Peaceful Change
Blog Post: Posted August 16, 2010, 10:37 am by Lisa Inks
Breaking ground, in more ways than one
Country: Uganda
A young woman crafts grass into a thatched roof for a building in Karamoja. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
Plumb in the middle of two conflicting communities in Karamoja, there is an area of bush called Moruitit. Moruitit has long been a hideout for the competing Jie and Dodoth warriors who have rustled cattle, stolen property and ambushed vehicles in an ongoing conflict.
But we might, tentatively, say that’s history. That was before the start of three joint livelihood projects orchestrated by Building Bridges to Peace (BBP), a Mercy Corps programme that strengthens both social and economic relationships between conflicting groups. That was before dozens of Jie and Dodth walked the several-kilometre jaunt last week to camp out at Moruitit and clear the way for a joint cassava farm, joint forest and joint cattle market.
Men carrying the polewood that will help create buildings. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
The area is bustling now — men stirring vats of beans radiating plumes of steam, people springing up huts in neat clusters and clearing an area for a new health centre — as Jie and Dodoth get cash for work, side by side.
On the fifth day of the project, I spoke with a cluster of men coming in to take lunch and, with one eyebrow raised, asked them where they were from. Their alternating responses resounded: Rengen, Sidok, Rengen, Rengen, Sidok, and so on. These men, who by most accounts are in conflict, were propping their elbows on each other’s shoulders and joking together with garden hoes in hand.
One year ago, 20 percent of communities here had no hope for peace. But when we conducted a midterm assessment in June, that number had reduced to five percent. BBP has spent the last year in Karamoja facilitating intercultural exchanges and peace dialogues, establishing Peace Committees to resolve disputes within and between communities, and planning the implementation of livelihoods-building projects. These projects seem a long time in coming: staff took months to facilitate community brainstorming meetings, build consensus among conflicting groups and buoy up the capacity of local partners to deal with the day-to-day challenges of running such a project.
A man tethers polewood together for a roof. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
To be sure — despite the stunning visual of integration — challenges will remain. Staff members are working vigilantly to address food, water and health needs, take appropriate security measures and maintain an air of conviviality when historic bitterness makes the flaring of tensions a constant risk.
But these three projects are just the beginning: over the next few weeks, BBP will be implementing three more, in three different sites that have long been tracts of fear, mistrust and restricted movement. And it will continue to use peace dialogues and intercultural exchanges to support the livelihoods projects in addressing the largely economic roots of conflict.
The midterm evaluation also found enormous support for this multifaceted approach unique to BBP: during one phase of the participatory assessment, nine out of nine groups said that people will stop raiding cattle if they have other livelihood options. As the joint farms and joint markets grow and hopefully flourish, communities may finally put that belief to the test.
When I came to Karamoja, in the beginning of June, a bridge near Moruitit displayed a chilling portent: half of a human skull, perched on the ledge, a warning signal to all who passed. When we left the site of the joint livelihoods projects, our spirits were lifted. And the skull that had been on the bridge was nowhere in sight.
Blog Post: Posted August 15, 2010, 6:37 am by Sarah Royall
What is community?
Country: Tajikistan
Tajikistan is a small former Soviet Republic situated just north of Afghanistan. The contrast between the two neighboring countries is striking. The occasional bullet-ridden and bombed-out buildings alongside slowly decomposing scraps of former tanks are regular reminders of the violent six-year civil war that ended just barely a decade ago and went largely unpublicized in the West. Some communities have suffered enduring conflicts with violent flare-ups as recently as last year — and this is where you’ll find Mercy Corps working.
Everybody helps out in Tajik communities. Photo: Sadullo Ubaidulloev for Mercy Corps
Despite these past conflicts, all over Tajikistan we find communities working together to promote peace and improve one another’s situations. “Hashars” are Tajik community get-togethers. Unlike the neighborly meet-ups in my neighborhood in America where we share gossip over drinks, here the community gets together to work on a project that benefits everyone, such as improving the roads or cutting hay that everyone can use.
A community in Obi Mehnat, Rasht Valley gathers to discuss their ideas to tackle youth unemployment. Photo: Sarah Royall for Mercy Corps
On a recent field visit to a village high in the mountains, we came to what appeared to be the end of a barely passable road. It’s obvious to see why the community has asked for our help in improving these roads. The community members decided to start the work themselves and organised a community hashar, repairing the worst part of the road. Since there are so many miles of roads that are in need of serious repairs, especially before the challenging winter weather sets in, our contribution can stretch a little further now that the community has started the first few feet.
