[Peace] Malesi Kinaro presentation

[Charlotte Green]

Malesi Kinaro, a Quaker from Kenya, will speak on the
topic, “Grassroots Peacemaking in the Conflicts in the
Great Lakes Region of Africa”, on Wed., Sept. 22 at 7
PM in the Wisegarver Room at the Illinois Disciples
Foundation, 610 E. Springfield, Champaign. Childcare
will be provided, and refreshments will be served
following the presentation.  

On Thursday, September 23 at 6 PM., Malesi will be the
guest of the Urbana Champaign Friends Meeting at a
potluck at their new meeting house, 1904 E. Main
Street, Urbana.  After the potluck, Malesi will share
stories from Kenya with the children.  The potluck
will be an opportunity to talk to Malesi informally
and meet others interested in grassroots peacemaking.

The public is invited to both events.  A free-will
offering will be taken up to help Malesi Kinaro with
her work.

The Great Lakes Region of Africa, including Rwanda,
Burundi, Kenya, and Uganda has faced devastating
ethnic and political conflict during the last thirty
years.  Malesi Kinaro has had first-hand experience
with the conflict.  In 1991, Malesi and her family
were forced to leave their farm in Kenya as a result
of ethnic cleansing.  Later, she became involved in
forming peace committees which helped resettle many of
the displaced people and to bring together people from
different tribes to carry out community projects. 
During the crisis in Burundi and Rwanda in 1994,
Malesi was the Executive Secretary of Friends World
Committee for Consultation (Africa Section).  She made
many journeys into those countries to give relief and
to help set up crisis committees.  

Currently Malesi is the clerk of Friends in Peace and
Community Development (FPCD), a group of Quakers and
members of other churches involved in relief work and
peacebuilding.  FPCD was formed to reach out to people
in conflict and to those made vulnerable by conflict. 
FPCD has trained church and community leaders in
counseling and conflict resolution skills and
organized Alternatives to Violence Projects workshops
in Kenya.

Malesi Kinaro’s speaking tour is sponsored by African
Great Lakes Initiative, a Quaker organization which
works with Friends in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
on peacemaking and reconciliation projects.  Local
sponsors are Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting, AWARE,
Channing Murray Foundation, Illinois Disciples
Foundation, Unitarian Universalist Social Action
Committee, and Church of the Brethren.