Peace Direct was set up so people in safe countries can support those risking their lives to build peace in unsafe countries. Six years on and our vision has grown, we want those people risking their lives to be at the very heart of all strategies for managing conflict – national and international – and everything we do is focused on supporting and promoting their work to achieve this aim.
Yet Peace Direct will always be about people and personal relationships and this was never more evident than this past month. We gathered 10 peacebuilders from around the world at the London Peace Exchange. They came with stories of death threats from tribal chiefs, of the frustrations of a summer dominated by curfew, and of a fear of isolation, but above all they carried with them a sense of hope, of the power of local innovation, and of perserverance.
And it was hope that they shared with Peace Direct supporters at our Peacebuilders’ Party. We wanted to give supporters a chance to get to know the peacebuilders, but what happened was much more than this, the peacebuilders gained a sense of the number of people in this safe country following their work and believing in their potential to make a real difference in their communities.
“To know that there are people here in the UK who choose to give every month to our work, it is worth much more than the money alone” George Ngoha, Sudan
Please never underestimate just how important your support, no matter how small or large, means to people risking their lives on the frontline of conflict. Thank you.
