ISSUE 4 - DEC 2016 STORIES OF CHANGE £2.00

FIGHTERS ‘LET’S MEET’ FOR SAY LEBANESE PEACE MOTHERS

LIFE HOPE FOR AFTER LANDMINE LUCY CASUALTIES

ORDINARY MAGIC Contents See page 20

04 All change for healthy living

06 Hope for landmine casualties

09 Hum the change you want to see

10 Ordinary magic: the power of tea

13 Where camels are part of the answer

14 Life after Lucy

16 ‘Let’s meet’, say Lebanese mothers

18 Fighters for peace

19 Everyone welcome

20 Courage and resilience in Northern Uganda

Initiatives of Change is a worldwide Changemakers Magazine Please contact us with your movement of people of diverse cultures 24 Greencoat Place, views: and backgrounds who are committed to the London SW1P 1RD Tel: 020 7798 6000 transformation of society through changes in @UKChangemakers human motives and behaviour, starting in their own lives. Editor: Davina Patel Sub-editor: Mary Lean facebook.com/ Designer: Laura Noble changemakersmagazine We work to inspire, equip and connect people to Photographers: Yee Liu Williams, Jonty Herman, address world needs in the areas of trust building, Laura Noble, Leonard Fäustle, Sophie Coxon, [email protected] ethical leadership and sustainable living. Natalia Medvedeva, A. Dombrovskij, John Bond, Muna Ismail, Kelly Burks. Cover: Leonard Fäustle In the UK, Initiatives of Change is a charity All rights reserved. The views expressed are not ISSN: 2059-5719 registered No. 226334 (England and Wales). necessarily those of the publishers. 2 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org From the Editor

Welcome to Changemakers

he year 2016 is drawing to its close. It will be remembered for Britain voting to leave the EU, the Telection of Donald Trump and the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. With everything going on in the world, it is often hard to find positive inspiration. This is why I love stories of people who have a passion for social change and who remind me that the power to transform lives lies within us. In this issue you will find stories of people with incredible courage, resilience and positivity. Take Merel Rumping (p6), for example, who found her passion in social entrepreneurship and is now transforming the lives of amputees in Colombia. Sergio Lopez Figueroa (p9) discovered that music improved his mental health issues and set up Humming in Harmony to help others. Marian Partington (p14) had the courage to forgive her sister’s murderers. What have all those featured in the magazine got in common? They started with themselves. For more stories of change, and to subscribe to receive updates, visit our website: Read online Free! www.changemakersmagazine.org

Davina Patel, Editor [email protected]

Our writers

John Bond Muna Ismail Kenneth Noble Mary Lean Merel Rumping Samuel Mallett Aleksandra Shymina Kate Monkhouse Yee Liu Williams

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 3 4 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: Jonty Herman ALL CHANGE FOR HEALTHY LIVING

The De Rosas’ home is a ‘bus-stop’ where people can make a new start. Aleksandra Shymina reports.

ominic and Jo De Rosa share run the centre together, weathering used to belong to Peter Howard, a key a mission to help others to the challenges of being business figure in Moral Re-Armament (MRA), embrace a healthy lifestyle. partners as well as life partners. the precursor of Initiatives of Change. Jo has struggled with drug The centre offers yoga, retreats They were attracted by the hall which Daddiction and alcoholism: for Dom, and healthy food, and ‘Quantum Howard had built specifically for who says he was a social user, the Sobriety’, a programme developed MRA gatherings, which Jo now uses issue was food. Their journey towards by Jo to help people struggling with as her yoga studio, and by the fact personal freedom and ‘congruence’ various types of addictions. Born that the house was large enough has run parallel with the growth of out of her own experience and to accommodate small residential their wellbeing business, based in a their Buddhist faith, it combines groups. 16th century farmhouse in Suffolk. neuroscience, holistic therapies, When Dom started to research When they met, both Dom and nutrition, one-to-one work and the history of the house, he was struck Jo had given up drugs, but Jo was still ongoing follow-up support. by MRA’s emphasis on silent reflection drinking heavily. ‘She was teaching ‘We look on addiction as and inner change, and by the fact that yoga and meditation fulltime, and she something in the brain, rather than a the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous knew that doing that with a hangover disease,’ says Dom. ‘Alcohol, cocaine, were influenced by the ideas of was not congruent,’ says Dom. Various abusive relationships are the plaster MRA’s founder Dr . attempts at sobriety had failed, but over what is wrong. You have to This synchronicity encouraged him when Jo finally told Dom, ‘That’s it, I’ve remove the plaster and find the root to make contact with Initiatives of had enough,’ he knew she meant it. cause. People abuse substances Change, and the De Rosas recently Eight months ago, Dom followed her because it is easier to do that than hosted the ‘descendants of MRA’ at example. find their truth.’ They do not run Hill Farm for a reflective meeting. His passion is ‘clean eating’: meals medical detoxes, but try to catch ‘Our aim,’ says Dom, ‘is to give at their Inner Guidance Retreat Centre people before they are physically people the opportunity to help are predominantly vegan, and free of dependent or once they have themselves.’ They see their centre as wheat, dairy, sugar and preservatives. withdrawn and are looking for help in a ‘bus stop’: a place where people can ‘I lost three and a half stone, not by sustaining their sobriety. come to change the direction they are dieting but by eating differently,’ he Four years ago, just after Jo travelling in. Just as they have done says. He writes books on how healthy stopped drinking for good, they themselves. food can be fun and easy, and they moved into Hill Farm in Suffolk, which

