Introducing Polly Byers as our Executive Director
We are delighted to announce that Polly Byers has accepted the position of Karuna Center’s Executive Director! Polly has spent the past three decades working both within and outside of government channels to support peacebuilding practices and to increase local...
No peace without racial justice
We feel like this is important to say right now: There can be no true peace in a world where Black lives are devalued and Black voices are not respected. Reaffirming that Black lives matter is an act of love. It is an act of caring for each other. The struggle...
Coming together
For #GivingTuesdayNow, May 5, we are helping to lift up stories where people have come together during times of threat and loss. The task of bringing people together across divides, to create stronger communities, is a matter of survival during this pandemic—just...
Why Earth Day matters right now
The pandemic is hitting hard in communities on the frontline of climate change. In our best moments now, we are learning how to act out of concern for our common future.
Facing the pandemic with a peacebuilding stance
There has been a lot of talk within the U.S. about meeting COVID-19 on a "wartime footing"—but what would a peacebuilding footing mean? The spread of the virus is both revealing our interdependence, and exposing the divides among us. Our responses can either lead...
Three Bosnian War Commanders, working together for peace
Last week, the powerful story of three former Bosnian War commanders was highlighted in a Reuters article and printed in The New York Times. Over the past year, these three veterans have been collaborating with Karuna Center to share their story in communities...
After a 3-Year Program in Rwanda: This is What Peacebuilding Looks Like!
It’s hard to believe that our three-year Healing Our Communities program has drawn to a close. The project worked intensely in 16 Rwandan communities where post-genocide tensions remained high, as a collaboration between Karuna Center, Aegis Trust, HROC (Healing...
Reaching Across Painful Ethnic Divides in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Though the Bosnian War ended almost 25 years ago, its unhealed wounds continue to define ethnic divides in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. Even though there is not an imminent threat of return to mass violence, Bosnians who lived through the conflict are telling us...
Community-Based Solutions for Climate-Related Stresses
In Nigeria, farmer-herder conflict is at times deadlier than the Boko Haram insurgency. And although farmers and herders identify with different ethnicities and religions, a core driver of the conflict is a reduction in usable land—as climate change dries the West...
Sokolac: City of Peace
Amra Pandžo, Karuna Center's Bosnia Country Director, wrote these reflections after a public film screening held as part of Project STaR (Social Transformation and Reconciliation). We recently began this project together with 4 organizations in Bosnia and...
© Karuna Center for Peacebuilding
447 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002 USA
PHONE: +1 413.256.3800
Registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization