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Alliance for Community-based
Self-reliant
Peacebuilding
(ASP)
was initiated by three community
based organization, (Khmer
Ahimsa-Cambodia, Peace and Community
Action (PCA) - Sri Lanka and Society
for Health-Education-Environment and
Peace (SHEEP) – India). Its aim is:
·
to enhance the capacity of local
peace organizations in Asia to work
together with local communities in
order to promote peace, justice and
equalities; and
·
to encourage local initiatives to
help people discover their own
solution to local problems.
Together these three organizations
have agreed to develop a programme
of community based activities
bringing together staff and
community representatives from the 3
member countries. key activities
currently run by ASP are the People
to People exchange; the Staff to
Staff Meeting and Community-based
Self-reliant Peacebuilding
Training:
PEOPLE TO PEOPLE
The People To People (P2P) Exchange:
grew out of recognition that it
would be valuable to encourage
people who live in the midst of
violence and conflict and who have
developed their own peace
initiatives to share their
strategies and methods of coping.
It is run as a workshop which aims
to give participants the chance to
broaden their perspective by meeting
and working with people from other
countries who live and work in
similar circumstances.
Participants share their experience
and work together to discover new,
non violent local approaches,
building a network which offers
solidarity and mutual support.
Bringing people together to helps
them realize what alternatives and
choices they have and to gives them
an opportunity to develop creative
ways to resolve their problems This,
in turn, enables them to improve
communication and build trust in
their communities, strengthening the
community, increasing its solidarity
and unity and enriching local
initiatives.
Earlier workshops have confirmed our
view that we cannot change people or
bring peace to them: Peace and
changes are brought by the choices,
commitment, and participation of
local people and communities.
People know best the nature and
causes of the conflicts they are
facing, so they are best placed to
know the ways and means by which
they can solve them.
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