Location: Africa

In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ebola outbreak is still far from under control. To date, 377 people have lost their lives and 1,307 cases of infection have been detected. Paradoxically, for many residents, life goes on despite everything. But how can people continue to live relatively normally…

Most people assume that where religion divides, it stays that way. That faith is too personal, too identity-defining, too loaded to be the starting point for reconciliation. The safest thing communities can do is avoid the conversation entirely. In Lamu County, Kenya — where centuries of history, faith, and tradition…

Most people assume that once a harmful narrative takes hold, it’s impossible to stop. That misinformation moves too fast, reaches too far, and runs too deep to be interrupted. After decades of working in communities where narratives have fueled real violence, Search for Common Ground knows something different. Harmful narratives…

When conflict erupts, the instinct is to reach for force. More security. More enforcement. More authority. But we know something different. The communities least likely to tip into violence aren’t the ones with the most security presence. They’re the ones with the strongest social fabric.  And in coastal Kenya, the…

The question people rarely ask about refugee settlements is whether the people living in them can truly thrive. Survive, yes. Receive aid, yes. But build something? Own something? Lead something? Many believe that economic opportunity is too fragile to build on. That the divide between refugee and host communities runs…

On a small square, a basketball bounces quickly on the ground. Encouraging shouts and cheers ring out with every score. A large group of children plays basketball with fierce focus, seemingly unbothered by what’s happening around them. The group forms a colorful mix of Burundian residents and Congolese refugees. Just…

In Mukoni, northeastern Burundi, a group of women gathers next to a small shed. They come to listen. To a radio program. To each other. To stories of women like them turning local skills into something more. And slowly, something that had been forgotten began to come back. Basket and…

Most people assume social media is the problem. That platforms are too powerful, algorithms too manipulative, and young people too far gone to resist the pull of misinformation and outrage. But our team in Kenya knows something different. The same platforms spreading harmful narratives can spread something better. And the…

At the Second Forum on Peace and Social Cohesion in Niger, a woman stood up and spoke a truth too often ignored: “Without documents, we don’t exist—not to the state, not to the system, not to the future.” She wasn’t talking about politics or ideology. She was talking about civil…

In Kinango, Kenya, beneath the vast skies and arid landscape, parents are doing everything they can to protect their children—but the odds are steep. Food insecurity, driven by climate shocks. School dropout, driven by poverty. Teen pregnancies, driven by cultural stigma. And in the most heartbreaking cases—young people joining gangs…