Wake Up Sierra Leone Interview – The People’s Planning Process

by CFP

In November, Catalyst for Peace and Fambul Tok hosted an Inter-District Learning and Sharing Conference – Growing Inclusive Governance in Moyamba, Sierra Leone. The conference consolidated learnings from the People’s Planning Process (PPP). The PPP started as a post-Ebola recovery and planning initiative. It soon became the foundation of District-wide efforts to put communities at the center of peace and development with support from local and national government and organizations. The conference created a ….Keep reading this post >

Inviting Women’s Leadership in Peacebuilding and Development

by Amy Czajkowski

We believe the strong, visible, invited, respected leadership of women in peacebuilding and development is essential everywhere in the world. When women share their authentic selves and voices and work together, they take on activities that support the whole community. Women, invited to offer their wisdom and capacity, think and act holistically and when fully participating in structures with men and women, offer ways of working that create inclusive, creative ….Keep reading this post >

Wisdom Circle

by Amy Czajkowski

CFP is committed to an emergent way of working rooted in cultivating deep wisdom and ongoing action-learning cycles, an internal process and evolving program area we call — Wisdom Circle. We consider this a program because it is foundational for the rest of our work. Accordingly, organizational time and resource is dedicated to deep listening and individual and collective reflection – inviting the wisdom of the moment. This has been ….Keep reading this post >

People’s Planning Process – a map

by Amy Czajkowski

The People’s Planning Process as Fambul Tok has developed it in Sierra Leone works from the village to the district level with extensive meetings, sensitization and the establishment of platforms that will be long-term mechanisms for organizing at the section, chiefdom and district levels. It involves representation of all stakeholder groups and is carried out in partnership with traditional leaders and local government. Throughout the process, Fambul Tok staff compile ….Keep reading this post >

Growing Inclusive Governance – From the Inside Out

by Libby Hoffman

CFP continues its decade-long partnership with Fambul Tok (FT) in Sierra Leone to support communities in post-Ebola healing that leads to engagement in healthy partnerships for long-term peace and development. The People’s Planning Process places people and communities in the very center of recovery and on-going development. The PPP is growing from village to section to chiefdom to district to, ultimately, the national level. Using an inside-out approach, this process is ….Keep reading this post >

Tribute to Fambul Tok colleague, Sheku Koroma

by Amy Czajkowski

This morning 4600 miles away, my colleague Sheku Koroma passed on after a short illness. I didn’t even know he was sick. I was stunned, shocked and in disbelief. I had just emailed him to ask for clarification about content for a manual we are working on together. Catalyst for Peace and Fambul Tok, where Sheku has worked since its inception, have been partner organizations, and the staff of both ….Keep reading this post >

Embodying Fambul Tok

by Libby Hoffman

“Sheku IS Fambul Tok,” said John Caulker (the ED of Fambul Tok) when we spoke after learning of the sudden passing last week of one of the founding leaders of Fambul Tok, our dear colleague, friend and brother, Sheku Koroma. And while John’s statement helps explain the depth of the shock and grief at Sheku’s loss, it also illuminates a core strength, promise and power of Fambul Tok, and indeed ….Keep reading this post >

Honoring Sheku, Remembering Wi Na Wan Fambul

by Charles Gibbs

The sudden passing of Sheku Koroma, a founding staff member of Fambul Tok, not only stunned his colleagues at Fambul Tok and all of us at Catalyst for Peace (CFP), it raised the question of how to honor the life of a beloved family member who, in a heartbeat, was no longer among us.

One way is to remember Sheku by telling the family’s story – the larger ‘fambul’ he helped ….Keep reading this post >

Grateful To Join Catalyst for Peace

by Charles Gibbs

“Each of us will die one day –  

it doesn’t matter.  

More important is to practice living.”

These lines from a poem in my new book – Light Reading: Poems from a Pilgrim Journey – have everything to do with why I feel privileged to join Catalyst for Peace as Senior Partner and Poet-in-Residence.

Why? Because I can’t imagine a better place for me than CFP to practice living. I’m invited to ….Keep reading this post >

Joining the CFP Staff

by Amy Czajkowski

by Amy Potter Czajkowski

I am deeply grateful for the invitation to join the Catalyst for Peace staff.  I have had a number of consulting and other relationships with CFP over the years, but I’m now officially on board. I love working for an organization grounded in values and led by a strong sense of vision and purpose. CFP embraces whole people and whole systems peacebuilding and has been pioneering in ….Keep reading this post >