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 5 6 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: Leonard Fäustle HOPE FOR LANDMINE CASUALTIES

Merel Rumping from ProPortion has developed a social enterprise, which could transform life for amputees in Colombia and beyond. She tells her story.

ive years ago I visited a tiny to prosthetic care for low-income from falling in love with Colombia, its mountain village in amputees? And that our team would warm and welcoming people, the sun, called Caux. The international win several Dutch prizes, receive a and the liveliness and the optimism conference centre of Initiatives million dollar donation from Google with which all problems were met. Fof Change (IofC) is beautifully located and brainstorm with Bill Gates? Several years later I returned to overlooking the bright blue Lake of Colombia to work at a micro-credit Geneva. I participated in a conference ‘The harsh world of the bank. There I discovered the potential on Trust and Integrity in the Global of social enterprise. I was heading for Economy, which aimed at finding ways slums didn’t prevent me a diplomatic career, studying political of creating a just and sustainable science in and working at the economy, through professional and from falling in love with Dutch embassy in . It became personal activity. Colombia.’ clear to me that I believed in the I came with a goal in mind: power of social enterprise, and that to explore how I could contribute As a student in my twenties (I this was where I wanted to put my to a more just world through my am now 32), I went to Colombia to energies. professional activities. My goal was work in the slums with street kids and Social entrepreneurs find inno- clear, but the way forward was still former child soldiers. We developed vative solutions for social problems. unknown. Who would have thought a theatre play together. Often the Social Enterprise NL, who promote the that five years later I would be back street kids were on drugs, slept on the concept in the Netherlands, put it like at Caux as a speaker? And that I streets and prostituted themselves, this: ’Like any other enterprise, a social would have started LegBank, a social sometimes as young as 11. The harsh enterprise delivers a product or a ser- enterprise which increases access world of the slums didn’t prevent me vice and has a viable business model.

Merel Rumping with a landmine victim in Colombia who has been helped by LegBank

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 7 Photo credit: Leonard Fäustle Clinicians in Colombia using a Majicast device

However making money is not the tube are mainly mass-produced, main aim, it is a way of achieving your but the socket is normally made by mission. The aim of a social enterprise hand, because it has to fit the user’s is to create added social value, also residual limb precisely. This is time called impact.’ and cost intensive, and requires I started to work for ProPortion, a lot of experience and expertise. a creative organisation in Amsterdam Majicast makes it possible to produce that initiates social enterprises in high quality prosthetic sockets in a emerging economies. This gave me relatively easy way without using your the chance to initiate LegBank, to hands. This is important, because the offer affordable, quality prostheses world is short of prosthetic makers to low-income amputees, especially and clinicians. in emerging economies. We started Thanks to investors, funds and in Colombia, which has the second a strong development team we highest number of landmine victims in were able to design Majicast, and the world. will be testing it out on 40 Dutch One of LegBank’s aims is to patients in the coming months. We decentralize prosthetic care. Our also demonstrated it to Colombian Majicast device speeds up the process prosthetic makers and clinicians in of making prosthetic sockets and May 2016. There was great interest. increases the quality and comfort We are developing a business for the end user. It was invented by model so that we can start three Dr Arjan Buis of the University of pilot orthopaedic centres in rural Strathclyde and was designed for Colombia where there is currently no professional use by the Reggs agency or insufficient orthopaedic care, with in Amsterdam. funding from Google. If everything How does it work? A leg prosthesis goes according to plan, the first centre consists of a foot and a socket which will open in May 2017. are bonded together with a tube, a kind of shinbone. The foot and the Translated by Irene de Pous

