I pray that I never tire of living a significant life that will continue to have an impact, and encourage those who will take the baton from us.
I do not know how to put all this in one sentence!  But let me try to sum up this way. Through IofC International, I have had the opportunity to become my best self, and to grow in leadership to help meet the great challenges of my continent. This is a never-ending job that requires the best from all of us in IofC not only in Africa, but across the globe. But I thank God that IofC International has given me practical ways to serve, and all the support I need to do so.

Mumbi is IofC Kenya’s National Coordinator and a level 3 facilitator for Creators of Peace and has run and supported over 26 Peace Circles. Mumbi has trained CoP facilitators in Uganda (T.o.F), she is a facilitator of Kenya I Care project, has facilitated workshops with South Sudanese and Sudanese people living in Kenya, university students, secondary, primary schools, and youths. 

Veronica Hannon, Owner and MD of Transform Communications Ltd, Bradford-on-Avon, England shares her thoughts in search for her purpose.

Rose Njeri Kamau is part of the Creators of Peace team of women who are courageously working for peace in Kenya. Rose offered her personal journey to be shared so that others can learn from it and be healed. As told to Talia Smith in advance of Creators of Peace Kenya’s 10th year anniversary where the leadership of women like Rose will be honoured and many more trained to empower peace in their communities.

To my dear friends, colleagues the world over, and all who wonder what’s going on in the US as of late, I feel the need to express some sort of response in light of the recent events in Charlottesville, but honestly, I don’t know what to write. So, forgive me if this is a bit disorganized. It’s not that I am at loss for words. That’s not the case. I can list in my head a multitude of words to describe how sad I am, how disappointed I am, and how confused I feel about our future. It’s just that I have realized that anything I write runs the risk of falling flat. What I want to say can easily be diluted by my previous silence on the subject. I have been silent for most of my life because, really, I’ve had no reason to complain. I’ve mistakenly operated as though none of these events affect me. So, perhaps, that is part of the problem. Maybe I’ve gotten too comfortable with silence.

In September, the Nigerian government launched a reorientation campaign donning the slogan: ‘Change Begins With Me.’ I was in India at the time and shared my excitement with some friends who like me believe that this approach is what the world needs. I expressed my great hopes that our Nigerian Initiatives of Change team would make a significant contribution to this campaign, but after returning home I found that this was not to be, at least not yet.

Portia Mosia from South Africa survived a traumatic rape to emerge as a healer and leader for Creators of Peace.

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.

With extremism of all kinds on the rise, it is important to ask why this is happening. Extremism in its most negative form is impacting our sense of safety and challenging our beliefs about what is right as well as who is right.

Excerpts from a speech given by John Graham, Director of Giraffe Heroes International, at the International Conference Centre in Accra, Ghana, 24 March, 2016.