2011: A year in numbers

The London riots last year highlighted the tensions among marginalised young people, particularly in deprived areas like the East End. Local peacebuilder Klaudia Brezna leads the Truce 2020 youth project in Newham, London’s most diverse borough where over 100 languages are spoken. She trains young people to resolve conflicts in their streets, schools and homes – and they go on to train others in the community, spreading the word and defusing the tension. Read full story

Local peacebuilders have vital lessons to share from their frontline experience of resolving conflicts, but they seldom meet each other. Our Peace Exchange conference in Uganda gathered expert peacebuilders from 3 continents to learn and develop common techniques and approaches for stopping violence, healing communities and reviving economies. Previous Peace Exchanges have been held in Nairobi and London – and Islamabad is next.

Channel 4 sent a documentary team to film our local peacebuilders rescuing child soldiers from rebel lines in Congo. The project has rescued hundreds of under-age fighters from lives of brutality and black magic. Media coverage like this helps with fundraising and to spread the message of local peacebuilding. View film

War-torn eastern Congo is one of the most fragile places on earth, and disputes over land can easily spark further violence. But legal solutions for disputes are hard to find, when law courts are too slow and expensive for ordinary people. Local peacebuilder Flory Kasingufu has set up informal courts based on traditional ways, able to handle 600 cases a year in an area inhabited by some 50,000 people. Read full story

Sudan is recovering from Africa’s longest civil war, which lasted 21 years and resulted in the country splitting into two nations in 2011. These remain highly volatile, with fighting along the new border, weapons everywhere in the countryside, and frequent tribal battles. Local peacebuilders Rasha el Fangry and George Ngoha run the Collaborative for Peace, which deploys local peace committees to prevent and resolve conflicts – 70 of them in 2011. Read full story

Twenty-three years of civil war fragmented Sri Lanka into separate groups divided by religion, language, ethnicity and violent history. Local peacebuilder Dishani Jayaweera has mobilised hundreds of local people from across the divide to reach out to their peers and run inter-community projects that can overcome deep-seated fear and suspicion. Read full story

Individual supporters are the lifeblood of Peace Direct, raising funds and showing the peacebuilders that the outside world is with them. This year our UK friends joined a host of events, from marathons to rag raids, art shows to Christmas choirs and more. Donations raised from individuals now provide almost half of our total funding – a fabulous contribution to global peace. Read how you can get involved

Worldwide interest in local leadership of aid programmes is growing, as policy-makers and the public respond to the practical and moral case for letting local people build their own better futures.Visits to our online showcase for local peacebuilding have soared, and will soon reach half a million visitors annually Visit site

Young people are vulnerable to recruitment by Islamic militants in north-western Pakistan, where 4,000 people have died in over 250 suicide attacks in recent years. Local peacebuilder Gulalai Ismail runs the Aware Girls network, sending young volunteers to villages, colleges and schools, to train their peers against extremist indoctrination. In these turbulent areas bordering on Afghanistan, they hope to rescue the next generation.Read full story

Peace Direct was voted top international aid agency in a survey of the views of 1,067 local organisations in the developing world. The Keystone Survey asked them to rate the performance of 25 international agencies, including Save the Children and Christian Aid. Read full story

13,000 people died in a decade of civil war in Nepal and, despite a peace agreement in 2006, strikes, intimidation and political manipulation are still commonplace. Local peacebuilder Bhoraj Timilsina has set up a telephone hotline for peace, which receives 30 calls every day from local people afraid of violence or reporting incidents. Bhoraj and his team then use their contacts and credibility to intervene and resolve these conflicts without violence. Read full story

Donors in December were able to double the value of their gift through the Big Give, an annual campaign for which we were honoured to be selected last year. We’re always looking for fundraising opportunities, whether innovative challenges like this, introductions, or pro bono consultancies – they all help to increase the impact we can make on building peace worldwide. Contact our fundraisers

Africa’s worst civil war killed 5 million people in Congo and left a lingering bush war in the east, where armed militias terrorise the towns and villages. Local peacebuilder Henri Ladyi leads task forces deep into the forest, to reach militia fighters and persuade them to lay down their arms and return to civilian life. He resettles them in local communities and offers job training, so they can earn a living and resist the temptation to drift back into fighting. Read full story

Aid agencies and governments around the world are picking up on our belief in local peacebuilders – but they don’t always know where to find them or how best to work with them. Peace Direct staffer Ruairi Nolan runs the Insight On Conflict website, a globally available resource that showcases successful peacebuilders worldwide, publishes a monthly digest of the best new thinking in this field, and offers a twice-weekly blog by leading professionals and policy-makers. And the site is getting 1,700 visits a day. Visit site

Patron Mark Rylance launched Peace Direct USA with a solo performance in New York of a specially written play about Congolese peacebuilder Henri Ladyi. Henri himself flew in for the event and appeared on stage with the star. Our new US affiliate aims to give us a window into the United Nations, as well as raising funds from US sources. And a German affiliate has also launched…