8 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: Leonard Fäustle HUM THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE Sergio Lopez Figueroa uses the power of the voice to heal and bring people together. He talks to Samuel Mallett.

ergio Lopez Figueroa, the have been a lasting inspiration. based organisations at venues founder of Humming in This period of his life included including Westminster Music Harmony (HUM), describes family breakdown and financial Library and the Royal Festival himself as a nomad. He was problems. He closed the company Hall. Participants have reported Sborn to Spanish parents from the three years ago. ‘I was struggling and health benefits. He was one of the Canary Islands and his love of music renting an unsuitable place. I felt changemakers nominated by the started early. ‘I used to pick up tunes like I was living two different lives, Southbank Centre at the Festival of and play them on my little keyboard,’ networking and trying to bring the Love in July 2016. he says. business alive but also exhausted to a He has also created Section 21, When he was 22, he left home point that I had a nervous breakdown.’ a healing choir made up of private to pursue a career as a composer, For a short period he was homeless. renters who are dealing with housing studying and working in Italy, the UK During this time of severe issues. Their music and lyrics highlight and Spain. In 2007 he returned to instability, he discovered the power the connection between poor housing London and started Big Bang Lab, of humming. ‘It was almost like a conditions and mental health. ‘I want an educational social enterprise personal mantra of remembering to engage people to make a change,’ which aimed to break down barriers pieces of music I liked listening to, he says. ‘I want every landlord to between generations. He used film especially Bach. I found this form adhere to compulsory Quality Living archives to encourage people to of self-therapy very soothing and Standards.’ question the present by looking at relaxing.’ Humming in Harmony was On 22 December HUM opened the past. ‘Part of the mission was to born, combining mindfulness and in Sergio’s hometown, Las Palmas empower people to have a shared humming with a focus on listening de Gran Canaria, with a collective voice and work together to co-create and sound. improvised piece for piano, orchestra, new visions for the future.’ ‘Humming is scientifically proven choir and humming audience on the He also co-designed an award- to be beneficial to the brain,’ explains theme of the forgotten inner child. winning educational media project on Sergio. ‘Everyone can hum, it doesn’t At 50, Sergio is still trying to connect the Holocaust. Through it he met Alice require any physical training or effort.’ people, and dreaming of taking Herz-Sommer, the Holocaust’s oldest Sergio’s sessions help attendees to Humming in Harmony from London to survivor. ‘Alice was 104 when I met strip away the stresses of city life and the world. her and she was so active,’ he says. ‘I reconnect with their inner peace. was blown away by her positivity.’ Her He offers humming sessions to www.humminginharmony.com energy and passion to keep growing small companies and community- www.publicrenting.uk

Samuel Mallett (left) meets HUM founder Sergio Lopez Figueroa.

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 9 Photo credit: Sophie Coxon 10 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: Natalia Medvedeva ORDINARY MAGIC THE POWER OF TEA

Lera Mimizu sought magic in the circus, and found it in tea. Aleksandra Shymina went to meet her.

ntense blue eyes stare at me. They Chinese tea from tiny cups. I have also deepen her knowledge of this ancient don’t seem to be blinking. I shuffle been on one of her tea tours around drink. But the first time she went on my seat, feeling seen, as if I am London, discovering corners I have there was to train as a trapeze artist the one telling the truth about my never been to and tea stories I haven’t for the circus. This adventure came at Ilife. heard before. the price of leaving her secure job in I am in a cosy little coffee shop The first thing I want to know is the City of London, going against well- in Borough Market, London, with tea ‘Why tea?’ She says she is attracted to meaning friends who thought her a expert and tour guide, Lera Mimizu. tea by its depth and richness. ‘It is not bit mad, and letting go of her family’s She is a single mum and a business only a drink with a beautiful taste and expectations. owner. No matter how difficult it is at flavour, but also a plant medicine – Her life up till then had been times, she is living her dream, having for the heart, spirit, body. It is history steady and predictable. her freedom, being herself. How too, because it’s a drink that changed many of us dream of doing that? I the world. It is spirituality, as tea ‘When people sit am here to hear her story and enjoy and presence go hand in hand. It is being in the company of somebody so a great connecter. When people sit together and drink tea, authentic. together and drink tea, they establish I have attended several of Lera’s a connection at a level deeper than they establish a tea ceremonies, where a small circle usual.’ connection that is a of people meditate while drinking real Lera travels to China regularly to level deeper than usual.’

Community Money Advice

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 11 Photo credit: Natalia Medvedeva Tea is medicine, history and spirituality says Lera Mimizu.

