Zahra A Hassan, Director of Women of the Horn and Project Co-ordinator of the Somali Initiative for Dialogue and Democracy (SIDD), has found a passion in working for change at many levels in her community - including initiatives to end the practice of female genital mutilation.

Kenyans are being duped into letting those responsible for the 2007/2008 post-election violence escape justice, writes Ann Njeri Ndiangui.

‘I was almost giving up on peace and all these peace trainings. I have attended so many of them but none of them has been practical and effectual. Apart from Peace Circles, all the other trainings have been theoretical, and they are facilitated by people who don’t believe in what they are telling others to do.’ 18 women attended the 3 days of Creators of Peace Circles facilitation training from 30 March - 1 April, 2011 at Amani Communities Africa (ACA) offices in Ngong, Nairobi.

Terre des Hommes NGO invited Daphrose Ntarataze, a Burundian now living in Geneva, Switzerland, for an exploratory visit to her country to get to know the Terre des Hommes team and to explore the possibility of leading Peace Circles there together with them. She was joined by Christiane Garin Al-Azhari, President of the Creators of Peace Association, who also had the opportunity to present the history and methodology of the Creators of Peace network to the staff at Terre des Hommes.

A new website has joined the IofC family of websites, the Initiatives of Change Africa website. The website can be accessed at http://www.iofcafrica.org, where you can view news, events, commentaries and much more from the African continent. The site contains details of and application form for the next Harambee Leadership Programme, taking place in Nigeria in October 2011.

This is a short documentary on the life of South African struggle icon, Dr William Nkomo. He was a founder member and first president, in 1944, of the African National Congress Youth League. He was a leading fighter for black rights in apartheid South Africa. Through his involvement in Moral Rearmament in the early 1950s, he embraced non-violence. Throughout his life he worked for the upliftment and development of his fellow countrymen and is still honoured for this in South Africa.

Roly Kingwill's sheep farm lies in South Africa's semi-arid Karoo. This documentary explores his radical response to a challenge to live for something much greater than just exploiting his land and his workers for the biggest return. He came to the realization that the land was dying through over-grazing and severe erosion and that only he could change this. Taking his Christian faith more seriously, he dropped his authoritarian approach to his workers and adopted radical methods of soil conservation.

Philip Vundla was a leader of the struggle against poverty and discrimination in his native city of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1950s and 1960s. Strikes and boycotts were his stock-in-trade in his single-minded fight for the poor and defenseless. In the midst of his battles, Philip had a profound change experience that deepened his commitment and led him to take his story of standing for what is right and speaking “truth to power” to centres across the world.

This is an autobiography of an extraordinary African. Agnes Leakey Hofmeyr was the daughter of Gray Leakey, a Kenyan farmer who was buried alive on Mount Kenya as a human sacrifice to the gods of the Mau Mau. As a child, she had a fascinating life among the wild animals of Kenya. But the Mau Mau revolution led to a double tragedy in her young life.

Nombulelo Khanyile from South Africa gives a personal perspective on the changes taking place on her continent.