The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015 - (Page 18)

sTorIes oF peaCemakers BPFNA World Peace Network to Fund Five African Peace Projects A t the February 2015 meeting of the BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz board of directors, five programs were selected to receive funding from the Gavel Memorial World Peace Fund. These projects are part of BPFNA's World Peace Networks (WPN) programming, which is designed to work through training and transnational partnership to support and empower peacemaking efforts beyond North America by doing the following things: * Increasing the capacity of our global partners to engage in peacemaking ministries; * Supporting and empowering grassroots peacemakers; * Articulating a global vision of the work of the BPFNA in the preventing, transforming or ending of conflict, and in the healing of the wounds of conflict; * Strengthening existing reconciliation processes; and * Providing/encouraging training opportunities globally. In focusing all of this year's efforts on the African continent, where we have the strongest concentration of connections with active, indigenous peacemakers, we hope to maximize the effectiveness of our grant-making. The following groups will receive 2015 funding: 1. Crossing Lines. The Mission of Crossing Lines Africa is to step up positive engagement and commitment towards equality and human rights, and to facilitate Conflict Transformation among communities ravaged by violent conflict. In 2015, Crossing Lines plans to offer Conflict Transformation training for LGBT leaders and key allies in Uganda. It will work with organizations that focus on diverse sexual minority communities, including LGBT persons and sex workers, as well as NGOs that focus on human trafficking and immigration. Because of the nature of this work, some of Crossing Lines' frequent supporters are unwilling or unable to provide funding. The BPFNA is pleased to be able to support these courageous and important efforts. 2. Jitokeze Wamama Wafrika. Jitokeze Wamama Wafrika serves the households of marginalized women and girls in Kenya. Women and girls are the people most vulnerable to the impacts of droughts and conflicts induced by climate change. Jitokeze does excellent work in the interconnected areas of food security, water security, income security and peacebuilding/ Conflict Transformation. 18 Baptist Peacemaker APR-JUN 2015 3. Kingdom of Peace and Development (KOPAD). KOPAD works with rural communities to identify unique resources in its localities that can be utilized sustainably to achieve community growth, development and transformation. They have created a truly comprehensive campaign for the transformation of the conflict-ridden Kenyan counties of West Pokot and Turkana. KOPAD has a very thorough plan for intense training and peace work throughout the region. Its organizers' efforts thus far have been remarkably effective, and BPFNA funding will assist in expanding and continuing them. 4. PAPNET (Pan African Peace Network). PAPNET seeks to usher in a novel era of mutually beneficial nonviolent Conflict Transformation synergies to transform African conflicts while fostering social equity and community progress through pacifism-not passivism. PAPNET, a coalition of grassroots organizations throughout Africa, has established itself in just a few years as a "go-to" group for Conflict Transformation training in a wide variety of settings. Its organizers have been invited to work with groups as diverse as the youth of the Baptist Convention of Malawi and the chiefs and elders of a conflicted region of Zimbabwe. They are frequently invited to do further training and, as a result, receive more invitations than the group is able to fund. Our support will enable them to accept more invitations. {See page 10 for more about PAPNET's work.] 5. PHARP (Peacebuilding, Healing and Reconciliation Programme). PHARP works to foster peace, healing, reconciliation and discipleship through training in conflict prevention, transformation and reconstruction. Our grant will go toward PHARP's ongoing programs including the Peace Community Empowerment Project that targets youth between 13-18 years. These youth are being prepared by some community elders for cattle rustling, a major source of ongoing conflict. PHARP plans to equip 60 youth and 20 community elders for Conflict Transformation, trauma healing and reconciliation. This is an ongoing project with several facets that will continue throughout the year. All the work above is made possible by generous gifts to the Gavel Memorial World Peace Fund. Gifts to this fund are muchneeded and greatly appreciated. n

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015

Crossing Borders in 2015
BPFNA Welcomes New Office Manager
Unsettled By Truth: A Border Awareness Experience
What Nagaland Needs: Report from a Conflict Transformation Training
Songs of Victory in Uganda: Report from a Conflict Transformation Training
It Was a Large Day: Reflections on the US-Cuba Policy Change Announcement
My Vocation as a Peacemaker
Christians & Commitment To Truth & Justice: How Churches Are Responding to the Ayotzinapa Kidnapping
Report from the SOA Watch Vigil
BPFNA World Peace Network to Fund Five African Peace Projects
In the Land of the Willing: A Review of Ken Sehested's New Book
Prayer & Politiks: A Review of Ken Sehested's Online Journal
Resources & Opportunities
2014 BPFNA Highlights
Contributors
Rags of Weariness

The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015