She grew up in Lithuania, where continuous doubt and insecurity. Had to what make us alive – to ourselves, her parents mapped out her course she made the right decision? What if to another, to the Great Other. When in life for her: school, hobbies and it didn’t work out? What if this was not we grow spiritually we find meaning how she should develop her talents. what she really wanted? The internal in what once looked like chaos. On A career in economics in London was critic that kept quiet within the secure the other hand, we may also find a done deal and no questions were to walls of the office suddenly came to questions where we once thought we be asked. life. had things all figured out.’ In the office, even her boss Finally, Lera went home to This journey affected Lera’s recognised that she was not cut Lithuania for New Year, fell in love and tea practice, which in time moved out for a nine-to-five lifestyle. A didn’t go back to her training. Possibly from hobby to life to business. She spontaneous visit to Pune in India, this was exactly what was needed for trained with the best masters of tea to attend the Osho International the next step to happen. ceremony, designed her London Meditation Resort, set her off on a After about two years in Lithuania, tea tours, created a website and a spiritual journey, which demanded and just before becoming a mother, community. that she should not ignore her soul. Lera moved back to London. Her son became her inspiration to keep ‘Spirituality is a ‘In the office, even her searching for professional fulfilment. A conversation with a friend focused conscious connection to boss recognised that her interest on tea, a drink she had always enjoyed. The interest became what makes us alive - to she was not cut out for a hobby and a kind of love affair, and ourselves, to another, to a nine-to-five lifestyle.’ it took her back to China on a different mission – tea research. the Great Other.’ She also began to explore a world When she finally decided to leave of deeper connection to herself, her People return to Lera’s tea her job, her whole office supported body, the present moment, the world ceremonies not just for the beautiful her. She bought a ticket to India, and love. She studied tantra, yoga, tea but for the experience she offers. signed up to study resonance dance at human design, Zen, non-duality – Being and living her passion, she the Himalaya Subbody Butoh School everything that had no dogma and brings a breath of magic into everyday in Dharamsala and dived right into it. rules. life. I leave our conversation re- This was not the beginning of She quotes Robin Carnes: inspired to do what I love doing, to be ‘happily ever after’, but of months of ‘Spirituality is a conscious connection what I am meant to be.

12 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: A. Dombrovskij WHERE CAMELS ARE PART OF THE ANSWER

Muna Ismail meets a trendsetting dairy farmer in Hargeisa, Somaliland.

ustafa Duale and I meet for centuries, but traditional methods company, my children used to be on in a café in Hargeisa. He rarely produce more milk than one all sorts of medications for all sorts wants to know whether family needs. Camel milk has always of ailments.’ And an elderly man said his dairy camel farm can been prized in Somali culture. We that drinking two glasses of our milk Mbe used for trial planting of Yeheb, have a lot to learn about how to every day has kept him from having to a valuable food and fodder plant benefit from this resource without go back to his doctors in Europe. which I am trying to reintroduce to destroying plant biodiversity. Somaliland. I am intrigued, and a bit We are looking at ways of How are your methods making a skeptical, as overgrazing is a huge developing environmentally friendly difference? problem in Somaliland and camels silage, to use in dry seasons. We might are part of this. But when I listen also consider planting Yeheb on the We see our company as a trendsetter. to him, I discover that our views on rangeland where the camels graze. We are one of the very few companies sustainability are not as far apart as I to bring high quality fresh camel milk feared. How does your dairy business help to the market in Hargeisa. We take a the community? holistic, environmentally conscientious What took you into camel milk approach to rearing camels in open production? When central government collapsed rangeland. We apply strict standards in Somalia, it was replaced by of hygiene to milk production and Somaliland has the largest autonomous regional administrations handling. domesticated camel population in the which failed to regulate food Our prices are affordable and world. I keep 250 camels on protected standards. Poor food quality affects our customer service ethos is honest. rangeland about 120 km south of public health: people of all ages suffer I believe we are already triggering a Hargeisa. I hope that my farm will from malnutrition. One remedy for change. More people want to set up change the way Somalis rear livestock bone diseases is to drink more milk. dairy farms which combine traditional and produce milk. The variability of More good quality milk would improve methods with modern knowledge and our climate, and our rising population, health. technology. I hope that one day we mean that we must promote Our customers back this up. will export our organically produced sustainable use of the land. A single mother told us, ‘Before I camel milk throughout the Horn of Somalis have been rearing camels started buying camel milk from your Africa and beyond.

