Karuna Center Partners
Karuna Center places a high value on developing strategic partnerships with international and regional partners. The relationships increase the visibility, impact, and sustainability of our work. Our partners are based across the United States & Carribean, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
• United States and Carribean-based partners
AECOM International
AECOM is one of the largest and most respected providers of professional, technical, and management support services in the world – and all for onepurpose: To enhance and sustain the world’s built, natural and social environments for the clients and the communities that they serve.
Karuna Center has partnered with AECOM since 2005 on two USAID funded peacebuilding programs to help civil society, government leaders, and rebel groups resolve a 25-year old insurgency in the Casmamance region of southern Senegal: Support to the Casamance Peace Process Program and Peacebuidling and Conflict Resolution with Key Constituencies in the Casamance Project.
Institute for Inclusive Security
The Institute for Inclusive Security uses research, traning, and advocacy to promote the inclusion of all stakeholders, particularly women, in peace processes. They work with a global network of well over 1,000 women leaders from more than 40 conflict regions.
Karuna Center has partnered with Inclusive Security since 2007. Together we worked on women's engagement with security issues in Afghanistan and led peacebuilding trainings for women parliamentarians and women activists in Nepal. A partnership grant from Inclusive Security has also increased our ability to promote women's participation in all of our programming.
Men's Resources International (MRI) helps men around the globe practice and promote a healthy, compassionate, and responsible model of masculinity. MRI's approach is to identify and support men's networks in all stages of development, and provide training, coaching, materials, and technical assistance to help these networks grow in size and effectiveness and to connect with other like-minded men's and women's organizations. All of MRI's programs welcome male and female participants, and promote community-based leadership with men and women as partners.
We are currently developing a program with Men's Resources International, PRO-FEMMES, and the Rwanda Men's Resource Centre called Women and Men as Partners in Peacebuilding, which will provide training and mentoring for women and men to work as partners in combating gender-based and community violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
Proof: Media for Social Justice
Proof: Media for Social Justice is a non-profit created to educate global citizens about the economic, political, and humanitarian hardships facing post-conflict societies using a variety of media including photographic essays, video documentaries, and first-hand witness accounts of genocide and other atrocities.
Karuna Center and Proof are partnering on the Rescuers Project, a program that highlights the stories of those who reach out and rescue members of enemy groups at times of mass violence. A travelling exhibit has already been developed for Rwanda. Travelling exhibits for other countries, a repository for rescue stories, and a documentary film are all in process.
St. George University, Grenada
Karuna Center is partnering with the Psychological Services Centre at St. George's University, Grenada, to bring together university and community stakeholder groups to address issues around conflict resolution, community relations, cultural differences, perceived injustices, and social inclusion.
World Education, Boston
World Education is well known for its work around the globe in environmental education, community development, maternal and child health, school governance, integrated literacy, small enterprise development, HIV and AIDS education and prevention and care, and refugee training. World Education also works to strengthen literacy and adult basic education programs in the United States. Projects are designed to contribute to individual growth, as well as to community and national development.
Karuna Center is currently partnering with World Education on a USAID funded project in the Casamance region of southern Senegal titled, Peace in the Casamance.
World Learning
World Learning is a global non-profit organization with operations in more than 75 countries. Through its international education programs – The Experiment in International Living, SIT Study Abroad, and SIT Graduate Institute – World Learning fosters global citizenship by connecting over 3,000 young ambassadors annually across cultural differences and social barriers.
Karuna Center founder Paula Green founded and directs the CONTACT (Conflict Transformation Across Cultures) program at the SIT Graduate Institute, that brings 60-70 peacebuilders from around the world to a summer institute each June. Karuna Center director Olivia Dreier directs the affiliated one-year CONTACT Graduate Certificate program.
• Asia-based partners
Center for Peacebuilding and Reconciliation, Sri Lanka
The Centre for Peace-Building & Reconciliation - CPBR is a non-profit organization promoting peace-building, peacemaking, and non-violent conflict resolution & transformation between ethnic, religious and regional groups, women, children, academics and students in Sri Lanka through community & national level work. Two professionals dedicated to promoting peace and understanding among people formed CPBR. Through their love and empathy, they have created a home that appreciates and encourages diversity and that offers support for those who seek justice, equality and compassion.
Karuna Center is partnering with CPBR on a USAID funded program titled: Community Reconciliation through Religious Leaders: Healing Divisions in Trincomalee District. From 2003-05 Karuna Center and CPBR worked together on peace leadership program for NGO leaders from all regions of the country.
Institute For Conflict Management, Peace and Development, Nepal
Institute for Conflict Management Peace and Development (ICPD) was established in Kathmandu in November 2002 by a group of professionals, who felt the need to provide professional support in transformation of the tri-polar national conflict that took place in Nepal in October 2002. ICPD believed that dialogue among the related parties was the only way to build durable peace in the country. ICPD believes that any peace building work has to be carried out at both sides: the grass-roots, and the national levels.
