Tools for Building Community-Level Peace: Examples from Asia and Africa

With Richard Ford
Research Professor, Clark University
Department of International Development,
Community, and Environment

March 22, 2009   1 pm
Reidy Friendship Hall

For the last 40 years, Professor Richard Ford (Clark University and now a member of All Souls) has been doing field work in Asia and Africa on local-level peace building.  He has worked in about 25 African countries and 8 nations in Asia and Eastern Europe.  In a few cases these are communities with Unitarian churches serving as the local sponsoring institution, so his work adds an element of relevance for All Souls.  Over these years the tools he has pioneered have been adopted by dozens of NGOs (CARE, Save the Children, ActionAid, et al), Peace Corps, UN agencies, The World Bank, national governments (India for example), and hundreds of local organizations.  These tools are used, based on the assumption that if peace does not prevail at local levels, it will be indeed difficult to sustain peace at national and international levels.               

His presentation will include examples from many of these communities including Somalia, Madagascar, Botswana, Ghana, India, Romania, The Philippines, Bangladesh, and Armenia.  He will bring a few case studies as examples of how one can energize local communities to take a major role in solving their own needs as a first step to building peace.  This event is sponsored jointly by The Peace and Justice Task Force, UU-United Nations Office Group & GreenSouls Outreach and Education.

Light refreshments will be served.

Free event.  Donations appreciated.

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Peggy Montgomery opened by reminding us that this was International Women's Day, which was established in 1909 in the United States and is now an official holiday in fifteen countries. She noted that the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 constituted the first international recognition of the equality of women and men. Now in 2009, the Secretary General of the U.N. is determined to raise public awareness of violence against women and girls-the least punished crime in the world. Peggy was followed by Marilyn Mehr, current board president of UU-UNO, who introduced Bruce Knotts. This event was co-sponsored by All Souls UU-UNO and the Peace and Justice Task Force.

To read the article, click here.

TOOLS FOR BUILDING LOCAL PEACE
Talk by Richard Ford, March 22, 2009

March 22, 2009

Review by Phoebe Hoss

On Sunday, March 22, a member of our congregation, Richard Ford, gave a truly inspiring talk on his many years of work helping the impoverished villages of developing countries resolve conflict and become productive. Professor Ford, now a research professor at Clark University, has worked in about twenty-five African countries and eight nations in Asia and Eastern Europe. His talk was sponsored by the Peace and Justice Task Force, the UU-United Nations Office Group, and Green Souls.

To read the article, click here.