Carrying Peace Forward: Global Connections Call Notes 7.2.2025

In a world heavy with conflict and division, this Global Connections call felt like a breath of hope. We grounded with the reminder that even in overwhelming times, peace is alive in the quiet courage of everyday people lighting candles in their corners of the world. We met five such lights during our time together - Hellen, Irfan, Lossie, Mrinalini, and Goodness who are each leading bold, heart-centered projects in their communities. 

This call brought Euphrates’ value of service to life by spotlighting these peace leaders who are turning their ideas into bold, healing action that centers marginalized voices and weaves justice, dignity, and shared responsibility into the fabric of their communities. What unfolded wasn’t just a showcase of projects, it was a reminder that peace begins with one person’s actions integrating through relationships and growing through shared courage. This call was both a celebration and a call to action: your light matters.

We invite you to read the transcript below or click here to watch the 60 minute call recording.

Call Nuggets & Resources

Full Transcript

Issah | Euphrates:
Thank you for the opportunity to offer some closing reflections.
I've been thinking about the complex times we live in. I truly appreciate the chance we have today to come together as a community that shares a deep commitment to building peace and fostering relationships that transcend boundaries.

We're living in a world where the impacts of conflict, inequality, and climate change can feel overwhelming—and rightly so. And yet, in the midst of these challenges, we see local peacebuilders like Hellen, Elfan, Lossie, and Marinalini—our speakers today—joining us from different places and countries.

These speakers, and people like them, offer hope, inspiration, and resilience. For those of us working in local communities to bring people together, it's comforting and affirming to know that there are friends, colleagues, brothers, and sisters around the world doing the same work. If we each turn on our candles and torches, we can create immense light. That’s the powerful potential we hold—and we should use it. Thank you.

Hollister | Euphrates:
Thank you, Issah. That was beautifully said. I love the image of everyone bringing their candle into the room to create an even brighter light. Each of you is here for that reason. Today, we’re spotlighting a few people who have been doing this work in unique ways in their corners of the world.

For those who may be new to our space, Euphrates hosts these monthly gatherings to listen, share, and open our hearts and minds to all the good that exists in the world.
Recently, we’ve been talking about the Euphrates values listed on our website. We hold and cherish seven values. Today, as we focus on peacebuilding projects, we’re especially highlighting the value of service.

We believe each of us holds responsibility in creating and nourishing the world we want to live in. We integrate our ideals with practical experience and inspired action. Our work uplifts, honors, and centers the voices and experiences of those who’ve been marginalized and colonized. Our peace practices strive toward liberation, justice, and dignity. Service to humanity and the planet is our commitment to investing in a shared future.

The individuals you’ll meet today are committed to serving humanity. They have chosen to practice peace with an unwavering commitment to healing our world.

Now I’ll hand it over to Krista, our extraordinary Program Director, to explain more about the Peace Practice Alliance—or PPA, as we affectionately call it. Many of you are alumni, and it’s great to see your faces and names.

Krista:
Thank you so much, Hollister. It’s such a joy to be here with so many friends and colleagues, especially from the PPA. I see Valerie, Becky, Sam, Lossie, Sylvia, Patricia, Janessa, Francis, Salome, Grace, Faisal—so many alumni.

Thank you for bringing me comfort. And welcome to those who are new—I see Honest and Vincent. You are welcome here, and we’re so glad to have you in community.

As Hollister mentioned, I’m Krista, and I support our Peace Practice Alliance, our flagship peace leadership program. It brings together leaders from around the world to explore personal, interpersonal, community, and global peace practices.

One of the most meaningful parts of the PPA journey comes at the end—through the peace projects. These are community-led initiatives grounded in each leader’s purpose and the practices they’ve cultivated during the program.

Last year, we supported 17 projects from the 2024 PPA cohort. These projects carried forward into this year with incredible creativity, care, and courage.

Today, we’ll hear from five leaders whose projects offer a window into peace leadership and community healing in action—from Malawi, Kashmir, Sierra Leone, India, and Nigeria. We’ll hear from: Hellen, representing herself and her colleagues Christine and Francis; Irfan, representing himself and his colleague Owais; Lossie; Mrinalini; and, Goodness

Each one has responded to their community’s needs with heart and vision. As you listen, notice not only the scope of their work, but the spirit behind it—the relationships, resilience, and courage it takes to bring healing and care to communities around the world.

