The hut is perched on the side of a valley and as you look out across it, you can see what once were homes, now overrun with forest growth, and the edges of abandoned fields.

Marie was just a child when a militia group burnt this village, Muhila, to the ground. For many years she and her family dared not return.

But now she is back, with help from Centre Resolution Conflits, a local peacebuilding organisation that is helping people like Marie all over eastern Congo. Throughout the region, thousands of villagers have been forced from their homes by 16 years of civil war. Local peacebuilders are helping some of them to go home.

In Muhila, CRC set up an orphanage for 14 children who had lost everything in the war. Malnutrition makes these children look years younger than they are. CRC found the funds to train Marie as a nutritionist. CRC’s presence gave villagers like her the confidence to return, to overcome the fear of what they have experienced.

The centre in Muliha provides the orphans with what they need for a second chance to be strong and healthy children: food, shelter, care and security. And CRC allows both Marie and the children to face a brighter future.

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As a mother living in a sprawling township, her worst fear has been cholera. In 2008 as political chaos spread, her town council cut off the water supply to people’s homes and schools. She and her neighbours crowded round boreholes and streetside taps to gather water for their cooking and washing. Others drew it straight from the river, though the waters were contaminated with sewage.

Two years on, the streets of her town are still awash with sewage from rusting pipes that burst with sickening regularity. The health risks are obvious to residents who must jump across mounds of uncollected rubbish to reach their own front doors. And there still isn’t enough water:  Harare needs 13 million tonnes of water a month, but only receives seven.

Into this situation stepped local peacebuilding organisation Envision Zimbabwewhich held a township meeting with 30 local women, to see what they could do for themselves about water, waste and public hygiene.

The women came from all walks of life and all political groupings – women split apart by the violence of the times. Working together was unusual. Uniting on a common issue they began to rebuild bridges between their communities. One woman, Mai Kanoyerera, spoke out: “There is a lot we can do as women to help our communities help ourselves.”

They decided to organise a clean-up of the township, and to set out ways for the town to keep itself clean – by small things like not scrubbing pots with sand in the sink, or fixing central collection points for everybody’s rubbish. And they asked Envision to help them to meet the city council.

Chipo Chung from Envision was there on the day the clean-up began. “I was in awe of these women, equipped with donated protective gear – gumboots, gloves, face masks – enthusiastically throwing themselves into gutters that were knee-high in human waste, sewage and rubbish, and clearing it out by hand. The stench was gut-renching, I was gagging because it smelt so bad. But these women, some old enough to be my grandmother, worked without stopping for four hours!”

Mai Kanoyerera adds: “We were surprised to hear from Envision that we can actually make money from recycling rubbish that we usually just throw away. For example, we can melt down plastics to make paraffin or floor polish. We can make compost from all the vegetable matter we discard, to grow more food for our families around our homesteads. So we decided to get bins to sort the rubbish that can be recycled.”

For Mbuya the fear of recent years is beginning to subside. “We needed to show ourselves and our neighbours that we have the power to do much to clean up our neighbourhoods, to create healthy places for our children to play, to restore the dignity of our living spaces.

“Once we piled up the rubbish in specified locations, we did get the council to come and collect it. Now, with the help of two engineers, found through Envision, we will solve our water and sewage problems. And we are looking at how we can earn income by turning our waste into ‘gold’.”

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Fatima is from southern Sudan. Her people, the Hakamat, revere the elder women of their tribe as singers of ritual songs – songs that accompany building a house or gathering a crop, but lately have supported war.

During decades of civil war, each armed group in her region of South Kordofan would adopt a Hakamat woman to sing them battle songs. The singing gave them courage and confidence. The singers became rich and important.

When the civil war ended, the militias disbanded and the singers lost business. They fell back on their villages to support them – and found that songs of blood worked there too. A lucrative line of work emerged. In pastoral communities where old wounds remain from 23 years of war, the influence of a Hakamat singer could inflame a dispute over a cow into a vendetta between tribes.

Local peacebuilder Rasha El Fangry understood the influence of these women. But she believed the advocates of war could become ambassadors for peace.

Other people had tried this before and failed. Hakamat women had agreed to sing peaceful songs at festivals, and then returned to their ways. As Rasha explains, “Villagers do not give money to songs of peace, and as soon as a festival was over the women returned to the way they were before.”

But Rasha, with her local knowledge and contacts, looked deeper into the problem. She talked to the singers. They told her that the real problem was how to earn a living. One said, “We want to learn the songs of peace, so no more of our children will be lost in war. But you must train us in something, so that we can support ourselves.”