When our recent project began in Tajikistan, we started by forming Community Action Groups (CAGs) who steer all of our work in these villages. A few weeks ago, our team led a training about the Vision for Change with one of our CAGs. Afterwards, the participants were eager to share how they related to our values. It was clear that this really resonated with them, especially because the idea of community-led development is already a strong concept in their culture.
Posted August 9, 2010
How a Tractor Changes Everything
Country: Kosovo
This tractor, the purchase of which was facilitated by Mercy Corps project funds, is helping once-contentious ethnic groups in one part of Kosovo work together to improve their farmlands and livelihoods. Photo: Mercy Corps
The village of Videja is a rural community of 1,000 residents near the Dukagjini Valley, the heart of western Kosovo's agricultural lands. Kosovo Serbs, who for centuries have represented the vast majority of the population in Videje, are still recovering from the conflict of 1999 through continuous post-war refugee and internally displaced persons returns processes. They face high unemployment and few income-earning opportunities.
Farming and raising livestock are the main sources of income for all ethnic groups that live in Videje and its seven surrounding villages. These ethnic groups — Kosovo Albanians, Kosovo Serbs and Roma — live in relative harmony today and are eager to find ways for cooperation and common welfare, putting their past differences and conflicts aside.
An important element of Kosovo’s future stability and overall prosperity lies in the country’s ability to return and re-integrate internally displaced people and refugee populations to their native homes in a peaceful and sustainable fashion. Through Mercy Corps’ Kosovo Economic Support for Sustainable Returns (KESSR) programme, we are facilitating these peaceful returns by partnering with municipal governments to provide household grants for items like greenhouses and agricultural equipment to help families return and re-establish themselves. To improve the economic environment for returns, the Videje community and municipal government presented a project to Mercy Corps to purchase tractor and tractor attachments for the community’s needs. With a 30 percent contribution from the community, Mercy Corps supplied the remaining necessary funds towards purchase of the tractor.
Nominated by his peers to lead this initiative, Nemanja Vulicevic — a 21-year-old Kosovo Serb returnee from Videje — is representing his fellow farmers to the municipality and leading activities under this project. Returned in 2005 from a refugee camp in Krusevac, Serbia, Nemanja — who lives together with his parents, brother, sister-in-law and their three young children — proudly shows the 400 working hours registered on the tractor’s metre.
“We had nothing without the tractor — the tractor does not care about nationality or religion,” Nemanja says.
Seven months after the programme began, the economic benefits to the community are evident: more arable land planted, more corn harvested and more grass and alfalfa baled. The tractor has also provided chronically needed transport of products to local market or raw materials (including seeds, fertilizer and timber) to households.
“There are families that are planning to return and their land is already planted; when they return they will have wheat, corn and alfalfa to eat or trade,” Nemanja explains.
Perhaps more importantly — in addition to the economic benefits — the tractor provides a free-of-charge service to farmers for seven area villages, all of them of mixed ethnicity, all of which were formerly in conflict with one another. Now, more than 90 Albanian, Serb and Roma farmers all use the tractor to plow, harvest, bale, fertilize or transport, improving their farmlands and communities together.
Posted August 9, 2010
Not Small Potatoes
Country: Kosovo
Naim Fejza in his field. Photo: Mercy Corps
Naim Fejza is a veteran potato farmer in the small town of Mogila in southern Kosovo. For his entire adult life, he and his household — which includes his parents, wife and three children — have eked out a living on the small income from the sales of potatoes on their farm.
Mogila is a typical Kosovo village of 1,700 residents, where communities of both Albanian and Serb ethnic backgrounds live and work together precariously, relying on crops such as potatoes, wheat and corn for their livelihoods. The mixed-ethnic Mogila Farmers’ Association and municipal authorities approached Mercy Corps with a proposal to provide assistance to farmers of all ethnic backgrounds, in order to improve crop production capacity and overall economic standing.
Following a series of community meetings, the Farmers’ Association and other local farmers nominated Naim to act as the primary representative of the project to Mercy Corps and the local government. With support from the local government and the Farmers’ Association, Mercy Corps facilitated the delivery of farm equipment to Mogila to make their agricultural ventures more efficient. The farmers rent the machinery from the association to use on their lands.
Six months after the project's start, implementation is showing its benefits to the farmers, the Farmer's Association and the wider community. With the new machinery, Naim and the Farmers’ Association have increased the surface planted with varieties of vegetables by an average of more than 100 percent. At the same time, the cost of planting has dropped in half, from the previo£90 per hectare to the present £42
Some farmers have doubled their sales from previous years. Farmers also export their products to Macedonia, Albania and Serbia, as well as selling at local markets. In addition, with the new surplus income, Naim has invested in and built a 500-square-metre greenhouse for pepper seedlings that will increase the quality and their quantity of peppers produced. The Farmers’ Assocation has also grown from 30 to 100 members.
Naim, the pleased father of three, says, “I simply can’t explain the value of Mercy Corps’ assistance — it has doubled the planted surface, cut the cost in half and given meaning to the term ‘profit’.”
Blog Post: Posted August 4, 2010, 2:06 pm by Tara Noronha
In northern Uganda, hope springs eternal
Country: Uganda
As the brutal twenty-year civil war in Uganda has unofficially ended, many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have exited Pader — a district in the country’s northern Acholiland — which was for many years at the epicenter of atrocities committed by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Pastoralist warriors fomenting tensions in Uganda’s eastern Karamoja region now beckon many aid efforts, as do protracted conflicts in neighboring Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But while the days of abduction and murder at the hands of the LRA have ended in “post-conflict” Pader, a long and arduous road to recovery remains. Land disputes between returning Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have replaced battles between Ugandan forces and LRA rebels. The teacher-to-student ratio in Pader schools often hovers at 1:100. Additionally, northern Ugandans face unprecedented unemployment numbers, as well as few prospects for income generation.
These issues acutely affect youth. A staggering 83 percent of young people in Uganda are currently unemployed— a devastating figure which brands the country with the highest youth unemployment rate in the world. Yet, despite all of these seemingly insurmountable obstacles to economic and social stability, hope remains.
Just ask Akello.
Akello with her daughter in northern Uganda's Pader district. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
She is a soft-spoken twenty-year-old living in the Lira Palwo sub-county of Pader district. Akello is an entrepreneur, the mother of three young children and a child soldier once abducted and pressed into service by the LRA.
She is also a participant in Mercy Corps’ Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP), which operates in Pader with support from the W. Glen Boyd Charitable Foundation. Through YEP, Akello received a small grant to help grow her fish business. She’s also involved in the programme’s Life Skills training, which engages youth in dialogue on topics such as HIV/AIDS, the dangers of early marriage and the importance of effective communication.
Although reserved, Akello is not shy when vocalizing the ways in which the grant from Mercy Corps has allowed her to expand her enterprise. She now buys her fish in bulk and has diversified her business by selling both small and medium-sized fish. She is also devising plans to begin another small enterprise.
This is no tiny feat in a district where 75 percent of individuals report no cash income. Her husband, a farmer, is supportive of her entrepreneurial drive. “My husband is very happy,” Akello told me, smiling. “And he’s proud of our new income.”
Mercy Corps believes in the power and potential of youth, particularly those transitioning from conflict to post-conflict environments. Because of this, our doors have remained open since our Pader office began work in 2006.
Akello is just one of more than 1,000 youth (ages 14-30) benefitting from YEP, a programme which aims to ensure that war-affected youth in northern Uganda are empowered economically, through an increased ability to earn an income, and personally, through an increased ability to make critical life decisions and healthier choices. Yes, Mercy Corps also has teams working in Karamoja (as well as Sudan and Congo), but we continue to work with vulnerable youth in Acholiland, recognizing that these young individuals have the capacity to transform their society and bolster the economy.
Through resilience and courage, and with a little guidance and support, Akello is just one of many young individuals leading the way.
Blog Post: Posted July 21, 2010, 7:16 am by Lisa Inks
After the bombings in Kampala, learning from survival
Country: Uganda
Topics: Peaceful Change, Conflict & War
When I prepared to come to Uganda this summer to do a peacebuilding evaluation with Mercy Corps, I prepared for danger. I was going to the northeastern region of Karamoja, where armed warriors raid cattle and ambush vehicles in a conflict punctuated by extreme poverty and marginalisation. Some colleagues clucked their tongues when I told them where I was headed: “Be careful,” they said. “Always wear shoes you can run in.”
After five weeks conducting an assessment in Karamoja without incident, I came back to Kampala to write my report. I took a break from work to meet friends at a restaurant on July 11, where we settled in to watch the World Cup final alongside dozens of other exuberant football fans.
Right at halftime, a huge blast knocked me out of my chair. I was running without thinking, through a spray of particles and smoke, my eardrums throbbing to a shrill pitch. Before reaching the exit, I turned back. Where people had been laughing and cheering one minute earlier, they were sprawled on the ground or in their chairs, dead, nearly dead, or screaming.
I began to feel the burden of luck — I was completely unscathed but for several bruises — even as we checked bodies for pulses and carried out a man clinging to life through spasmodic gasps for air.
Kampala was supposed to be a respite from danger, a peaceful city far from the violence that has sown terror in the north of the country. But after the bombings, Ugandans started speaking of a new era. Barely catching its breath from a brutal 20-year conflict in the north with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, Uganda is wrestling with the newest manifestation of another old conflict.
The particular conflict I came to examine — where tribal warriors wielding AK-47s rustle cattle and goats, burn homes and abduct villagers — seems like a far cry from terrorist attacks in the capital city. But I can’t say that they don’t somehow share commonalities: both destroy the lives of innocent people, both bring trauma to those who should be free to live without fear.
In Karamoja, our team assessed the level of insecurity to see whether “no-go” areas had decreased since the start of Mercy Corps’ Building Bridges to Peace programme. We found that people in Karamoja are freer to move about, during the day and the night, than they were one year ago. Indeed, community members can use farmland and forestland they once avoided, they can walk down roads that were once “death zones.” Things are changing, it seems, for the better.
In Kampala, however, the “no-go” areas just expanded exponentially. Fewer people venture out late at night. We are advised to stay away from crowded places. Kampala now feels like a battlefield.
In order to make people more secure, Mercy Corps goes to the places that are most insecure. That’s what makes Mercy Corps effective. And in Karamoja, I can see positive effects of a comprehensive peace programme that improves livelihoods for communities that have been in conflict for decades, where Mercy Corps staff members have been dedicating their energy for years.
When I started interning with Mercy Corps in the Cambridge office last January, the Conflict Management Group fastidiously pieced together theories of change, indicators, and survey questions, trying to pinpoint causes of conflict and map out a road for peace.
Truthfully, I have scant more intellectual insight now than I did sitting in that office. As peacebuilders, we can point to factors that lead people to commit violent acts, and sometimes we get close to telling the story of conflict. But there is still a gap between knowledge and understanding, and never have I appreciated that gap as fully as I did when I was looking at the half-blown out face of a man in shock. The old adage is true: the more you learn, the less you seem to know. But there’s more still. One experience can call everything you learned into question.
What insight I have gained, however, comes in the form of a heightened emotional consciousness, a bit more dogged determination, and, ultimately, a stronger belief in the work we are doing.
Blog Post: Posted June 23, 2010, 4:27 am by Brad Myers
Finding compassion in Kyrgyzstan
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Topics: Peaceful Change
Jialoo and his wife Azhar stand in front of their home garden. As earlier participants of the Apple Project, a Mercy Corps program launched in 2005, they have improved and increased their yields. Photo: Brad Myers/Mercy Corps
On a cool, cloudy day in eastern Kyrgyzstan a man named Jialoo Mamatov stood tall, his outstretched arm pointed proudly towards a lush green garden. His delighted gaze needed no translation. Beyond the long rows of garlic and budding fruit trees spring runoff threaded around rolling foothills, its twisted path extending up to the Jety-Oguz Mountain Range.
Unfortunately, the serene moment between a man and his garden was in direct contrast to the crisis unfolding in Osh and Jalalabad, two cities located in southern Kyrgyzstan. The tour of Jialoo’s garden was part of a scheduled trip to visit Kompanion field offices and Mercy Corps programs near Lake Issyk-Kul however; the timing was clearly at odds with recent events.
Hundreds of miles from Jialoo’s village the fear, confusion, and senseless violence were finally subsiding. But back in Bishkek, and on the other side of the globe, Mercy Corps and Kompanion were ramping up staff and resources in preparation for a substantial humanitarian response. A flood of meetings, maps, laptops, and logistical plans descended on conference rooms across multiple time zones.
Far from the action at headquarters the view from my conference room table was slightly different. Curls of steam rose from my cup of tea as I sat at a large dinning room table and listened to Jialoo's prayer. With a commanding presence and sincere, gentle tone he spoke about peace in his country and around the world.
The recent eruption of chaos, though far from his farm house, weighed heavy on his mind. We spent an hour trading questions and sharing cultural nuances. He enjoyed telling stories about growing up in Kyrgyzstan. In the dirt driveway, surrounded by his family, we said our goodbyes with handshakes and hugs.
Lost in the shadows of this renewed violence and mayhem are the amazing citizens of Kyrgyzstan who embody compassion and generosity. Spending the afternoon with Jialoo, seeing his face creased with a wide smile, I realize his pride in Kyrgyzstan is not an anomaly. It is representative of the enduring sense of patriotism that can be found across this beautiful country.
Blog Post: Posted June 3, 2010, 10:54 am by Mary Tam
Πepexóд (Transitions)
Country: Kyrgyzstan
We were flying from London to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan via Almatay, Kazakhstan. I was in a semi-conscious airplane daze when my Kazakh neighbour tapped me on the shoulder, pointing out the right side of the plane.
