Sustainable development and peace are the two sides of the same coin. Without peace, realizing development plans is unthinkable and sustaining peace without sustainable economic growth is impractical.
Taking this into consideration, governments work with communities and organizations to end conflict and insecurity, promoting peace and security.
With this same purpose, a consortium of World Vision Ethiopia, CARE –Ethiopia, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the government have launched a peace building project in Gedeo, Guji Zones to play role in restoring peace and strengthening social cohesion and reconciliation.
According to Edward Brown World Vision National Director, sustaining peace is a common issue and the process of peace building in Gedeo, West Guji and other places could lead to maintain lasting peace among the communities.
“Peace builders seek to restore, heal and contribute to life in all its fullness.”
He further noted that World Vision is currently, implementing many projects from over 50 offices across the country from here in Addis Ababa to regional capitals to small villages in 41 zones of seven regional states and, this peace building project has the potential to be far more important than any of these programs, because without peace, children cannot grow up healthy, happy and fulfilling lives.
“Peace building is more enduring than drilling a well or building a school block. It is about building relationship based on mutual respect and trust, love and forgiveness.Peace is deeply personal that begins from the heart and our minds and this has been a long journey.
Exemplifying his own early life experience, the Director said: “As a child, my mom, my sister and I survived violence. As a 16 year old I was badly beaten with broken nose, blowout fracture in my left eye and chipped teeth.I was unable to protect my mom and sister from being raped. So, in my 17 year old mind, I decided the best way to protect myself and my family was to join the United States Marine Corps.I had led projects working with child soldiers and ex-combatants and take part in food distributions to hundreds of thousands of people victimized by violence.”
As to him, peace is not built and kept with guns and threat. It is built and kept with words and relationships built on mutual trust and respect. Thus promoting peace is the most worthwhile effort to live in peace and sustain enduring development.
“Mahatma Gandhi famously said ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. I would add that fighting fire with fire adds to the flames of destruction. Instead we must fight fire with water. We must fight hatred with love. We must fight revenge with forgiveness,” he remarked.
This project is based on such noble principles proven the likes of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Ethiopia’s Noble Peace Prize Winner Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed. When the Premier won the award, we all won because we live in Ethiopia. We are all Ethiopians. And as the political capital of Africa, I believe Addis Ababa –the New Rose – has the opportunity to be a city on a hill, shinning the light of peace to all nations, he added.
According to Organization’s press release, Ethiopia witnessed a significant spike in internal displacement due to inter-communal conflict in several parts of the country affecting the lives and livelihood of millions of peoples particularly children and women.
The project envisages dealing with root causes of conflict and bringing lasting peace among the people of Guji and Gedeo through leveraging the age old culture of tolerance and togetherness.
EyobYishak Peace Building Manager at World Vision Ethiopia noted that the main goal of the project is to promote social cohesion and reconciliation, strengthening peace between the two communities. With the effort made to sustain long-lasting peace and reconciliation between the two, the youths will be at the epicenter of the project and agents of peace instead of instigator of conflicts.
Each community’s peace structures will get training that could equip them with skills to improve livelihood.
“We know trust is important between each and every individual and every society in the world. Without trust, there is neither cooperation nor progress, which is why it is of paramount importance to establish trust first, this is what the project is trying to address in the set time frame,” he noted.
The project encompasses elders of the two ethnic groups’ structures to let communities partake in peace building efforts through various approaches. BuleHora and Dilla universities will also work with the project and the 1.25 million Euro project is funded by the European Union (EU) and believed to impacting 3.3 million people.
The project will be implemented in collaboration with government of each ladder and development partners: World Vision Ethiopia, CARE –Ethiopia, Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
The Ethiopian Herald February 5/2020
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