So Rasha brought a trainer from Khartoum to their village, a woman who was skilled in [weaving], and for two weeks the trainer taught the Hakamat women her skills. And all the time, Rasha talked with them about war and peace. “I told the women their hands needed to be with the hands of all Sudan.”

Today these women are makers of all kinds of handicrafts. They sing about peace. And Fatima can feed her family without inciting violence.

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Join us in celebrating International Women’s Day – there’s a whole host of ways you can celebrate, here are just some of our suggestions.

1. Appreciate the women in your life. Your mum, your wife, your best friend, we all know fabulous women, so why not tell them today just how much you appreciate them. And you can even send them a peace ecard with your own personal message
2. Blog for International Women’s Day – Gender Across borders are asking you to blog about what equal rights means to you.
3. Watch “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” the story of courageous Liberian women who came together to end a civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.
4. Get inspired by these quotes by women – and if you have any more email Helen@peacedirect.org and I’ll add them to the website.

People with clenched fists can not shake hands.
Indira Gandhi

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
Anais Nin

I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.
Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer, Hope Against Hope

I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
Helen Keller

Two years ago Eric was a feared colonel in one of the largest and most vicious militia groups in the area. The commanders of this group gain their status through black magic rituals, and they will persue this power at all costs.

For many years communities across the district have been at the mercy of this group, mothers terrified for their children’s safety and fathers powerless as their women were raped and their houses burnt down. The colonel’s role in this terror was well known.

But when peacebuilder Henri Ladyi met the colonel he saw not a vicious militia leader, but a man who could be a powerful ally in the struggle for peace. Eric was open to ideas about stopping the fighting and he was able to grant Henri safe passage to meet with other militia commanders. Eric introduced Henri as ‘the man who is thinking about our future’, and through this introduction Henri negotiated the release of 30 child soldiers, to return them to their families.

Yet Eric’s own village could not forgive the damage he had done to them. He was living between lives – keen to help Henri to promote peace, yet unable to live himself in peace. Henri talked to him about starting a new family, finding a wife and settling down. But the Mai Mai believe that if you take a wife you lose your power and without a community to support him Eric could not give up what he had leant on for so long.

Henri made Eric see that whilst he continued to rely on black magic, the communities he longed to return to would never accept or trust him.

Eric got married last December and his marriage is a powerful symbol to all those around him of how far behind him he has left the life of violence. Through this he can begin to build trust and to use his influence to help Henri engage with more armed groups in the struggle for peace. We wish Eric and his new wife a happy Valentine’s day.

Janet asked us each to bring in a single object that symbolised what we do for peace, and tell us why.

One peacebuilder brought in a map of his country – “We have never known peace since independence.” Another showed a photo of his baby niece. A third brought a camelskin purse to stand for the safe places she creates for women. A fourth lit a candle to light the dark of war.

We looked at them in silence and Janet said, “This is the wall we are building across the world.”

These are extraordinary people. The lawyer who gave up her career to return to a war-torn homeland in the Himalayas. The youth group leader from a desert village who pays his staff but not himself. The pastor who reports on guerrilla war in the African bush as a form of Christian witness.

Gather them together in one place for three days and you have a world of experience, knowledge and aspiration to share with each other. You have the smiles when people who risk their lives on a daily basis realise they are not alone. And the laughter at what has worked for some.

And then you have the unanswered questions about everything that still needs to work everywhere. How do we get the politicians to listen? How do we reach out to the combatants? How do we protect the youth? Above all, how do we persuade the international system to let the locals lead the peace?

The answers come sometimes from what other peacebuilders tell us they have done. Sometimes they come from the brainstorm sessions we hold together and record on yellow cards pasted across the walls of our conference room. And sometimes they come, in a rush that is close to tears, when someone at breakfast tells you why they must go on.

The buzz is as high as the heat. Right now small knots of people are hammering out how to measure the impact of what they do: how to know when peace is improving? They argue, they laugh, they tell stories, they touch hands.

Someone has brought five squidgy rubber balls and these go whizzing through the air, thrown and caught between us, spanning the room. Sometimes these little electrons are expected with a smile and a nod. Sometimes they surprise and shock. They carry the energy and the friendship of this global meeting. It’s a room full of flying ideas spinning across the world.

These Congolese boys are members of the Mai Mai Pareco militia, a group that relies on child soldiers to fight its wars. Kamberi was once one of them. He first picked up a gun aged 12. There are secrets in his eyes.

But his life changed in December. Kamberi heard a radio broadcast by Henri’s organisation Centre Resolution Conflit (CRC), offering help to those who leave the militia and settle back into village life. Henri’s words gave Kamberi the promise of a future. It was enough for him to lay down his gun and find his way to CRC.

