A new collaboration has merged between the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), PUSH, which stands for 'Push Until Something Happens' and the Creators of Peace (CoP) team in South Africa. For three weeks in May, the CoP team facilitated the Creators of Peace Circle for volunteers of PUSH with an expectation that it would help nourish and revive the spirit of service and care in the volunteers and further be reflected in the communities they work in.

The call to CoP was to facilitate a Peace Circle (PC) for 15 men, between the ages of 17 and 44 years from 6th - 8th June. They came from different Coloured (mixed race) communities in and around Soweto. The hope was that the PC could support their recovery and healing journey also equip them with methods and tools to grow spiritually and to walk the talk.

At our Annual General Meeting held at Caux on Sunday 7th August 2016, the following women were elected to share leadership and responsibility for the strategic direction, governance and administration of Creators of Peace.

Once more, the Creators of Peace team conducted a heart warming training in the remote village of Baringo County where the woman went home with powerful lessons learned such as 'Attitude is Everything' among the other turning points in their life.

The Creators of Peace team brough together 21 women from Mpejot Village, some took the step of stopping the bleeding of anger from the emotional wound by forgiving and reconciling.

The training began on a high note with the ladies ready and eager to learn more about peace, starting with themselves. Session after session the women got to become freer, more comfortable and at home with the discussion topics.

After four years of peace talks, and a lot of criticism from every side, official negotiators and FARC leaders have finally been able to reach a detailed agreement, which will allow FARC to abandon their armed fight and become a political party. However a democratic consultation has to be voted next October, to legalise the agreement... What makes this deal special, and perhaps hopeful, is that none of the previous attempts implied such a lengthy and detailed analysis and political and social debate, nor did they include such a wide array of influence from international guests from countries with similar armed conflicts and peace deals such as Ireland and South-Africa, plus the intervention of the UN both during the talks and during the post-conflict and disarmament period.

Barbarchun is a name of a game that was played by men a long time ago. This was the central meeting point for the men from all the communities living in the vicinity to bring news from their specific areas of residence and discuss how to find solutions. They did this as they played the holes and stones game under a tree, hence the name of the area. This no longer happens as all the communities have become rivals. However Barbarchun has now been turned from a centre of dialogue and reconciliation into a refugee camp for warring communities.

Living Peace Day 5 - Living Peace through Forgiveness

Living Peace Day 4 - Living Peace through the telling of a New Story
Graphic Recording