Peace Direct

Peace Direct is a non-governmental non-profit organization with headquarters in London. It supports the work of local peacebuilders in conflict areas; their motto is " Find. conveying. financing. " Moreover, the organization wants to change the way in which governments and international agencies consider the peacemaking skills based on the spot: it is to be central to conflict resolution strategies. The organization represents the conventional view in question, that the solution of a conflict must come from outside - by the UN, external mediators or Western NGOs. According to the organization called Making Peace Below to begin, because ultimately it is the local people who have the largest share of any peace process - it's about where they live and raise their children.

History of establishment

The organization was founded in 2003 by Scilla Elworthy and Carolyn Hayman OBE. Elworthy had previously called the Oxford Research Group into life, Hayman was managing director of the Foyer Federation, a British youth services organization. 2005, the organization at the UK Charity Awards has been named best new charity. Since 2008, the organization receives funding from the UK Department for International Development and the Baring Foundation. In August 2010, a German section ( Peace Direct eV). founded in Hanover; the section Peace Direct USA followed in the spring of 2011.

Projects

The organization supports projects in Sudan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burundi, East Timor, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Kashmir, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is also the project Truce 2020 in London, where young people are trained in problem districts in peaceful conflict resolution. In the past, projects in Somalia, Kenya and Colombia were promoted. In autumn 2005, an event organized Peace Direct, helped with the Muslim peace activists from Kenya and Palestine young British Muslims here to discover how they can use their potential in British society.

The principles by which projects and organizations be encouraged are:

  • Commitment to local peacemakers
  • Impartiality
  • Commitment to effectiveness
  • Appreciation of the personal
  • Commitment to change
  • Integrity and Transparency

The organization finds the projects through networks, field visits, recommendations and contacts from the website Insight on Conflict, an organization set up by their database on local peace initiatives around the world.

The organization promotes basic peace work locally also by the fact that they entail in the media. She works together with photographer Tim Giffords, Getty Images, BBC Radio 4 and the Virgin Group, to find the positive, active images of what constitutes peace. Gill Hicks, survivor of the terrorist attacks on 7 July 2005 in London, is the first Peace Direct ambassador; a video in which she documented the importance of peace for her, was seen by over 10,000 people.

Patrons

Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws
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