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 13 Photo credit: Muna Ismail LIFE AFTER LUCY

Marian Partington tells Yee Liu Williams how the power of dreams and silence helped her to find peace after her sister’s murder.

arian Partington’s younger up you have to go inside to get warm accept that whatever happened to sister, Lucy, disappeared if you want to carry on with life. ‘You Lucy was somehow all right because in from a Gloucester bus stop have to be ready for the thaw and for the dream her sister was at ease. She after visiting a friend at the rescue,’ she says. ‘But somewhere sees it as Lucy’s last gift to her, and a MChristmas, 1973. Twenty years later, inside, I became disconnected from challenge to look at her own life. gruesome discoveries at 25 Cromwell the past and disabled by the future.’ Such dreams have put Marian on Street, Gloucester, revealed that It was through working with her her long path towards understanding Lucy Partington had been a victim of dreams that Marian found healing. the horror of what had happened. As serial killers Fred and Rosemary West. The book’s title comes from a dream we sit peacefully together – a stark Marian’s memoir If you sit very still tells Marian had a few months after her contrast to the reality of what her the moving story of her traumatic loss sister went missing, in which Lucy told family had to endure – unspoken and personal journey. her with a smile that she’d been sitting questions lie dormant: how could she We are sitting cross-legged in a water meadow: ‘If you sit very still trust anyone again, how could she find in Marian’s hideaway cabin at the you can hear the sun move.’ peace, and how could she forgive the bottom of her garden. Her book lies Wests? on the floor between us. She tells Lucy’s brutally dismembered body me: ‘It is very difficult to find words to ‘It was through working and bones were found in March 1994. describe the pain and disorientation with her dreams that She had been buried with five other of one’s sister simply disappearing young women encased in concrete without trace for 20 years.’ Marian found healing.‘ under the converted basement She likens it to searching for a bedroom used by the Wests’ children. body that is trapped somewhere Marian sees this moment between Five years after Lucy’s remains were beneath the frozen Arctic Ocean; them as the place of ‘shining silence’, found, Marian had a fifth and most as the freeze continues and the ice where speaking would interrupt the challenging dream that included an thickens there is no sign of a thaw. As wonder and mystery. In that place of intention to forgive Rosemary West. the seasons pass and the ice builds solitude and reflection she began to In the dream, the two women

14 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: Yee Liu Williams met at night on the edge of a park, by to deny knowledge) and she would – in a mindset of restorative justice. some spiky railings, under the sleazy rather edit out the ‘terminations’ in In this place forgiveness is greyish orange glow of the street her life. Marian, by contrast, writes spontaneous. lights. As they faced each other Marian of her abortions: ‘It is not consoling, said to Rosemary (without looking at but true, that this has helped me feel her face), ‘I forgive you.’ more compassionate towards those The dream continued in a who have killed, legally or illegally.’ basement with West and another Marian says that silence and person who said she was a mediator. ‘sitting very still’ has allowed her to West scooped up handfuls of fresh move on to healing and to accept and bloody placentas and pushed forgiveness for all the failed moments them into small polythene bags. in her life. It has been difficult to She picked up each bag in turn, be compassionate with herself, but tossing them over her shoulder out essential for her own wellbeing and of a window into the dark abyss and that of those with whom she comes intoning a sinister mantra, ‘I keep into contact. The attitude of insight throwing them into the sea, but the and compassion, which enables waves keep bringing them back.’ her to love her enemies and pray Marian sees this dream as facing for them, goes far beyond ‘right’ or up to the demonised ‘Rosemary ‘wrong’, she reflects. To live from a West’ in her – her shadow side. She place of profound interconnection acknowledges her own shame and and from ‘the peace that passeth guilt and the bits of her life which she all understanding’, to be genuinely You can buy Marian’s book regrets: including abortions and a liberated from all negative feelings, is, at: violent relationship, which left her as for her, the gift of being alive. a single mother in her 20s, living in a ‘If only “I” (my small self that I shop.iofc.org/if-you-sit-very-still council flat with two children on the cling onto as my only identity) can get at-risk register. out of the way,’ she says. The most West could not rid herself of creative way forward, she believes, the contents of the Cromwell Road is through cultivating circles of basement (of which she continues compassion – empathy with suffering www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 15 Photo credit: Yee Liu Williams ‘LET’S MEET’ SAY LEBANESE MOTHERS Marie Chaftari and Lina Hamade see difference as a spur to reach out across their country’s deep divides. Mary Lean went to meet them.

