Monthly Archives: January 2015

CFP Senior Fellow John Caulker on Ebola in Sierra Leone

John Caulker, Senior Fellow at Catalyst for Peace and Executive director at Fambul Tok, appeared on MidPoint to give an update on Ebola in Sierra Leone. He discussed the impact of the disease and how groups like his are handling the marathon fight of against it, as well as what’s happening with children orphaned by Ebola.

Blog banner image (c) Sara Terry for Catalyst for Peace

Libby discusses “Forgiving the Unforgivable” at TEDx

In Libby’s TEDxDirigo talk on “Forgiving the Unforgivable,” she describes the values and processes at the center of Fambul Tok.

From her introduction:

“Most of the media coverage we are privy to portrays Africa as a place of darkness, despair, disease, conflict, and  savagery in many respects. On somewhat of a flip-side of that, we also hear a lot about how we have a ‘save Africa.” We see lots of stories about move ….Keep reading this post >

Storytelling in Post-War Sierra Leone

Fambul Tok Director/Producer Sara Terry speaks eloquently about filmmaking that tries to let a culture speak for itself⎯being mindful of a Western audience, without imposing Western assumptions on the story itself or how it gets told. Her Director’s Statement, copied below, illuminates CFP’s approach to storytelling⎯responding to Ben Okri’s call for a ‘new seeing’ of Africa, that can help ‘reveal its brightness, its brilliance, its beauty.’

The Power of Forgiveness: Truth-Telling ….Keep reading this post >

The Nuts and Bolts of Making Community Ownership Work

Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone has pioneered a large scale, but fully locally-owned and led post war reconciliation and community building process. The key to local local ownership is in the PROCESS Fambul Tok uses facilitate community agency, collective decision making, and collective action.

So – how exactly does that process work?

Download our How It Works chart here [PDF].

The first step of any Fambul Tok process is a consultation. Sierra Leone ….Keep reading this post >

Community-Driven Action is needed for effective Ebola response: Libby Hoffman in the Building Peace Forum

CFP founder and President Libby Hoffman wrote an article for the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s Building Peace Forum, linking inside-out, community-owned and led peacebuilding to effective Ebola response. Her article highlights the powerful impact of Fambul Tok’s Peace Mothers groups in preventing the spread of Ebola and helping communities respond constructively.

An excerpt:

This ‘inside-out’ approach holds great promise for effective Ebola response, as Fambul Tok’s newly-empowered community leaders are showing ….Keep reading this post >

BCN Report – Communities Weigh in on Ebola Response

As a part of efforts to strengthen community representation in Ebola response, Catalyst for Peace supported the creation of the Bridging Communities Network (BCN), a coalition of leading national NGOs in Sierra Leone and over 30 community based organizations, that formed in October, 2014 to facilitate a community-led response to country’s Ebola crisis.

Concerned by the lack of channels for community voices and perspectives in the national and international Ebola response, the ….Keep reading this post >