Fr. Patrick Devine, the founder of the Shalom Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, sent this update to the organization’s partners and supporters today:
IGAD, comprising of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and SCCRR signed an MoU agreement today in Nairobi. Without doubt, the people in these states face tremendous stresses in terms of conflict, hazardous social progress and underdevelopment. Fundamentally SCCRR is about addressing the root causes of conflict, poverty, abuse of human rights, etc., as well as dealing with many of the associated symptoms in the process.
Article 4 of the MoU spells out the specific objectives which will be the core of this cooperative work plan and implementation.
The road ahead is going to be busy, challenging and precarious on many fronts but the theoretical basis, technical mastery and methodology, supplemented with advocacy based on empirical research, substantiated with constructive interethnic educational projects and the introduction of an SCCRR Peace Syllabus, will, I believe, be transformingly productive; ultimately that is why IGAD want us to engage with them in their conflict management and development struggles.
Our thanks goes to you ( and many more of your, organization, family, friends and contacts) for being in and part of this process with us.