n a visit to Lebanon 30 years children from Lebanon’s different Marie’s uncle introduced her ago, the last place you’d have communities, and Creators of Peace to a priest who was visiting the expected to meet a Muslim Circles where Muslim and Christian town where they had resettled. He would be in Marie Chaftari’s women explore what they can do to asked her when she had last been Ohome. From 1975 to 1985, she was build peace. to confession. ‘What have I got to a communications officer for the The turning point for Marie came confess?’ she replied, ‘I’m the victim.’ Christian forces in her country’s civil in 1988. Three years earlier, a split in She told him how much she had war: her husband, Assaad, was one of the Christian militia had forced her sacrificed for the cause of Lebanon’s their leaders. ‘In those days “the other” to flee Beirut with Assaad and their Christians. ‘He said, “What about love? for me was the Muslim,’ she says. baby son. ‘Over night we went from The only cause is love.” Something Yet here I am, on the verandah of being called heroes to being called turned in me, and I began to cry.’ her flat in Beirut, meeting her Muslim traitors,’ she said. They lost their Later that year, she visited IofC’s friend Lina Hamade over a huge home and found themselves living international conference centre in Lebanese breakfast. We are joined by among strangers, in constant fear of Caux, Switzerland. ‘I came back to members of the women’s organisation assassination. Even now, she cannot myself there,’ she says. ‘I asked myself, they co-founded, Linaltaki (‘let’s bring herself to read Assaad’s book, how can I be a Christian and hate? I meet’). They run summer camps for which tells the story of those days. began to look again at my opinions.’

Marie Chaftari

16 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: John Bond Ladies of Linaltaki: (l to r) Pascale Massoud, Lina Hamade, Nicole Imad, Marie Chaftari, Adele Nehme, Mary Lean and Nawal Chhaibar

After the war ended in 1990, the she meets a Muslim woman she cartoons which outraged Muslims Chaftaris returned to Beirut. Marie thinks of Lina. ‘Then I am not afraid; all over the world, rioters stoned and Lina met at an IofC summer I can meet them with happiness and a church in Beirut. ‘Lina and the camp, but it was not until 2005 that joy.’ Muslim ladies called a meeting with they began to work together. Lina Each summer, Linaltaki brings the director, teachers and parents of says, ‘Marie called me and said, “We together 13-year-olds from Lebanon’s a Christian college, and condemned need to do something: there is so schools for five days of workshops, what had happened,’ says Marie. much fanaticism and hatred.” ’ They creative activities and games. The ‘They said that these Muslims did not invited their friends and family to workshops cover conflict resolution, represent all Muslims.’ meet and talk. communication, emotional The women of Linaltaki see their For Nawal Chhaibar, these intelligence and prejudgment. On differences as something to cherish: meetings came at the ‘perfect’ time. the last day the children present a spur to reach out and learn more ‘We didn’t accept what was going on: what they have been doing to their about each other. ‘Our country has we are mothers and we fear for our parents and school heads. Previous been bleeding for the past 40 years, childrens’ future. Linaltaki was an participants, some of them now due to all kinds of wars and conflicts,’ opportunity to feel the old Lebanon university students, come back to says Lina. ‘We are united in our fear before the division between Christians help, and when we met they had just for the future of our country; our fear and Muslims.’ had their annual reunion. of polluting our children’s hearts with When they first visited Lina’s The women clearly enjoy each hatred. We care less about what we home, the Christian women were other’s company: the test comes each believe in, and more about how nervous, in spite of Lina’s efforts to when they go home to their own she translates that belief. Isn’t the best put them at their ease by dressing communities, says Marie. ‘I refuse prayer that which calls for reaching informally and not covering her hair. to listen to any jokes about Muslims out to my brother and sister?’ ‘One of the ladies wouldn’t drink or Syrians or refugees: if people the juice for fear it was poisoned.’ attack Muslims, I defend them. It’s ‘We are united in our Afterwards everyone breathed more challenging to be the same when I fear for the future of easily when they drove back into the am not with Lina as I am when she is Christian area of Beirut. here.’ our country; our fear of It took time to build The same challenge faces the understanding and friendship, but Muslim women. In September 2005, polluting our children’s now, says Adele Nehme, whenever when a Danish newspaper printed hearts with hatred.’ www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 17 Photo credit: John Bond FIGHTERS FOR PEACE

John Bond meets ex-combatants who are working together for peace in Lebanon.

