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Christian Aid Ireland is committed to tackling violence and promoting just and lasting peace where we work. Violence and conflict affects one fifth of the world’s population. Yet, communities living through conflict cannot imagine a lasting end to poverty when every day is fraught with violence and uncertainty. Because of this, ending poverty and building peace must go hand in hand.
Christian Aid was established over seventy years ago to respond to the needs of refugees in Europe after World War Two. Over seventy years on, we have worked in many different conflict-affected counties to build peace and help communities bring an end to violence.
This work continues to be vital today, as one in every 122 people is now a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum.
No one should have to live day by day under the shadow of fear. Reaching people living through conflict and violence is in our roots and continues to form an important focus of our work.
Our Approach
Our work to bring people from violence to peace:
- Protects people affected by violence and conflict, equipping them to address the causes of violence, seek justice and resolve conflict peacefully.
- Develops peaceful alternatives to violence and armed conflict, so communities can rebuild for the future.
- Supports social movements seeking justice and peace with women at the centre.
- Tackles gender-based violence, providing support to survivors, and working with women, men and institutions to change the conditions that lead to gender-based violence.
Our work to bring communities from violence to peace includes Irish Aid-funded programmes in Angola, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Central America, Colombia, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (IoPt), and programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Egypt.
We work with religious leaders in Colombia, South Sudan, IoPt and Zimbabwe to represent community concerns at national peace and reconciliation processes.
We run a programme on resilience in conflict settings funded by DFID and Irish Aid-funded emergency work in DRC, Kenya, Afghanistan and Gaza, among others.
Our work on gender-based violence includes projects in Malawi, Kenya, DRC and Zimbabwe, and a regional programme in Latin America.
Read Christian Aid's From Violence to Peace: global strategy 2016
Our Impact
- In Nicaragua we supported work with nine local governments to adopt youth policies and to work with violence-prevention bodies to build a safer environment for young people. We are supporting work across 18 municipalities to develop similar plans to prevent gender-based violence.
- In South Sudan, 1,750 people benefited from training on human rights, conflict resolution and reconciliation.
- In El Salvador, we supported the establishment of specialist courts to improve access to justice for women survivors of violence.
