WHO WE ARE 2019; SYNOPSIS
(SOME SCCRR ACCOMPLISHMENTS for 2018 mentioned too)
OVERVIEW ABSTRACT:
Our principal mission is to transform the underlying root causes of conflict and poverty, as distinct from just dealing with the symptoms. The primary task of Shalom (SCCRR) is the identification of the underlying causes of conflict and poverty through the thorough application of empirical research and methodological rigor. This is significantly manifested not only in our findings, but in the quality of our board, management, staff and partner institutions-collaborators around the world (see below). On this basis, we empower people in conflict environments to be the architects of their own interdependent future of reconciled coexistence. Significant aspects of this process also pertain to strategic interventions to counter and transform radicalization, particularly variables underpinning religious ideological extremism.
We work at the grassroots level, simultaneously partnering with people and organizations to accomplish persistent life-changing peace and sustainable development. We are a highly qualified international team of peace and development practitioners, men and women, from within and outside Africa, with a life-long commitment to conflict transformation and development. Our partner organizations and academic institutions are of the highest caliber. We operate as a strictly non-sectarian and inter-religious organization, believing that successful peacebuilding and sustainable development requires the interdependent involvement of people from all backgrounds. We are there for ‘the Great Green Wall’ too!
Our background:
Shalom was created in 2009 in the wake of widespread violence and dislocation across Kenya in the aftermath of its disputed elections. The organization was founded by Rev. Dr. Patrick Devine, Ph.D, a missionary and social entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience transforming conflict and poverty to peace and livelihood resilience in Africa. Since 2009, we have had evidential transformative impacts on peace and development initiatives in African inter-ethnic conflict environments, empowering the capacity of over 12,500 community leaders with analytical skills on the causes of conflict and realizable peacebuildingtechniques (2,984 in 2018, of whom 38% were women). These leaders are comprised of chiefs, village elders, women and religious leaders, government functionaries, youth and other political-economy influential opinion shapers.
Through our school projects,
we have been involved in building, upgrading and expanding more than
350 interethnic and interreligious schools; provided up-to-date learning materials to more than 170,000 students; produced a peace syllabus peered reviewed by our qualified academics which is used foreducational purposes; and succeeded in the development of inter-ethnic and interreligious education, which are all vital to the process of creating good relationships and human security between former rival communities. We have been particularly active in the Kenya border areas near South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda. These locations experience inter-tribal tensions, recurrently heightened by nomadic pastoralist lifestyle’s that necessitates movement over borders and unofficial boundaries for survival. It is in these areas that Shalom’s investment is key, working with 16 ethnic groups, conducting workshops and implementing development projects aimed at helping to end the cycles of violence that too often impact these regions.
We are also making significant contributions within Nairobi’s impoverished urban settlements. Kibera is considered the largest urban slum in the world and its inhabitants are frequently subject to high levels ofviolence and sectarian strife. Our team is persistently active with key community groups including elders, chiefs, women, youth and religious institutions, increasing their capacities to settle and resolve conflict in a constructive enduring approach, ensuring progressive peaceful coexistence between all the communities.
IN 2018;
SHALOM-SCCRR (Africa) conducted 176 conflict transformation and peacebuilding workshops-interventions. Issues of inter-ethnic conflict were the main focus while also attending reconciliation processes in the aftermath of electoral violence. 46 development assignments composed of 44 school projects (33 primary and 11 secondary, assisting 13,147 pupils/students were completed. 2 other community infrastructure interventions addressing communal and Human-Trafficking tribulations were aided too. In addition 24 primary schools in conflict zones, comprising of 10,500 pupils, have benefited from the implementation of the successful Shalom Educational Peace Syllabus. Currently, Shalom works in 15 conflict environments which have been experiencing a sporadic persistence of killing, maiming and displacement.