ix years ago the New York Times publicly about my past,’ said Haydar. Fighters for Peace do not just described Assaad Chaftari as Then they went to Tripoli to meet the speak. They reach out to people who the one major participant in groups in conflict. Their unity across lost relatives during the war, and to Lebanon’s civil war who had sectarian lines caught the media’s refugees. They organise summer S‘truly apologised’ for his role in the attention, and Lebanon heard about camps with Syrians and Palestinians. atrocities committed. former enemies working together to Documentaries about their work on Today he is not alone. Twenty-five prevent violence. Lebanese national television have ex-combatants from differing factions, Gradually other ex-combatants inspired others to take action. Muslim and Christian, have joined joined. For each of them this has In one town school pupils him, calling themselves Fighters for meant a painful re-evaluation of their organised a marathon for peace in Peace. One of their aims is to help actions during the 15-year war in cooperation with Fighters for Peace, younger Lebanese ‘to realise what we which 150,000 people died. ‘I thought and 400 ran. Last month 100 young realised too late – that in a civil war about the bombs that I used to throw,’ people came to a hall in central Beirut everyone loses’. They speak in schools, said Haydar. ‘I had joined the militia to to see a play about the 17,000 people universities and public forums. defend my people, but gradually I had who disappeared in the civil war. They came together in 2012, turned into a criminal.’ The event was hosted by Fighters for when fighting broke out in Lebanon’s Such frankness does not come Peace, who are doing all they can to second largest city, Tripoli. ‘We easily. Like many ex-combatants, find the disappeared and return them saw the sectarian mobilisation for Fadi Nasreddine had hidden his past to their families for burial. violence,’ said Haydar Ammacha. ‘We from his children. But the ‘courageous Recently they were approached were terrified, knowing that this was honesty and humanity of Fighters by the Forum of Cities in Transition, how civil war had started in 1975.’ He for Peace convinced me that peace is which is working to encourage peace was part of a coalition of NGOs called possible in Lebanon’. He knew that his in 15 conflict-ridden cities. Now the Unity is our Salvation, in which Assaad sons could be enticed into taking up Forum has added Tripoli to their and other ex-fighters were active. arms for a cause. ‘So I confessed that concerns – giving Fighters for Peace Faced with a perilous situation, I had been a fighter, and told them the chance to extend their work several of them called a press what this had led to.’ Now he speaks not just in Lebanon but in cities far conference. ‘For the first time I spoke publicly. beyond.

Assad Chaftari with young people at a Fighters for Peace event

18 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: John Bond EVERYONE WELCOME

Kate Monkhouse reflects on the practice of hospitality.

y work for many years has in the lives of others, if we are willing a new way. The truest moment of been about advocating with to be of service and to listen. welcome is not necessarily when I those who find themselves When I was working at the Jesuit open a door, but when the person I at the edges of public life Refugee Service (JRS), I opened the think I am helping invites me into their Min London. I’ve shared and heard door to many refugees. We were life, with a story or gesture of trust. testimonies from those who for taught this was the most important Welcome in our search for fairer reasons of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, thing we could do – open the door, communities will often mean being money, education find ourselves smile, show them we were delighted challenged as well as surprised and excluded in some way. to see them, invite them in, ask if they delighted. It will take us across the The tradition of Initiatives of would like tea or coffee, had they limits we set for ourselves and for Change invites us to make space for eaten that morning, would they like others. We will transgress boundaries, inner listening – to our own deepest to sit down. The asylum seekers who cross thresholds and be made wisdom, to our moral conscience, to JRS receives are often shut out – not welcome ourselves by those we least who or what we call God. However we only from housing and employment, expect to need to be welcomed by. name that practice and relationship, I but increasingly from healthcare and We will also face rejection, have doors have found that I now experience my education. We call them by name, slammed in our faces and be shut out quiet times as a place of welcome. The welcome them in, build community in the cold. more I feel called to go out to work with them – and in turn, bit by bit, we Welcome matters – for ourselves, for social justice, the more I know I are welcomed into their lives. for those we share our lives with and need to start from a place of coming For the practice of welcome for our world. If we can welcome parts in, turning towards Love and inviting contains a paradox. As we orient of ourselves that we are unsure of, Love to reside in my life. ourselves towards others, we are we can welcome those who might Inner listening often leads us often changed by the encounter. challenge us. We might then be able to places where there is a need for Everyday interruptions as well as to listen to others’ fears of difference, reconciliation, trust or justice. We can intentional acts of connection become and to open doors for transformation have a role in ushering in a welcome invitations for us to see ourselves in and hope.

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 19 Photo credit: Laura Noble COURAGE AND RESILIENCE IN NORTHERN UGANDA Kenneth Noble reviews a film which pays tribute to the spirit of people who have gone through unimaginable trauma.