Since 2007, Karuna Center has partnered with ICPD on a number of programs, including multi-sector peace leadership programs and peacebuilding training for women parliamentarians. Karuna Center and ICPD are currently working together on a US State Department funded program to provide intensive negotiations training to high-level political leaders.
National Peace Council, Sri Lanka
The National Peace Council (NPC) is an independent and impartial non-governmental organization that has worked towards a peaceful Sri Lanka since 1995. They believe that consistent non-violent effort and political mediation can bring an end to the prolonged conflict Sri Lankais experiencing today. Their networks reach to all levels of society, with each member working to strengthen support for a negotiated political settlement. While their activities are diverse, they are all united towards one critical goal -- to build a peaceful, prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democracy of all communities are respected.
Karuna Center is partnering with NPC on a US State Department funded program for young political leaders from all parties, ethnic groups, and regions of Sri Lanka.
PAIMAN Alumni Trust, Pakistan
PAIMAN Alumni Trust is a non profit organization conducting research and capacity building trainings in conflict transformation, peace building, good governance, gender development, etc., in Pakistan.
PAIMAN Trust recognizes that sensitizing and educating youth on the concept of conflict transformation is required not as a moral imperative theory but peace building simply cannot succeed without youth and local society. Engaging educated youth in such positive and creative activities will help them play an effective role in impacting change in their society.Karuna Center has provided peacebuilding and conflict transformation for PAIMAN members, who have since established a peace center in Islamabad that trains youth and community Peace Practitioners from the FATA (the Federally Administered Tribal Areas). A program titled Mobilizing Pakistani Communities for Peace is under development.
Tibetan Center for Conflict Resolution
Tibetan Center for Conflict Resolution became a reality based on one of the projects of Danish Centre for Conflict Resolution. TCCR is now established as an independent NGO and well established in the Tibetan exile community. The goals of TCCR are:
* To teach and train conflict handling via workshops, seminars and longer courses
* To lead negotiations
* To counsel people who are experiencing conflicts and collaborative problems
* To mediate between parties in a conflict
* To facilitate public meetings concerning problems in society
* To train groups and workplaces in democratic co-operational processes and hereby contribute to the creation of conflict handling environments in societyFrom 2003-05 Karuna Center partnered with TCCR on the Project with Tibetans-in-Exile: Leadership Training in Conflict Transformation, 2003-05. KCP Youth leaders from a number of Tibetan refugee settlements from around India were trained in skills to resolve conflicts within the Tibetan community and with their Indian neighbors.
• Africa-based partners
African Consultants International, Senegal
African Consultants International-ACI is an American non-profit organization, working in Dakar, Senegal, since 1984. Our mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding, social justice and the health and well being of Africa's people through effective communication and transformational training. For nearly 20 years - since 1990 - ACI has been a key participant in finding effective responses to HIV/AIDS and other major health issues in Africa.
Karuna Center is partnering with ACI on developing annual peacebuilding training program for the French-speaking countries of West Africa. A pilot training of trainers program was launched in 2009.
Kigali Memorial Center, Rwanda
In April 2004, on the 10th Anniversary of the genocide that split Rwanda apart, the Kigali Memorial Centre was inaugurated. The Centre provided an opportunity to offer a place in which the bereaved could bury their families and friends, and over 250,000 victims of the genocide are now buried at the site - a clear reminder of the cost of ignorance.
The Centre includes three permanent exhibitions, the largest of which documents the genocide in 1994. There is also a children's memorial, and an exhibition on the history of genocidal violence around the world. The Education Centre, Memorial Gardens and National Documentation Centre of the Genocide all contribute to a meaningful tribute to those who perished, and form a powerful educational tool for the next generation.
Karuna Center has partnered with the Memorial Centre and Proof:Media for Social Justice an using a travelling exhibit about Hutus who rescued Tutsis during the genocide as a platform for school and community-based dialogues.
ProFemmes/Twese Hemwe, Rwanda
PRO-FEMMES/TWESE HAMWE is longing for a Rwandese society rid of all forms of gender related discrimination, and thus characterised by equality and equity between men and women in the development process and in a context of a stable and peaceful society. Its mission is to contribute to:
Karuna Center and PRO-FEMMES partnered on a peace leadership program for its member organizations from 2003-05. We are currently developing a program with PRO-FEMMES, Men's Resources International, and the Rwanda Men's Resource Centre called Women and Men as Partners in Peacebuilding, which will provide training and mentoring for women and men to work as partners in combating gender-based and community violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
- the eradication of all forms of discrimination towards women and promotion of their socio-economic, political and legal status,
- the enhancement of the institutional capacity of the umbrella and member associations , and the promotion of
- a sustainable human development based on gender and
- a culture of peace based on social justice, respect of human rights, tolerance and non-violence
• Middle East-based partners
IPCRI seeks to serve as an intellectual platform for Israelis and Palestinians (and others) to create and develop new concepts and ideas that enrich the political and public discourse in order to influence decision makers and to challenge the current political reality with the aim of advancing the political solution of two-states for two-peoples.
