Please find below an overview of the different activities, events and programs organized or initiated in 2006 by IFOR Branches from different parts of the world.
FoR England
FoR England continues to develop its education and youth work and for the first time in many years our youth conference was fully booked. The main focus of our campaigning work has been on the issue of arms sales through our ‘Living by the sword’ campaign. Over thirty senior Church leaders signed our statement calling for the closure of DESO, the arms export agency. We have also been working on the issue of West Papua, researching military funding of universities and working to prevent any military strike against Iran.
FOR France
The life of FOR France in 2006 was largely marked by the urban violence that Paris and other large cities in France faced in November of 2005. Numerous church communities called on FOR France to conduct or participate in trainings, discussion groups, peace forums, or meetings with churches composed of members who come from different ethnic groups at war in their home countries. But the most powerful action that we experienced was shared with a catholic parish that was organizing a twelve-week course that ran from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. This collaboration helped to mobilize and renew all our resources and still today is responsible for placing us at the forefront of our mission in our own country.
FOR Madagascar
Our common vision on nonviolent action is well defined by the Madagascan proverb “Ny hery tsy mahaleo ny fanahy” which means “the physical force cannot conquer the spiritual force”. All our activities in 2006 concentrated around the promotion of a culture of nonviolence and peace education on a national and regional level. Three main priority areas were set out by the national office to achieve the goals defined in our action plan for 2006 and to respond to the needs of the community, these were: Training, the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence, and Violence against women.
FOR Sweden
In 2006, our preventive presence program in Colombia expanded. Our volunteers work in the capital Bogotá and in the western region Chocó. In Sweden, we conducted a highly successful "Peace Tour" with two Israelis and one Palestinian who travelled around and gave lectures to students. In November, we organised an inter-religious conference on peace and non-violence for young people. In our disarmament program, we campaigned for stricter guns control by taking part in the global Control Arms Campaign. We were quoted in several newspapers regarding the severe impacts of the Swedish arms export.
FOR USA
The U.S. Fellowship of Reconciliation has long incubated projects which have become successful independent nonprofits. Having sent 17 peace delegations to Israel/Palestine by mid-2006, the Interfaith Peace-Builders program became the latest to launch as an independent entity – in continuing partnership with FOR-USA.
For decades, FOR-USA has sent “behind the scenes” delegations to conflict regions. These “grassroots civilian diplomacy” initiatives have included the former U.S.S.R. (Cold War), Vietnam (1960s), Central America (1980s), and Iraq (leading up to the 1991 Gulf war). FOR-USA is currently sending delegations to Colombia (two in 2007), the most militarized nation in Latin America, and Iran (four in 2007), the target of U.S. political ire.
2006 also was a period of significant organizational transition at FOR-USA. A search for a new executive director was completed in early 2007 with the hire of Mark Johnson, and FOR’s total staff was reduced from 32 to 17 persons.
FOR Swiss-speaking Germany
2006 has been an exiting year with a warm start for a renewed steering board. Training and coaching activities have been focused on adult education, the church peace decade and our Somali Diaspora Peace support project. Members where actively involved to campaign in the world economic forum WEF, bank secret and recently in a small arm campaign. We had visits from neighboring branches and from trainers and friends as Hildegard Goss-Mayr and Patricia Patfoort. FfF continuously networks with IFOR members towards coordination and to strengthen as well our capacity working on juvenile violence, refugee integration and on with peace constituencies in conflict zones.
Kerk en Vrede, the Netherlands As it was in previous years, one of the main activities of the Dutch IFOR branch Kerk en Vrede, was about Europe. In 2006 we published a new brochure critically reflecting on the European Union as a peace project. We expressed our worries about the recent developments that shifted the focus from conflict prevention towards military intervention. We have organized several meetings in 2006, at one of which we discussed the possibility of setting up a European Civil Peace Corps with three members of Dutch parliament. Also, we started a campaign called ‘No development workers with guns’, which goal was to protest against the policy to start small development projects as part of military strategy and to fund military missions out of development budget.