Film for Northern Uganda Things are different today. be known. shows both the vibrant beauty Traumatised people are refinding their Among those we meet is Louis of Africa and her suffering. dignity and slowly the victims, and Lakor, who was forcibly abducted by But, even more, it shows even the perpetrators, of violence are the LRA. They ordered him to shoot Aextraordinary resilience: how people rebuilding their society. The United a friend. When he refused he was who have been through torment and Nations Development Programme tortured. ‘I was afraid of dying from despair can make a fresh start – and (UNDP) commissioned Initiatives of the way they were torturing me. It help others to do so. Change to make the film, under the was so painful to me. I stood up. I The northern part of Uganda, direction of Kelly Burks, an American shot the guy.’ When Louis returned and the Acholi people in particular, living in London, and his co-director home after the hostilities, he went to suffered terribly under the Lord’s Eric Bednarski from Poland. The result the parents of his friend, explained Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency is an absorbing and inspiring story what had happened and asked for for some 20 years until its leader told by the people themselves. The their forgiveness. Remarkably, they was forced into exile in 2006. Local vision for the film came from Ahunna accepted that he had no intention of communities suffered murder, Eziakonwa, then Resident Coordinator killing their son. They performed an abduction, mutilation and the forcing in Uganda for the UN, who felt the Acholi ceremony called Mato Oput, of children to be sex slaves and courage, strength and forgiveness in where they stood on an egg as a sign soldiers. Acholi culture was a story that should of forgiveness.

‘Traumatised people are refinding their dignity and slowly the victims, and even the perpetrators, of violence are rebuilding their society.’

20 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: Kelly Burks Annet and other single mothers started a dancing group because dancing helped them to block out bad memories.

Louis went on to learn welding to hear: ‘The rebels burned our home was invited to join a group of single at the Northern Uganda Youth and started killing people. I was asleep mothers and they were given a cow. Development Centre, part-funded but my dad heard the screams. The Annet became treasurer and they by UNDP, which offered training to rebels hacked both of our parents try to earn and save money. They young people who had missed out in front of us and then boiled them started a dancing group because on an education. He now has his own in a big pot. As the youngest, I was dancing helped them to block out workshop and spends much of his asked to carry our mother’s head and bad memories. They used jerry cans, time passing on his skills to other walk with it, tied in a line with other but now they have drums. Later the young people so that they can earn a children.’ Send a Cow charity gave Annet a cow living. Single mothers have traditionally of her own. She can now sell milk and Annet, who was abducted at the been shunned by their community but earn enough to pay for her daughter’s age of seven and became a child many women now find themselves education. Her dream is to save mother, speaks words that are painful in that predicament. In 2011 Annet enough money to build a ‘good house

‘Annet can now sell milk to pay for her daughter’s education.’ www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 21 Photo credit: Kelly Burks ‘Tonny Kidega convinces young people that “farming is cool” and trains them.’ with an iron roof’. nitrogen so that he can use artificial Polish Director of Photography, Jacek The film also features Tonny insemination to improve the genetic Petrycki, and his assistant cameraman, Kidega, a qualified vet who founded characteristics of the local cattle. He Karol Masiarz. Some of the shots of and runs the Gulu Uganda Country expects milk yields to improve in the the Murchison Falls National Park, Dairy as a model farm using modern next two to three years. He speaks of with its dramatic waterfalls and techniques. He convinces young his passion to be a ‘transformational abundant game, will make many people that ‘farming is cool’ and trains agent’: ‘If I give you advice that will put dream of visiting. Aerial shots, taken them. The land is fertile and there money into your pocket, that is my by drone operator Sebastian Sielewicz, is great potential for dairy farming happiness.’ are also awe-inspiring. and vegetable growing. Tonny drives I cannot end this review without To view the film, searchA film for all the way to Entebbe to buy liquid paying tribute to the artistry of the Northern Uganda on Youtube.com.

22 | Changemakers www.changemakersmagazine.org Photo credit: Kelly Burks SUBSCRIBE TO

Subscribe to our print and digital editions to receive new stories of change

DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

Future issues printed and delivered directly to you by subscribing online at: www.changemakersmagazine.org

Two issues for only £5.00 a year.

READ ONLINE FOR FREE

Get instant access and read the online digital edition at: www.changemakersmagazine.org

Subscribe to receive a link to new issues of Changemakers by email.

www.changemakersmagazine.org Changemakers | 23 STORIES OF CHANGE www.changemakersmagazine.org

www.uk.iofc.org