Women's Peace Center

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) established the Women's Peace Centre (WPC) in January 1996, in recognition of the fact that Burundian women must be included as key players in the process of ethnic reconciliation, and must have access to the tools necessary to fulfill that role. Sustained conflict has created a situation in which women make up a majority of Burundi's population and, as a result, face increasing responsibilities, including the rebuilding of their traumatised communities. By working directly with Burundian women, this programme also affected husbands, fathers, and children, thus reaching Burundians in the military, the civil service, and at the grassroots level.

Although much of the work of the WPC continues today as part of the Community Outreach Team, the first ten years of the Centre's operation saw the development of a number of specific initiatives designed to empower Burundian women to become independent and active participants in civil society.

Roundtables
Roundtable discussions, held in Bujumbura and interior locations, were one of the Centre's most appreciated activities, providing a much-needed forum for Hutu and Tutsi women to access information and collaborate with other women's groups.

Trainings
The Centre expanded on its original role as a neutral site for meetings of Hutu and Tutsi women and also became a source of training. Workshops and trainings were held on topics such as conflict resolution, creation and management of transparent associations, and mediation. The WPC worked in conjunction with several local and international organisations in Burundi to develop a network of conflict-resolution trainers whose services could be used throughout the country.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
From the outset of its activities, the Centre placed a special emphasis on initiatives that would help internally displaced women in the reintegration phase - helping them to reconcile with former neighbours and to rebuild their lives in their old communities. The Centre initiated visits between former neighbours and organised roundtables, discussion sessions and workshops.

Positive Solidarity Days
The Centre organised one-day seminars on Positive Solidarity between women of different ethnic backgrounds to celebrate their positive points of commonality. Positive solidarity workshops were held in Gitega, Ngozi, Bujumbura, and Bujumbura Nord, engaging participants to express solidarity based on their common desire to continue to build the foundations of peace in Burundi regardless of ethnic and other differences.

Trauma Healing
In 2001, the WPC began working in conjunction with the Friends Peace Teams to alleviate social and personal problems associated with post-conflict trauma. The Centre offered information about and training in trauma healing, as well as listening sessions for trauma victims.

Legal Code
The Legal Code Project that was launched in 1998 was a series of training workshops held in Bujumbura and the provinces, bringing together women's groups around those aspects of the new family code. Furthermore, in helping generate dialogue and understanding around the recently introduced family law, the Centre pioneered the coordinated use of radio, television, theatre, posters, training manuals, and simplified booklets to bring Burundian women together around an issue that affects them all.

Radio Programmes
The Centre was able to increase the impact of its support for associations by utilising the expertise and resources of Studio Ijambo. The use of radio ensured that at least some of the Centre's impact outside of Bujumbura can be maintained regardless of the security situation. The Centre worked to ensure that as many people as possible had access to radios, and received 450 wind-up radios from the British Embassy in Kigali. The radios were then distributed in areas where access to media was otherwise limited.

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