A Guide to Hopebuilding Stories
Categorizing these stories (362 as of Oct. 10, 2008) is often challenging, because many of them talk about people's or community activities that addressed a number of issues at once, or grew from one small project into something much larger. Reflecting this, some stories appear in several categories. Clicking on the links highlighted in blue will take you to that page. Please do read my GuidelinesForSharing before you post.
Stories about Agriculture
- Swedish project helps Niger farmers see nature’s answers to food insecurity
- Raising goats saves on fertilizer costs for farmers in Philippines
- Storytelling is new form of research at unique farmers conference
- African crop yields benefit from 'pinch' of fertiliser
- ‘Banana Mama’ wins YARA prize for helping African farmers escape poverty
- Find all stories about agriculture by clicking here
Stories about Community Capacity
- Bloggers save lives by allowing citizens to map, and see, outbreaks of violence
- Young people create new life and lush urban garden in former Kibera waste dump
- Kenya, Somaliland, Tanzanian organizations win award for their work with disadvantaged children
- Successful model sustains AIDS orphans by rebuilding villages sustainably
- Grassroots environmental heroes from around the world win largest prize
Stories about Governance
- Brazil’s Lula achieves ‘inclusive prosperity’ that benefits the poor and grows the economy
- Five Presidents will help ALAS improve lives of Latin America’s poor children
- Young people of J8 make recommendations to world leaders
- Rwanda leads the world in women's political equality
- Effective land titles system empowers farmers in Tanzania
Stories about Health
- Elephant Toilet and Elephant Pump bring sustainable sanitation to Malawi, Zimbabwe
- ‘Integrating TB and HIV treatment and care saves lives’, South African study finds
- Cervical cancer control 'achievable for the first time'
- New therapeutic food is miracle for starving children
- Recycled phones and free software revolutionize health care for Malawi hospital
Stories about Money
- Technological innovation brings low-cost phone calls to poor South African townships
- Disabled Niger gardener now feeds her family and her neighbours
- Humanitarian agency uses mobile phones to deliver cash aid in Kenya
- Mobile phone banking comes to remote Maldives, Mongolia
- Mobile phones allow people to transfer money person to person in Kenya, Afghanistan
- Find all stories about money by clicking here
Stories about Peace
- Climbing Mount Kenya to build peace and protect the earth
- Kenyan youth lead camel caravans for peace in Great Lakes
- Weaving traditional scarves helps build peace in Mindanao
- Rats sniff out land mines, tuberculosis in Africa
- Irish drama helps Afghanis come to terms with years of war
Stories about Rebuilding
- First Southern Sudanese town celebrates demining success
- Hutus and Tutsis live side by side in new Burundi ‘peace village’
- Click a day plants 16 million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic coastal forest
- Homeless World Cup changes lives, attitudes about homelessness
- Refugees are the filmmakers, actors and audience in unique Kenyan film festival
- Find all stories about rebuilding by clicking here
Stories about Schools
- Community kindergarten gives Kyrgyzstan children a good start in life
- Canadians reach out to help the orphans of Lesotho attend school
- Teaching and overcoming fear about HIV are both vital jobs in Swaziland
- Affordable menstrual pads keep girls in school, create jobs
- Recycling paper in Malawi benefits schools, communities and environment
Stories about Sharing
- Reconditioned US bicycles provide transportation in the developing world
- Acupuncturists bring healing, relief, local training across the globe
- Gift of a goat from US schoolchildren leads to Ugandan village’s first college graduate
- Old US hospital equipment, vital supplies bring new life in developing countries
- MalariaEngage hopes social networking will bring funds to African researchers
Stories about Sustainability
- South Africa launches world’s first scheme to let water users balance demand and supply
- Biochar can solve food security, fuel crisis, and climate change
- China could become a global low carbon leader, report says
- Tanzanian blacksmiths pass on skills, creating jobs and saving forests
- Unique rental model brings solar power to remote Lao villages
- Find all stories about sustainability by clicking here
Stories about Work
- More than 100,000 Tanzanian homes built with bricks fired by agricultural waste
- Unique Honey Bee Network promotes rural Indian invention
- South African program to clear invasive trees creates jobs, reduces poverty
- Pygmy communities, loggers in Congo use GPS, community radio to protect cultural sites
- SEWA empowers Indian widow in rebuilding her life, community
More stories are added regularly. You are welcome to send or share stories of similar achievements. See Great Links for links to websites that provide many other stories of achievement.
Pageloads tracked since February 2008 by StatCounter.com.
Insight on Conflict: recognizing grassroots peacebuilding
In every conflict there are local people working for peace. Their skills and experiences are crucial to understanding and resolving conflict, but their stories are seldom heard and their knowledge rarely utilised. We want to change that.
Insight on Conflict (IoC) is a unique resource for everyone interested in the activities of grassroots peacebuilders. It provides access to the inspiring and valuable lessons of those living in conflict areas and working for peace. It also offers comprehensive overviews of selected conflict areas and detailed information about organisations and initiatives working for peace in those areas.
We do this by working hand-in-hand with local correspondents and regional experts. This ensures that not only do we highlight the continuing work towards peace but we also provide background to the situation, helping to understand how to avoid future conflict.
The project aims to make policy makers, the media and other practitioners aware of these stories and to show them what we can all gain from working alongside local initiatives. In publicising the work done on the ground, we hope to increase the possibility of partnerships and funding to ensure that locals play a key role in all conflict prevention and resolution strategies.
At present we provide news and information on Nepal, Sri Lanka, Sudan, the Niger Delta and Colombia. We also hope to begin covering Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Kenya and the Philippines in the near future.
A good example of the initiatives that we cover is the Green Road Construction project in Nepal. This is an initiative aimed at bringing the local community together and offering a practical route out of conflict.
The Human Rights Consciousness and Development Centre (HUDODEC) developed the initiative to create employment in the deprived Panchthar District and encourage the region's youth not to take up arms. The construction of the road itself began in January 2004 and 26km has already been completed. It is hoped that the final 9km will be in place by September 2007. At its peak, the road has up to 1000 people working on it and so far the project has encouraged 70% of the local youth population to get involved. Half of this number are said to be former Maoists who chose to swap the conflict for concrete.
IoC is a project run by Peace Direct - an organisation that supports local peacebuilders in areas of conflict around the world.
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