Before we continue, I want to acknowledge that even more amazing projects from the 2024 cohort will be shared on our website. Please stay tuned. Also, a huge thank you to our supporters—like World Education and Resource Institute and our steadfast partners like Dave, who’s on the call. This work is possible because of people like you who believe in the power of peace practice.

Now, I’d love to begin our conversation. Hellen, Irfan, Lossie, Mrinalini, and Goodness, I’ll invite each of you to share what inspired you to get involved in peacebuilding. What called you to this work?

We’ll start with Hellen. Hellen, would you like to introduce yourself and share your origin story—what brought you to peacebuilding?

Hellen Harawa:
 Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone. My name is Hellen Harawa from Malawi, Africa. I'm here to represent my colleagues—Francis and Christine—and to speak about the project we implemented from last year into this year.

 Personally, what inspired me to get into peacebuilding was seeing the work my friends Grace and Wilson Chambo were doing. They were part of the 2022 PPA cohort, and they founded a youth-led organization focused on community peacebuilding, environmental work, and education.

Their dedication inspired and motivated me to also get involved. I strongly believe that through togetherness, we can achieve a lot. That’s my inspiration for stepping into this work. Thank you.

Krista:
Thank you, Hellen. And thank you to Grace and Wilson as well for that ripple of inspiration. I'm sure you and your team will continue to inspire others today. Irfan, would you like to share your origin story next?

Irfan Pullani:
 Thank you, Krista, and good evening from India. I hope everyone had a good day.
I’m Irfan Pullani. I’m originally from South India, but I moved to New Delhi in 2019 to study law. Around that time, a major constitutional change happened, which created tension and on-the-ground changes in Kashmir. That’s when I began an independent peacebuilding research project focused on Kashmir.

During the COVID lockdown, I spent time in Kashmir, interviewing hundreds of families. That was the beginning of my peacebuilding journey.

Later, I pursued a master’s in International Law with a focus on Dispute Settlement from the University for Peace in Costa Rica. Through various networks, I found the PPA program.

There, I met my incredible partner, Mr. Ruwayz, who is on the call today. Together, we implemented our post-PPA project. After years of working on Kashmir alone, I was finally able to find a partner—and that connection came through the global space of the PPA, not from my local networks. That was a powerful and unexpected gift. Thank you.

Krista:
Thank you, Irfan. So grateful for the connection and for what’s come from your partnership.
Lossie, can we turn to you? How did you come to this work?

Lossie | Sierra Leone:
Thank you, Krista, for this opportunity. I’m calling in from Sierra Leone, West Africa. I’m a survivor of two civil wars—one in Sierra Leone and one in Liberia, in 1991 and 1999. That lived experience is what brought me into peacebuilding.

Today, we are seeing violence everywhere—domestic, political, civil. And it requires individual efforts to ensure our homes and communities are peaceful. Having experienced the bitterness of war, I see it as my responsibility to step up and help others do the same.

 In Sierra Leone, over 20 years after the war, we are still healing. I founded a youth-led, community-based organization to promote a peaceful and inclusive society.

 In 2024, I was selected for the PPA program, and the six months of intensive training gave me deeper knowledge about how peace can shape individuals, communities, and nations. My colleagues and I then implemented a peace initiative in our community.  That’s my inspiration—building sustainable development through sustainable peace. Because you can’t have one without the other. Thank you.

Krista:
 Thank you, Lossie, for that powerful reminder—that peace and development go hand in hand, and that each of us holds a piece of the responsibility. Mrinalini, can we move to you next?

Mrinalini Martin:
 Thank you, Krista. It’s wonderful to be here. Listening to my fellow peacebuilders has been incredibly moving. My story feels simple, rooted in childhood. As a child, a teen, even as an adult, I didn’t know what peacebuilding was—not as a field or a career path. I knew peace as a value, something my faith talked about, but not as a practice.

 In 2020, a family friend invited me to a project called Know My Religion. We visited different places of worship and met people from different religions. It was powerful. It made me ask: why do we grow up in innocence and then learn to hate?

 That question led me to train as a peacebuilder through the Institute for Faith-Based Diplomacy. I began facilitating interfaith dialogue and trainings, especially in conflict-prone areas like Ladakh and Kargil in North India.

 When I joined Euphrates and the PPA in 2024, the experience deepened my journey. It helped me realize peacebuilding had always been a quiet voice inside me. The PPA gave that voice a path.

 For me, peacebuilding is about returning to that innocence, nurturing it every day, and helping others do the same.

