From November 15 to 18, 2010 Lesotho Minister Mathabiso Lepono, Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation invited Alice Cardel, IofC International Training Director to pilot test a programme: 'Women in Leadership' especially for Lesotho. This took place at Victoria Hotel in Maseru. It is specifically designed for women Members of Parliament and those who are on the 20 District Councils of Lesotho. The aim of the training is to increase women's leadership competencies and capabilities.

Portia Mosia, who has been running Peace Circle workshops together with Jackie Euvrard and others throughout this past year 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.'

Eritrean-born General Mercorios Haile, who rose to become Deputy-Commander of the Ethiopian Air Force in the era when Eritrea was still a province of Ethiopia, died on 16 November on a visit to Addis Ababa.

The Chaplain and Tutor in Theology of St John’s College, Oxford, the Rev Dr Liz Carmichael, introduced Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye from Nigeria as ‘an iconic peacemaking and peacebuilding team’ at the opening of a seminar on 11 November. It was organised by the Oxford Network of Peace Studies (OxPeace).

The protagonists of the award-winning documentary film The Imam and the Pastor, Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, and the film’s co-Producer Dr Imad Karam were guests of the Directorate of Religious Affairs of the Government of South Sudan in Juba from 29 October to 2 November 2010. The fourth guest Mrs Amina Dikedi-Ajakaiye, a Nigerian widely travelled in Africa, helped conduct workshops for women on a previous visit to Juba and Khartoum.

The first Creators of Peace Circle has just taken place in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Alex Martins has sent this report.

Two of the participants from the Peace Circle workshop held in Mossel Bay in February invited us back to conduct workshops for 26 volunteers and carers in the communities of this southern Cape town. They came from SANTA (South African National Tuberculosis Association), Piet Julies who cares for those affected and infected with HIV/Aids and the Thabita group who give fellowship to a congregation of the VGK (Vrye Gereformeerde Kerk).

‘God give us a Kofi Annan for our broken homes and many Kofi Annans for our broken society’, conveyed one of the around 30 ladies who attended a Creators of Peace meeting on 7 June, 2010 in Eldoret. The meeting, led by Rosemary Kariuki, a Kenyan from Eldoret now living in Australia, was a follow up on the three Creators of Peace workshops that took place in Nakuru in May, 2010. Some of the participants from Eldoret who were keeping their word – to be creators of peace and to engage their society in the process of creating peace – were present to share their experience and commitment after participating in the Nakuru workshop.

At a ceremony to mark Glasgow University’s Commemoration Day on 16 June 2010, Honorary Degrees were conferred on nine people, including the Degree of Doctor of the University on both Imam Dr Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor Dr James Movel Wuye, who feature in the film The Imam and the Pastor. They were presented by the Professor of Divinity, Werner Jeanrond.

Three Peace Circle workshops took place 20-26 May, 2010 at St Mary’s Pastoral Centre, Nakuru. 35 women, mainly from the Rift Valley province, benefited from the training. Amongst other issues, most of the women had great concerns about the massive negative ethnicity in the country.