With the highest number of violent conflicts since World War II and a quarter of the world's population living in conflict-affected areas, peacebuilding is increasingly at the forefront of VSO's work.1
At our webinar on Thursday 17th October attendees heard how, against a backdrop of so many ongoing forgotten wars, VSO volunteers are working to ensure that communities aren’t ignored and left behind including on the Kenya-Ethiopia border. This area is mired by disputes, including tensions over access to water and grazing land for cattle, caused by persistent droughts and famine. However, volunteers are helping to bring communities together to find pathways to lasting peace.
Video: What does peace mean to you?
At the event, attendees were shown a short film asking them to consider what peace means in different contexts around the world. The video also spotlights the story of a family who is bearing the brunt of conflict and climate change.
Watch the webinar recording
Join us in celebrating our volunteers at the Volunteer Impact Awards
Join us on Friday 6 December 10:00-11:00 (GMT) for the annual Volunteer Impact Awards! From improving educational outcomes for adolescent girls in Mozambique, to equipping young job seekers with marketable skills essential to enter the blue economy - the awards celebrate the work of VSO volunteers in improving the lives of the most marginalised people in society.
Our speakers
Rahma Wako
Rahma is a VSO volunteer and peace champion who lives on the Kenya-Ethiopia border. She was born into a family of two disputing tribes and raised by a jobless single mother. She has first-hand experience of conflict, her childhood littered with memories of being forced to drop out of school and having to flee from Kenya to Ethiopia to escape bloodshed. Witnessing the devastation caused by war and how climate change is fuelling tensions in her community, Rahma was galvanised to start her volunteering journey with VSO in 2023.
Despite these hardships, she’s pursed her education and has been a relentless peace ambassador, delivering training to young people on the importance of peace and knowing their rights, so they actively turn away from conflict.
Temesgen Bireda
Temesgen is based in Ethiopia and grew up in a town called Weldiya, which is in the northern part of the country. He has a degree in Governance and Development Studies and is currently studying for an MA in Development Studies with a focus on Rural Livelihoods.
Temesgen worked as a peacebuilding officer for the Ministry of Peace, where he built an interest in the humanitarian, development and peace sectors. Temesgen is passionate about climate change and its nexus with peacebuilding. He has been supporting the Kenya-Ethiopia peacebuilding project since October 2023 by conducting focus group discussions to amplify youth voices.
He has also provided training on conflict sensitivity to youth volunteers. Temesgen is also a VSO Digital Ambassador who is passionate about using social media to amplify the voices of his peers.
Alice Walker
Alice Walker is based in the UK and has been working at VSO since 2022 and is the organisation's Content Communications Officer. She has an MA in International Development with Intercultural Communication and a BA in Modern Languages (French, Spanish and Italian). She feels passionately about storytelling, meeting people from around the world (having lived in the UK, Spain, France, Vietnam and Malawi) and shining a spotlight on the amazing work volunteers and communities are doing.
She has a particular interest in peacebuilding work, having volunteered with a refugee charity and visited VSO’s social cohesion projects in the Philippines and Kenya. Alice had the opportunity to visit the Kenya-Ethiopia peacebuilding project in 2024, working closely with Kenyan photographer Paul Wambugu to capture people’s stories. She was inspired by the determination and resilience of the people she interviewed and looks forward to sharing some of their accounts during the webinar.
Footnotes
Find out more about our peacebuilding work
Integrating Peacebuilding, Development and Humanitarian Efforts on the Kenya/Ethiopia border
Climate-induced disasters are fuelling instability at the Kenya/Ethiopia border, where many families rely on farming for their livelihood. VSO are bringing communities together to foster peace and social cohesion.
Meet the volunteer providing psychosocial support to those affected by conflict
Kamal Jaga, 40, from the UK, volunteered on the VSO Psychosocial Support Project in Ethiopia, a country ragged by internal conflict that created an estimated 2.2m internally displaced people. Read his story.
Friends forever: crossing the religious divide in the Philippines
Two women in the Philippines have forged an unlikely friendship, despite their religious differences, fostering unity in a once-divided community.