OUR APPROACH:
The primary task of Shalom (SCCRR) is the identification of the underlying causes of conflict and poverty through the application of empirical research utilizing methodological rigor to its optimum. This is an at the core of conflict transformation interventions. Shalom also give optimal significance to building authentic relationships with and between community leaders, elders and key influential opinion shapers in the conflict zones. This community insertion responds to their felt needs for peace and to strengthen the opportunities for development, particularly inter-religious and inter-ethnic education. The Shalom team spends quality time hearing the perceptions and concerns of these key opinion shapers on both sides in conflict or war environments, before implementing training workshops. We train these key members of the community who have further tangible influence in conflict resolution and reconciliation skills, professionally empowering them to apply these principles to their living context. This allows us to carefully evaluate our progress in each context and to adapt our peace and development programmes more specifically to each situation.
We also play a key role through the introduction of Peace Studies in Tertiary Education facilities in Nairobi. Many of our staff and associates are involved in teaching the core principles of conflict resolution and peacebuilding at some of the most esteemed academic institutions in East Africa; just as the provision of a peace syllabus and solar lighting (so far 368 units) into the schools we develop is vital for young children, this investment into teaching at the higher-education level has an enormous long-term life changing impact across policy formulation, families, generations and nations.
Shalom works in cooperation with other significant actors at local, regional and international levels. This is based on the understanding that partnerships are vital in furthering our interventions and the ripple on effect for peace and development in other parts of the world. We have partner relationships with numerous community and faith-based organizations of various traditions and beliefs. Shalom has signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) comprised of eight countries in Eastern/Horn of Africa; with AMECEA (Associated Membership of Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa); with the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queens University, Belfast,N. Ireland, and with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth.
Shalom personnel have been invited to deliver numerous presentations and lectures on its pioneering methodology in places such as the Harvard Law School’s Negotiation and Mediations Clinical Program, the Clinton Peace School in Northern Ireland, University of Texas, Austin’s College of Liberal Arts, the University of Houston, Texas, as well as a presentation in Washington D.C, 2016 on ‘Radicalization and Extremism’, the prestigious ‘Lieutenant General Dermot Earley Memorial Lecture 2017’, titled, “Peace, Security and Sustainable Development in Eastern Africa’ upon a combined invitation from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute and the Irish Defense Forces, and the lecture in Nov 2018 concerning ‘On the Ground in Eastern Africa: Creating Peace Amid Conflict and Religious Ideological Extremism’. Recently, the article ‘Radicalization and Extremism in Easter Africa; Dynamics and Drivers’, by Patrick Devine, was published in the distinguished ‘Journal of Mediation and Applied Conflict Analysis’.
Your solidarity and ongoing support to this work is imperative and immeasurably appreciated. We are all interconnected and interdependent in our human concern and wellbeing! Shalom will professionally deliver for those in need, and for you. Of every $1 donated, 95% goes directly into peace and development projects— true lasting value to tens of thousands of less fortunate people going forward.
Please see information and contact details on; www.shalomconflictcenter.org (contact us also at
olivernoonan@shalomconflictcenter.org / pdevine@shalomconflictcenter.org)
SCCRR Partnerships/Collaborations:
IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development, – HQ in Djibouti , comprised of 8 Countries in Horn of Africa) MoU; SCOA USA (501c3); SCCRR, Republic of Ireland, (Registered); N. Ireland/UK, (Registered); Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast, (N. Ireland) MoU; Edward M. Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention, NUI Maynooth, (Republic of Ireland) MoU; AMECEA (Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa) MoU; Society of African Missions (SMA); Tangaza University College/Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Narobi, Kenya; Trocaire; Shalom Network for Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation, (Cote D’Ivoire – West Africa); SCCRR Committees; Britain, Australia; Harvard Law School, (USA), March 2016; Project Common Bond ( USA) , Jan, 2017; College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas, Austin, TX, Oct, 2017, DePaul University Chicago, Nov 2018. We are truly grateful to you.
