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Community animation and peace support(CAPS)2009 Sierra Leone
Niagorehun community is one of many communities where the Sierra Leone Red Cross is helping build peace...
..following the eleven-year civil war which ended in 2002
Emmanuel Tony Secretary General, Sierra Leone Red Cross
During the course of the war families have been seperated..
People who have lived together for years and years..
..communities were divided for a number of reasons...
..because in the same communitiies a number of warring factions recruited fighters
and then they have commited atrocities against their own in those communities
A Red Cross 'Animator' is based in a community for an 18th-month period
Animators help people restore relationships through developing activities...
..that are of common need to community members
the role of a peace animator is very simple
try and rebuild the peace by holding meetings with the people
you can really know where the problem lies
then you can find a solution to those problems
Since they have come from war first of all we start off with peace building
Animators train community members in conflict resolution
We have had a number of trainings in how to solve our own problems and now we can work closely with the chiefs resoloving issues and sometimes I intervine and resolve the conflict between people before it even gets to the chief
We want this to continue and to hand it over to the children
Kadie Sawaneh Chairwome Community Peace Consolidation Commitie
After the workshops we came back and had discussions with our men folk the chief and our husbands
from that time the men haven't left the women behind in any decision making
so things are a lot better, now we are united we are in agreement with the men
The Red Cross also addresses the health and hygiene needs of the community
We were using the stream for drinking water but sometimes in the dry season it dries up so we had to go to another stream which was nearly two miles away
but now that the Red Cross helped us build a well we can have water at any time
even at night we have access to water
from having the clothes ropes they no longer develop scabies on their bodies
we form these people into groups
this group is for farm work
The Red Cross provides seeds and tools for work on communities or individual farms
The earnings from community farms help members work together on community development projects
When the war ended and we came back lots of organisations came and then left but the red cross stayed and now the red cross has helped us do lots of things with the community farm and cleaning in the village our lives have changed
Now we have community farms the produce is used for the whole community
When we have visitors instead of going round and taking rice from people what we do is to use the community rice
we also use the community farm for anything which is happening such as festivals
now we have the means to eat well
At the end of every year we organise a peace festival
We bring all the communities together
The CAPs programme encourages the revival of traditional singing and dancing
And has provided instruments to make this possible
We have some people in some communities who are not in talking times but when the festival comes, they are rubbing shoulders together and dancing together.
they will forget about the agrevation and a new conversation will take place
The community animation and peace support programme is one of may international projects supported by the British Red Cross
For more information visit redcross.org.uk