Krista:
 So beautifully said—simple and powerful. Thank you, Mrinalini. Let’s close this round with Goodness. What called you to this work?

Goodness Leah Offuh:
Good evening, afternoon, or morning—depending on your time zone. Thank you for this opportunity.

 First, I want to thank Euphrates and the PPA for bringing a childhood vision of mine to life. I grew up in a separated home surrounded by conflict and toxicity. I often felt unloved and depressed. There were times I even questioned why I was alive.

 As I grew older, I saw children around me suffering worse than I did—orphans, displaced children, and victims of ethnic violence. From a young age, I knew I wanted to do something about it. I wrote notes to myself saying, “When I grow up, I’ll make an impact.”

 In 2021, my sister joined Euphrates and I began volunteering with her. That reignited my fire. I realized it was my time to step up. That’s the heart behind my work—wanting to make a change in the very kind of environment that shaped me.

Krista:
Thank you, Goodness. Let’s all take a deep breath and let those stories sink in.
It’s powerful to hear what personally brought each of you to this work. Thank you for your honesty and courage in sharing.

 Now, let’s move into the heart of this call—your peace initiatives. We’ll talk about the projects themselves and what you learned along the way…

Let’s begin the next part of our call by learning more about the peace projects each of you led. I’ll ask each of you to share the focus of your project, what you learned, and what impact you saw—whether in your community or within yourself.

 We’ll begin with Lossie, then go to Irfan, Mrinalini, Hellen, and Goodness.

Lossie | Sierra Leone:
 Thank you again for the opportunity. As I mentioned earlier, my motivation is to be a role model and change agent in my community. Sierra Leone is a fragile country where politics dominates everything. Young people are heavily involved in politics, but often in ways that lead to violence.

 Our community, Bumaru, is just half a mile from the Liberian border. It’s where the 11-year civil war began in 1991. Politicians remember us only during elections, but after the elections, we don’t hear from them. This neglect causes frustration, especially among youth.

 After the last election, a young entrepreneur in our community had his business destroyed by political violence. It broke my heart. Around the same time, there was a long-standing conflict between our town chief and the chief imam. They weren’t speaking, and the community was suffering.

 Through my PPA project, I organized a training for 80 people—including young people and community leaders—to emphasize the need for sustainable peace. We created a space for dialogue. By the end of the training, those two leaders—the town chief and the imam—shook hands for the first time in over a year. We celebrated the return of peace.

 We also trained young people to do post-election education and peace awareness. For the first time in years, we didn’t have post-election violence.

 I established a group of community peace leaders who are still active today. As a result of the impact, I’ve been contacted by Peace Direct to collaborate on similar training for young motorbike riders, who are often stigmatized as perpetrators of violence.

 We’re now looking at cross-border peace with Liberia—so our youth see each other as brothers, not enemies. This is just the beginning, but I’m hopeful. Thank you.

Krista:
 Thank you, Lossie. Your project is such a powerful example of holistic, grassroots peacebuilding. I love how you brought together the whole community—from elders to youth—and addressed the deeper social dynamics.

 And I appreciate your long-term vision, including cross-border collaboration. That’s powerful. Panelists, feel free to share any links or organization info in the chat so others can stay connected.

Hellen, would you mind going next? Your project brought together different faith communities, right?

Hellen Harawa:
 Yes, thank you. Our project was called Sustainable Cooking Solutions for Interfaith Harmony and Environmental Conservation. We designed it to address two key issues in our community in Malawi: environmental degradation and interfaith conflict between Christians and Muslims.

 We engaged 40 people—25 women and 15 youth—and trained them in peacebuilding and environmental stewardship. We also introduced improved cooking stoves, which reduce the need for firewood. In our communities, most people rely on firewood for cooking, and that contributes to massive deforestation.

 By promoting these improved stoves, we helped reduce dependence on firewood and raised awareness about the environment. At the same time, by bringing together Muslim and Christian community members and leaders in training sessions, we fostered understanding, collaboration, and trust.

 The outcome was so encouraging. Community members not only learned how to care for the environment, but also began working across religious lines to build peace. And the project is still ongoing. I’ll share a link in the chat so you can learn more. Thank you.

Krista:
 Thank you, Hellen. I love how your project bridges two themes—interfaith harmony and environmental sustainability. And I also love that it was a collaborative effort among three PPA graduates. That kind of team approach brings depth and creativity. Thank you so much.

Mrinalini, I’d love to hear about your work with the girls in Rajasthan. Your project was deeply relational and transformative.

