The local press in South Australia recently picked up the community building potential of the Creators of Peace Circles. The following article from the Messenger Press, was sent in by Jean and Bek Brown who, with other friends, are currently running a number of introductory gatherings around their city of Adelaide.

As news of an appalling two-hour massacre of men, women and children in Jos, Nigeria, on Sunday was reported around the world, the first item on Al Jazeera TV English news on March 9 was the killing in the Jos area, presented by Yvonne Ndege.  As part of that report, first Pastor James Wuye and then Imam Muhammed Ashafa (of the film The Imam and the Pastor) spoke to the camera for about 45 seconds each, giving their strong message of reconciliation from Jos.

Three generations joined the faculty of the recent Life Matters Course in Melbourne, Australia, 5-14 February.

Rajmohan Gandhi, President of Initiatives of Change International, and his wife Usha, spent six days in Sri Lanka in February – the first part of a six month ‘journey of discovery and dialogue’.

The organizers of the third annual Caux Forum for Human Security are currently building a conference assistant team to support this summer's conference, which will run from 9 – 16 July 2010.

"Hope in the Cities has provided a map for the future," says former Virginia governor Tim Kaine in his foreword to Trustbuilding: an honest conversation on race, reconciliation, and responsibility, by Rob Corcoran, which is published this month by University of Virginia Press.

The intergenerational divide causes conflict, break up and division within families, with profound consequences for the young and the old among many communities in Britain. The Somali community recently discussed this issue and came up with interesting observations and solutions. Ayan Osman, volunteer, Somali Initiative for Dialogue and Democracy reports.

From a war-ravaged country of people haunted by painful memories of the brutal civil war of 1991-2002, Sierra Leone is emerging as a glimmering ray of hope, casting its glow on other African countries still under storm clouds of bitter conflict. And Hope-Sierra Leone, the NGO founded in 2000 by Sierra Leonean war refugee John Bangura and now affiliated to Initiatives of Change-International, is playing a key role in this development. Working with the government agency NaCSA (National Commission for Social Action), it recently coordinated a series of successful reconciliation and symbolic re-burial ceremonies in response to a recommendation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This is a critically important step in the journey towards a more tolerant and more democratic society.

The Nigerian Imam Muhammad Ashafa who, together with Christian Pastor James Wuye, is running an inter-religious Mediation Centre in Nigeria, interpreted the Swiss vote in favour of a ban on minarets as a sign of fear of 'the other'.

At a time of heightened political tension, with national elections scheduled for April and South Sudan due to hold a referendum in 2011 on possible secession, The Imam and the Pastor in Arabic was launched in Sudan on 16 January. The event, which took place under the theme 'Faith values are the basis for peace and coexistence', was organized by the Sudan Inter-Religious Council.