JOIN US FOR AN ENCOUNTER WITH CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION
Madame Bongi Ngema Zuma will open the ACTION Support Centre event on conflict transformation approaches to building peace and eradicating violence
The ACTION Support Centre (ASC) will hold an event, the Conflict Transformation Encounter, on Saturday 18th of October at the Bosco Centre in Walkerville. Join us for a fascinating day of real-life experience sharing from over 18 African countries and a series of healing events.
The event will consist of workshops and presentations exploring the conflict transformationapproach to peacebuilding, and it’s relevance to global peace and security issues. Delegates and speakers from over 18 countries are expected to attend, presenting examples of how conflict transformation makes sense across multiple contexts. Local Peace Committee members from Alexandra, Orange Farm and Soweto as well as members of the South African Somali Women’s Network will also attend.
The event will start with a formal opening at 9:00am, featuring Madam Bongi Ngema Zuma as a guest speaker. Workshops will be held following the opening, and will run throughout the day. Speakers from Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia will discuss how the conflict transformation approach has been used to build peace in their own contexts. There will also be a focus on the post-2015 development agenda, to contribute to global discussions that are underway on the follow up to the UN Millennium Development Goals.
In the afternoon between 2:00pm and 5:30pm the workshops will be supplemented with healingthemed activities such as dance therapy, massage and a drumming circle. According to event organiser Charity Mungweme “The Encounter will be a chance to give back to those who invest their time and energy in peacebuilding, a chance to revitalise ourselves and each other”.
The event culminates in a celebration of African Culture. Mouth-watering dishes from across the continent will be accompanied by performances from highly acclaimed Common Factor, the Blue Boy Pantsula troupe and the bluesy Congolese rhythms of Les Fantastique!
ASC Campaigns Manager Philani Ndebele explains “conflict transformation is an approach that sees conflict as a challenge and an opportunity, rather than an obstacle”. “Working effectively to end wars and violence requires work in all spheres, at all levels and with all stakeholders”. According to Ms Mungweme, ”The Conflict Transformation Encounter is part of an on-going contribution of the ACTION Support Centre to a long term process of changing relationships, behaviours, attitudes and structures, and to building a new and better world.”
The ACTION Support Centre is the Africa regional hub of a global network of organisations and individuals committed to transforming conflict, ACTION for Conflict Transformation (ACTION). The ASC was established in 2002 on the basis of a mandate to set up a communications hub for the network members of ACTION Global. It has since transformed itself into a regional and continental base for organisations working in the fields of conflict and development.
For more information, contact:
Charity Mungweme (charity@asc.org.za)
Jennifer Pillinger-Melnick (Jennifer@asc.org.za)
+27 (0) 11 482 2453
+27 (0) 11 482 7442