A young boy plays around the fountains of Ala-Too Square in Bishkek. Photo: Mary Tam/Mercy Corps
I peered down at a navy tone, which bled into scattered clouds. Above that the sky faded effortlessly between oranges, yellows and reds, eventually trailing off into cobalt. In the middle, a nearly full moon glowed white; a solitary orb suspended amidst raw colour. I noticed a piercing red-orange light coming in from the left and realized that on the other side of the plane was the sun. There we flew, temporarily nestled between day and night. It didn’t last long, but I was grateful to have been awoken to absorb this moment of transition.
I have been working on a transition of my own. After one week in Bishkek, I’m finally getting used to the differences between my new habitat what feels like a previous lifetime. I haven’t eaten this many meat dishes in one week since I was in the eighth grade. I’m slowly expanding my vocabulary beyond Da (yes), Nyet (no), Privyet (hi) and Dasveedaneeya (bye), but am far from being even remotely conversational. Apparently I look Kyrgyz, and when people try to speak to me on the street I sheepishly reply, Ya nye gavaryoo pa-rooskee (I don’t speak Russian). Each time I am forced to stomach furrowed-brow looks of surprise and disappointment. I’m not sure what’s worse, that or all the meat dishes.
Yet my transition is small karatoshkee (potatoes) compared to that of Kyrgyzstan. I have been speaking with people to hear what they have to say.
The bucket on the right contains Kumus, a national drink of fermented mare's milk. Photo: Mary Tam/Mercy Corps
One local told me that everything appears to be back to normal in Bishkek, but below the surface there is still great turmoil. There are stories of longstanding corruption and the disappearance of government funds. I have heard mainly support for Rosa Otunbayeva, the interim president and first female president in Central Asia. From what I understand, she has accepted terms that prohibit her from running for president in the future, in part forfeiting her political career to see Kyrgyzstan through this transition. That’s taking one for the team.
Speaking of teams, the Mercy Corps and Kompanion teams are comprised of staff from diverse professional backgrounds — agronomists, IT experts, community organisers, accountants, communications specialists — and they continue to dedicate themselves to making their country a better place. One of my first assignments relates to improving data and knowledge management.
As a social business, Kompanion must look to measures of social performance — rather than financials — to determine overall success and efficacy. Additionally, Kompanion seeks to document best practices that have the potential to benefit its own projects, Mercy Corps programmes in other countries and the greater international development community.
As I begin to take my first steps with this internship, Kyrgyzstan is already in stride towards a new (and hopefully improved) political era.
Blog Post: Posted June 1, 2010, 10:14 am by Kyle Dietrich
The art of youth development
Country: Haiti
I came to Haiti as someone who believes in seeing challenges — such as a conflict or natural disaster — as opportunities to identify and leverage large-scale social transformation.
John, age 16, documents life in a seaside village near Monrovia, Liberia during a Peace in Focus photo workshop.
Photo: Kyle Dietrich/Mercy Corps
Up until the earthquake, I had been running my own non-profit in Boston, which trains youth from post-conflict communities to be peacebuilders and leaders using photography and new media tools. Similar to that programme, our Youth Leadership project in Haiti — supported by our MPower initiative — aims to enable young people to engage in a creative process that is both therapeutic and empowering. Through photography and storytelling, youth will learn to understand and nurture their own voice and vision for change, and then develop a unique skill set to share that vision with their community and the world.
This work builds off my several years supporting international development and peacebuilding programmes with UN Peacekeeping Operations, USAID and the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan, Burundi, Liberia and Washington, D.C. Throughout my career, I have been eager to see more innovative programmes for youth to engage in the revitalisation and rebuilding of their communities.
By putting youth in leadership roles you enable them at a young age to begin taking ownership of the issues facing their communities. By integrating the arts, you give them an opportunity to develop creative and non-violent strategies for understanding and addressing those issues. This signals to the community that youth are not merely the future generation of leaders, but the present generation as well.
For Haiti to truly transform, there must be a profound re-imagination of what is possible here. This programme supports the idea that that re-imagination can be led by youth. It allows young people to be agents of change rather than mere beneficiaries of programmes. It supports the belief that, in order to be successful long-term, development programmes must address the emotional and social needs of children and youth, alongside their physical and material needs.
With my position with the UN, I helped organise youth groups like this one in northeastern Burundi to use community theater to raise awareness about sexual violence and other issues.
Photo: Kyle Dietrich/Mercy Corps
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