WI’AM Center, Palestine
The women department at the Wi'am centre is continually working with women in different areas of the West Bank (around 120 women) with a focus on underprivileged locations and women groups. The program involves conducting training and education on different civic education topics of human rights, democracy, conflict transformation, and family therapy. Women are also engaged in topics of gender issues and political awareness on the local and international level. After initial training and education, a more advanced phase focuses on "training for trainers" component for those who are to become trainers themselves in these fields.
Youth Cultural Exchanges: youth power
Wi'am is proud of being part of the Euro-Med project that connects young people coming from Europe and the Mediterranean. This year we have five groups of 8 young people in each group going to different parts of Europe (France, Germany, Italy) to meet their counterparts. The themes of the meetings centre around intercultural dialogue, youth empowerment, youth networking and solidarity, conflict transformation, leadership skills, dialogue, etc.
In addition we in partnership with Youth project that brings people from the Balkan, Palestine and Europe in a joint project called "Youth Power". The aim is to allow young people to learn the experiences of other countries that had been going through violent conflicts and learn from the experience.
At the beginning of 2008, IFOR counted 82 member organizations
in nearly 48 different countries on all continents.
During its quadrennial Council held in Japan in October 2006 IFOR welcomed 12 new member organizations.
2 new Branches:
In Nepal, Bikalpa Gyan Tatha Bikas Kendra (Alternative Learning and Development Centre) runs multiple peace/development education programs on various issues, higher education loan program for underprivileged youth, a micro-credit loan program for women, and the Junkiri literacy program.
In Congo-Brazzaville, le Mouvement de la Reconciliation de Peuples is continuing to play an important role in building peace between many of the communities in Congo. Building on their strong commitment to the nonviolent and reconciliation teachings found in the Gospels, the organization focuses on training teachers to teach young people and adults the way to reconcile through active nonviolence.
5 new Groups:
In western Pakistan, the Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) works on four main focus areas: campaign against small arms, landmine advocacy, development and poverty reduction, and peace and security.
The Sudanese Organization for Nonviolence and Development (SONAD has had a longstanding and cooperative relationship with FOR Sweden and has continued to build peace in a country ravished by war for over three decades. Their main activities include human rights education program, DO NO HARM Project, nonviolence education mobilization and peace building, School of Democracy, and an HIV/AIDS program. In Benin, a small ecumenical Christian group is active in nonviolence education and training, community development; and unity and democracy promotion.
Le Mouvement National de Reconciliation du Benin (MONAR) is continuing on actively recruiting members and hopes to build up a larger and more regional capacity in the country.
Dauphins Munzihirwa-Kataliko (DMK) is very active in human rights education, peace action initiatives, and development activities in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In nearby Rwanda, Umuryango W’Amahoro/Famille De Paix conducts nonviolence trainings and also has a library with materials and resources on nonviolence.
5 new affiliates:
The Glencree Centre for Reconciliation is a very active retreat center that has a very eclectic focus. The focus areas are running a church program, a women’s program, an education program, an ex-combatant program, an international program, a business program, the LIVE program, a youth program, and political program.
The Peace Union of Finland is also another affiliate that has developed a working relationship with IFOR throughout the past few years. They are continually advocating for peace and are based in Helsinki.
Family Mediation and Conciliation (FAMEC) based in Nairobi, Kenya, focuses on peace and human rights, mediation and conflict transformation counseling, legal empowerment, and researching and documentation.
Peace Makers Society works for the empowerment of local communities with a target on youth, women, and disadvantaged groups through capacity building training programs and community development programs.. Most of their work is being conducted in the Northern region of Cameroon.
The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, an international spiritually-based nonviolence network, is very active in with 1,200 individual members in over 30 countries, as well as a sister organization, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, in the USA.
