This email series highlights voices of peace from around the world, to help you find yours.
This month’s Voice of Peace is Search’s CEO, Shamil Idriss.
Several weeks ago, I found myself in back-to-back meetings with high level leaders in Israel and Palestine. These public officials, civil society activists, and religious leaders shared with me how profoundly their constituents and communities are being impacted by the ongoing war. They knew of our work in the region and in other high-conflict locations globally, and every one of them encouraged me—some even pleaded with me—to expand our work and launch new peacebuilding initiatives. As I listened to them and to our frontline Israeli and Palestinian team, to the diverse network of women peacebuilders, media owners, and negotiation experts with whom I met, I knew there was only one answer: “yes.” Yes to investing in peace, yes to supporting those poised to affect substantive change in this decades-long conflict.
At Search for Common Ground, much of our work is supported by institutional funders who recognize the critical need to invest in peacebuilding. They enable us to develop large-scale, long-term programming. But when our teams need to respond quickly, adapt to an emerging crisis, seize the initiative of a new opportunity before it closes, or adapt programming to reach a critical constituency, they must rely on unrestricted funding from donors like you. Your partnership is what makes the difference in allowing us to say “yes” when needs surface.
When I sat with those Israeli and Palestinian leaders, I couldn’t say, “Let me apply for a grant for this programming and I’ll get back to you in six months.” They cannot wait that long. Some of the openings available today will be closed tomorrow. The region needs—and deserves—our action now. When I said “yes,” it was with the backing of thousands of everyday peacebuilders like you who partner with Search.
Drawn from the locations in which we serve, our teams around the world are experts in understanding their communities’ needs and in generating creative solutions—responses that often require calculated risk-taking and innovative approaches. But acquiring institutional funding to implement these solutions is a slow, tedious process—and even when it’s awarded, the funding may not cover essential elements of what is needed.
National budgets always include money to fund war, but if we truly want to turn the tide and change the way the world deals with conflict, we must invest in peacebuilding. We must say “yes” to peacebuilders poised and ready to respond in creative, collaborative ways.