Yours sincerely,
SHALOM-SCCRR TEAM-EAST AFRICA
Board of Directors (Kenya)
Rev. Dr. Patrick Devine, PhD, MA, BD, Dip Mission Studies, Chairman
Prof. Robert Mudida, PhD, MSC, MA, BD, Board Member (Kenya)
Ms. Rosaline Serem, MBA, BA, Board Member, (Kenya)
Dr. Michael Comerford, PhD, MA, BD, BA, Board Member South Sudan)
Rev. Janus Machota, BD, BA Board Member, (Tanzania)
Mr. Sean White, MSC, BA, Board Member (Kenya)
Management
Rev. Oliver Noonan MA, BD, Dip Mission Studies, CRF, Country Director
Dr. Peterlinus Ouma, MA, BA, Director of National Strategy
Prof. Wanakayi Omoka PhD, MA, BA, Director of Research
Mr. Godfrey Okoth MA, BA, Director of Programs
Mrs. Joyce Wamae MA, BA, Program Manager
Mr. Paulson Erot, MA, BA, Program Manager
Mr. Francis Mwangi MA, BA, M&E&R&L Coordinator
Mrs. Judith Akedi-Linus MA, BA, Program Officer, Team Leader
Mr. Austin Ngacha, MA, BA, Program Officer, (Educational School Projects), Team Leader
Mr. Arthur Magero, MA, BA, Program Officer, Team Leader
Ms. Esther Kibe, MA, BA, Program Officer, Team Leader
Mr. Kennedy Odhiambo, MA, BA, Program Officer
Rev. Julius Chelanga, MA, BD, Intern, Program Assistant
Ms. Asha Said Awed, BA, MA Candidate, Intern, Program Assistant
Mr. Ken Otieno, Transport /Logistics Coordinator, Further Studies
Mr. Duncan Akhobe, CPA(K), BA, Dip. Accountant – Finance and Administration Manager
Mr. Kipkoech Kipruto. ACCA, Assistant Accountant, Further Studies.
International Volunteer Consultants – background experience
Ms. Sheena McMullen, MA, BA (Peace and Reconciliation Studies, N. Ireland/UK)
Ms. Matilda Brolin, LL.M (Harvard Law School, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden)
Ms. Fabiana Pardi Otamendi, LLM (Harvard Law School, UN Human Rights, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, France)
Rev. Dr. Michael McCabe, BA, BD (SMA, Ireland; Inter-Faith Dialogue)
Rev. Michel Savadogo, MA, BA, BD (Shalom Branch, Cote D’Ivoire, West Africa)
Dr. Conrad Bosire, MA (Constitutionalism and Devolution, Kenya, East Africa)
| www.shalomconflictcenter.org |
Support Our Approach of Peace and Development
The Shalom Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation focuses on the root cause of violence and poverty in the tribal lands of eastern Africa. It was created in 2009 to address the persistent widespread violence and dislocation across northern Kenya, and in the wake of the disputed 2007 national elections. Shalom continues to make acknowledged life-changing enduring impacts on peace and development initiatives in strategically needful regions, particularly in Eastern Africa.
Our mission implementation depends also on the vision, kindness and assistance of perceptive donors and supporters – people like yourself who believe that peace is the answer and that human beings can live together not just in the absence of war but in progressive mutual coexistence. Interethnic and interreligious dialogue and praxis (Dia-Praxis), especially education, are vital components in this process. Our interventions in conflict environments are wholly oriented towards peace, development and reconciliation between communities at the grass-roots. We can do something great and noble together.
The Shalom (SCCRR) Team in Africa, our leadership, our volunteers and the communities we collaborate with, remain extremely grateful for your solidarity. Your sustenance and contributions brings peace, security and hope to thousands of men, women and children. Our overall mission is to work for a society free of physical violence and unjust social structures in Africa, positively transforming violence and poverty, generating peaceful and progressive communities achieving a secure future in their own environments.
Thank you for your companionship, your prayers, and your generosity.
Sincerely,
Fr. Patrick Devine, PhD
SCCRR Chairman & Founder
