of Change Africa website. The website can be accessed at http://www.iofcafrica.org, where you can view news, events, commentaries and much more from the African continent. The site contains details of and application form for the next Harambee Leadership Programme, taking place in Nigeria in October 2011.

Ann Njeri, a young Kenyan woman who is active with Initiatives of Change programmes, including Creators of Peace, ‘Kenya I Care’, ‘Clean Elections Campaign’ and ‘Sustainable peace and reconciliation', has been awarded the International Women's Day Outstanding Service Award for Kenya. The award was presented to her on 8 March by the President of Rotary club Mombasa, President Jean Baptiste Gasangwa.

“Information is the key to life. Without information, people do not have an agenda and simply accept what is said at the discussion table.” These were the challenging words of Mr Kennedy Walusala, President of the Regional Multifunctional Youth Forum at the opening of the 1st Eastern Africa Youth Conference (EAYC).

Nagwa Raouf has written a message, following the massacre in front of the Coptic church on New Year's Eve in Egypt, and sent it by email to her Christian friends in Egypt and Lebanon. In its original Arabic form, it was published by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Nahar (probably the most important Lebanese daily) on 3 January.

Over 600 people filled the room at the eighth Annual Celebration Gala of the We Are Family Foundation on October 26, 2010 in New York. Among the honourees were Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye for their work of peacemaking in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

Portia Mosia, who has been running Peace Circle workshops together with Jackie Euvrard and others throughout this past year in South Africa, writes: “I am so grateful for the opportunity to follow my conviction through working with the Peace Circles programme. It has been an uplifting journey for my own healing after an awful experience that I had to overcome.”