Peace in Focus 101

What a joy to be able to spend this summer launching our non-profit organization, Peace in Focus! It's important that I thank Nancy Germeshausen Klavans and the Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program for their support through the Cultural Bridge Fellowship Program. In many ways, this summer is a crucible for our organization. We've spent months preparing for our upcoming pilot workshops in Boston, MA and Bujumbura, Burundi. Both of these places have become second homes to me. When I look closer, I see that both of these places reveal a resilience and creative capacity that outsiders rarely have the chance to see. I've found that both places are filled with untold stories, and youth that are committed to telling them.

Why Boston?
Boston, Massachusetts, site to several major events in US history, including the Boston Massacre, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston, is no stranger to violence and adversity. In fact, according to a recent City of Boston study, nearly 90 percent of Boston public high school students said they had witnessed acts of violence, and nearly a third said they had a family member killed. As one of the United States' most diverse and influential cities, we believe Boston needs creative outlets for youth to understand and release conflict in their lives.

Why Burundi?
Burundi, a small country located in the Great Lakes Region of central east Africa, is still in transition from a 12-year civil war, which saw over 300,000 people killed and millions displaced. As a result of this conflict and decades of identity-based violence and instability, young Burundians are growing up with entrenched stereotypes of themselves and youth from different backgrounds. Youth have few outlets to creatively break down these stereotypes and build healthy relationships between and among different groups. Peace in Focus feels strongly that youth in Burundi must be given the chance to interact in a positive and creative environment and have an opportunity to play an active role in shaping the future of their country.

Therefore, our team has designed an innovative approach to peacebuilding and reconciliation in order to begin bridging this gap. Our workshops aim to strengthen the role of photography and the arts in non-violence and reconciliation work. Our goal is to engage underserved youth in a dialogue for peace through collaborative photography and conflict transformation workshops. We work to advance what we call "grassroots peace photojournalism," whereby local youth begin to craft and articulate their vision for social change through images and stories. Our hope is to strengthen the creation of an organic local narrative, where youth transform themselves from subjects to architects and spokespersons of their own reality.

Our summer workshops are the first step in what we hope will be a lifelong process to inspire youth, transform communities, and enable the next generation of leaders in fragmented and post-conflict societies.