Bicycles for Peace

It may take a village to raise a child, as the well-known African proverb says, but it only takes a bicycle to help spread peace – at least in northern Uganda.

In a region that has endured the tragedies of Africa’s longest-running war, bicycles have become a crucial tool for those who are waging peace. Under a program started and run by the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI), grassroots peace committees have been created throughout Acholiland, and their members are helping to build peace from the ground up — through conflict resolution of domestic violence, land disputes, and political rivalries. They are also performing the crucial work of coordinating the education and sensitization of communities concerning returned combatants.

And bicycles are what help them do their work.

In each of the 60 sub-county peace committees created, trained and supported by ARLPI, committee members – who are all local volunteers — rely on bicycles to get to the people who need help, and to the conflicts that need resolving, sometimes traveling up to 10 miles for a visit.

Right now, each committee has only one bicycle — which is shared by 10 to 12 members. “Bicycles for Peace” aims to raise enough money to supply one bike for each member of every peace committee in Acholiland, a total of 720 bikes.

Your donation will directly support the crucial peace work now going on in northern Uganda, where the past two decades of violence have included rape, mutilation, murder, the forced relocation of 1.6 million people, and the abduction of 30,000 children by the rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

This is a critical time for the peacemakers of northern Uganda. There has been relative peace in the area since the signing of a ceasefire one year ago, and these grassroots peace committees are ready to expand and deepen their work as the Acholi people grapple with the creation of a sustainable peace, at every level of their society.

Your donation to “Bicycles for Peace” will help them – literally – on their way.