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Peace Starts Here Project in South Kivu

Peace Starts Here Project in South Kivu


With support from Peace Direct, JAMAA Grands Lacs is implementing an innovative project as part of the global Peace Starts Here! campaign, which aims to give more voice and power to local peacemakers.

In a region marked by decades of conflict, this project seeks to demonstrate that peace is not a distant ideal: it begins in communities, with women, men, and young people committed to building a different future.

Project objectives

  • Strengthen inter-community dialogue: Create safe and inclusive spaces where communities can meet, exchange ideas, and identify the root causes of conflict together.
  • Promote reconciliation and mutual trust: Provide communities with the opportunity to heal past wounds, rebuild broken relationships, and lay the foundations for peaceful coexistence.
  • Strengthen the capacities of local leaders: Train community leaders in conflict management and mediation so that they can become champions of peace in their localities.
  • Raise awareness of the culture of peace: Encourage tolerance, respect for diversity, and unity, particularly through forums, public dialogues, and outreach activities.

Expected results

  •          Stronger social cohesion: more united communities, capable of working together for lasting peace.
  • Conflict prevention mechanisms: sustainable local platforms for dialogue to anticipate and ease tensions.
  • Stronger civic leadership: leaders trained and equipped to intervene effectively in favor of peace.
  • Increased civic participation: citizens mobilized around the values of tolerance and living together.

Key activities

  •          Training courses to equip 20 community leaders in mediation and conflict management.
  • Community forums bringing together different communities to debate, discuss, and jointly develop solutions.
  • Awareness campaigns on the culture of peace and respect for diversity.
  • Creation of permanent platforms for dialogue to prevent and manage local conflicts.

This project is more than an initiative: it is a seed of hope planted in South Kivu, carried by the communities themselves, to remind us that everywhere in the world, peace begins here, with the men and women determined to build it on a daily basis.