Help our local partners realise their vision of hope for their communities
“We are repeating the same playbook as Rwanda. We are heading towards breaking point. I don’t know how to emphasise the urgency any more.”
Emmanuel Ogebe, Justice for Jos.
This month, members of the HART home team visited our partners in central Nigeria. The visit was a joint trip with Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and the International Organisation for Peacebuilding and Social Justice (PSJ UK).
We went to stand in solidarity with our local partners in the region where killings and atrocities continue. We witnessed the ruins of homes, farmland, food stores, churches and an orphanage, all attacked by Fulani militia in the past seven months. We also heard detailed accounts of the slaughter of children, a 98 year old woman burned alive and people hacked to death by machetes as they ran from rapid gunfire.
We were encouraged to encounter numerous locally led peacebuilding projects including our partner Women for Peace, in the heart of Jos. Women for Peace, formerly known as the Mai Adiko Peace Project, is located in the heart of Rayfield, Jos – a community that has suffered heavily from poverty and inter-religious violence. The project is led and attended by 40 women (20 Christians and 20 Muslims) who work together to coordinate educational activities, computer and literacy classes, baking, sewing and soap-making. After 9-18 months of skill acquisition, funds are raised to provide loans for women to generate an income and become self-sufficient. Women for Peace is a pillar of reconciliation in the community, embraced by local imams and pastors.
During the factfinding visit HART also monitored numerous other projects including the Roads to Hope Mobile Education van.
You can find out more about the visit and the vital work of our partners in the visit report below.