When children like this come to CRC, they lack skills or schooling to earn a living. The school year won’t start until July and without an income, many will return to the military life they tried to leave behind. So Henri starts by finding out what work they would like to do. The boys often want to become mechanics or drivers, and the girls to sew clothes or raise livestock. Henri finds and pays someone to teach them these skills. He budgets just £20 for each child, but this tiny amount is enough to start the children on the way to a life beyond violence.

Kamberi had missed three vital years of school while fighting in the bush. Now he has started a small shop, selling essentials like petrol and sugar. In just two months his life has changed beyond recognition.

When Henri talks of Kamberi, his voice is thick with pride: “This boy, he is helping so much – he has done so much good.” Kamberi knows how important it is that other children in his situation have the same opportunities. With Henri’s guidance he journeys deep into the bush, to meet with other child soldiers.

In the village clearing, Kamberi plays football with the boys. They think he is just another child soldier. Kamberi begins to talk to them. He tells them how good life is outside the militia, how much they can learn at school, how he has been accepted back into his home village. It is the opposite of everything these boys have been told by their commanders. Within a week, nine of them have walked 90 miles through deep forest to reach the CRC office.

Those nine boys are now reunited with their families. Kamberi is visiting other villages on the edge of militia rule, reaching out to children trapped by fear and ignorance in a life of violence. And he is looking forward to starting school again this July.

Henri was able to give Kamberi £20 to set up his shop because of generous donations from people like you. Kamberi was able to save those nine other children – who are learning now to be mechanics, barbers and farmers – because of your support.

Henri has helpers like Kamberi throughout eastern Congo. The CRC is reaching some 5,000 militiamen. He wants to give every soldier an option for laying down their weapons, every village a chance of security in a region shattered by 16 years of guerrilla war.

Sudan: A dispute over oil company compensation could easily have turned into full scale tribal warfare as neighbouring tribes in South Kordofan armed themselves. The Peace Committee set up by the Collaborative for Peace negotiated between the tribes and the oil company and found a peaceful solution.
Read more >>

Sri Lanka: 40 young people from divergent communities have been trained to be leaders and advocates for peace in their communities.
Read more >>

Zimbabwe: Envision Zimbabwe have set up an exciting new project to counteract the entrenched culture of violence with a culture of peace amongst young people.
Read more >>

Congo: CRC’s Peace Education programme aims to help communities find non violent solutions to conflict. They have trained 60 teachers and ran sessions with over 1000 young people and 5,700 church goers.
Read more >>

Nepal: YAPE acts to calm violent conflict. Their standing as well known human rights activists means opposing parties are confident their side of the story will be heard without bias or vested interest.
Read more  >>

Kasmir: The samanbals are going from strength to strength – with another 3 being setup around Kashmir – and Athwaas is beginning to be recognised as a legitimate voice in the Kashmiri peace process.
Read more  >>

2010 will bring many challenges, with elections set to take place in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, it will be a highly charged year. The work that our peacebuilders do on the ground has never been more vital. You can add your voice to their call for peace.

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But, there is still hope for Nepal. Peace Direct funds the work of YAPE in the south of country, who intervene in conflicts before they are able to threaten this fragile peace process. YAPE works to bring justice to people who have suffered human rights abuses to challenge the culture of violence as well as responding to conflicts as they arise.

In October of this year Peace Direct’s Head of International programmes, Tom Ghilespy visited Nepal. YAPE’s representative Bhoraj Timilsina took Tom to meet the people who had suffered through Nepal’s years of conflict. Tom met a widow who talked painfully of her husband’s abduction by Maoists. The rebels extorted money and valuables from her through threats to her missing husband’s life. Only after two years did she find out he was already dead. Bhoraj has bought this case to court, and whilst the case remains ongoing, by demanding justice YAPE is taking the first steps to bringing an end to the cycle  of violence.

YAPE in action

In September a disagreement between local people and Maoist affiliated trades unions threatened to enthrall a whole town in violent conflict. Local youths began gathering in the town centre armed with knives, spears and iron rods, whilst on the other side of town the union members were preparing for a fight. The police became involved and arrested some of the youths, which only provoked the situation further as townspeople swarmed the police station accusing the police of caving in to the Maoists by arresting people who were just looking to protect their communities from attack.

Bhoraj Timilsina from YAPE was invited to intervene. As a well known human rights activists the opposing parties were confident their side of the story would be heard without bias or vested interest. At the police station Bhoraj held mediation talks between the community and the transport workers that resulted in the opposing sides signing a pledge to live in harmony.