Stories are about what it means to be alive and human. They spark emotions and allow us to put into words our experiences.
Like human existence, stories can be painful, funny, terrifying, devastating, exciting, terrible, exhausting or beautiful. They help us understand the world, and ourselves, a little better.
We’re collecting stories of up to 1,000 words to be included in a book, a follow-up to the successful ‘Working with Conflict‘ book that was produced by an NGO called ‘Responding to Conflict’. The book will be very practical, sharing tools and strategies that front line peacebuilders can use in strengthening their work.
Willingly or not, we consume stories on a daily basis. For many of us, our experience of war and conflict comes from the stories and images presented to us in the news, that more often than not focus on chaos, destruction and loss. Still, thousands of ordinary people around the world are finding innovative ways to stop conflict, build lasting peace and make their communities safer.
In the book, we would like to include stories from local peacebuilders, and are looking for short written descriptions of initiatives aimed at bringing about peaceful change and transformation at any level. We are as interested in things that work as things that don’t. We are also interested in unexpected outcomes; desirable and less so.
Feelings, challenges and how you deal with them are part of the story.
Some key themes in the book are: power, identity, gender, self-awareness, learning, healing, cooperation across organisations, dialogue and mediation, inter-cultural issues, movement building. We’re also interested in hearing about actions to respond to conflict relating to different themes, including globalisation or climate change.
We’re looking for case studies and stories that communicate these messages, and explore strategies, techniques and practical tools for conflict transformation.
The deadline for submitting stories is 22nd of November, please address them to [email protected]
We look forward to reading your stories!