Mrinalini Martin:
 Thank you, Krista. One of the most meaningful parts of the past year for me was working with girls in a community in Jaipur, Rajasthan, known as Katputli, which is a traditional puppeteering community.

 Rajasthan is often seen as a tourist destination, but behind the scenes, many girls face heartbreaking realities—child marriage, trafficking, bonded labor. I partnered with a school called Helping Hands, founded by Bob and Janine, who believed education could break this cycle.

 I worked with 70 girls, meeting with them every Saturday for identity-based sessions. Many didn’t even know what their names meant. That’s where we started—with identity, self-worth, and dreaming big.

 We sat on classroom floors, told stories, laughed, and slowly they began to open up. The girls started asking questions, speaking up, and standing taller. They’ve now formed a Social Justice Cell and are reaching out to support each other and younger girls in their community. They talk about going to college, becoming public servants, and saying no to early marriage.

At the end of our time, we created a jar of dreams and promised to meet again in 10 years to see how far we’ve come. Working with these girls reminded me that peacebuilding isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about helping people see their worth so they can stand for themselves—and for future generations.
Please hold these girls in your hearts. They are hope in motion.

Krista:
 Thank you, Mrinalini. Salome said it beautifully in the chat: “Real peacebuilding is about helping people see their own worth.” Your project is such a heartfelt example of accompaniment—walking alongside people rather than telling them who to be. And it began with such a simple but profound prompt: “What is the meaning of your name?”

Irfan, let’s turn to your work in Kashmir with your partner, Owais.

Irfan Pullani:
 Thank you, Krista. Kashmir has seen conflict for decades—it’s one of the oldest unresolved issues on the UN Security Council agenda. And in recent years, tensions have escalated.

 After completing the PPA, Oas and I knew immediately we wanted to replicate the experience in our context. We called our project PeaceVent: Uniting Youth to Invent Peace. We compressed the structure into a 15-week hybrid training program for 50 youth. We had weekly virtual sessions and an in-person workshop co-facilitated by a colleague from the UN in Geneva.

 The core of our curriculum came from the PPA’s Integral Peace Leadership Model, but we also integrated themes like the right to development, which is often lost in conflict zones. The youth were deeply engaged. It was one of the first programs of its kind in Kashmir to train and connect so many young people.

 We also had the support of other PPA alumni, like Offuh and Amjad, who facilitated sessions. It became a true community effort. We’re continuing to grow the platform. Please connect with us on Instagram or LinkedIn through the links in the chat. This was a youth-led, youth-driven peace movement—something I believe Kashmir urgently needs. Thank you.

Krista:
 Thank you, Irfan. What a powerful example of adapting and scaling peace practices in a conflict zone. And I love that you wove in development rights—an often-overlooked angle in peacebuilding.

Goodness, let’s close with you. Your work in Nigeria focused on trauma and healing, especially for children, correct?

Goodness Leah Offuh:
 Yes, thank you, Krista. I’m from Plateau State, Nigeria—an area that’s seen a lot of communal conflict and displacement. Many children have lost parents or live in unstable homes.

 My peace project was titled Empowering Futures Through Education. We focused on providing educational toolkits to vulnerable children and engaging their parents and teachers in trauma healing.

 We paid tuition fees, distributed uniforms and school supplies, and saw immediate changes—children became more excited to attend school. Parents and teachers also participated in trauma-healing workshops facilitated by the WAZI Foundation. They shared how the workshops helped them better connect with children.

 One key lesson for me was that we can’t expect people to share peace if they don’t first have peace within.  At first, some community stakeholders were skeptical. But once they saw the impact, they invited us back. They want us to do more. I’m so grateful for the support of the PPA and the inspiration I received from others. It helped me step into this work with courage.

Krista:
 Thank you, Goodness. That reminder that personal peace leads to community peace is such a core insight. And your project showed that powerfully.

I want to thank all of our leaders for sharing so honestly and generously. This has been such a rich time together.

Hollister | Euphrates:
 I just want to echo Krista’s gratitude. These aren’t big sweeping efforts—they’re deeply practical acts of service, led by individuals with a heart to heal and lead.

 To everyone on the call: what can you do in your community?

 We’ll send follow-up call notes, links, and a recording soon. There will also be a feedback survey—please take a moment to let us know how we can continue to support your journey.

 We’ll take a collective pause in August and return in September. Thank you again to Hellen, Marinalini, Lossie, Irfan, and Goodness—and to everyone working quietly and courageously behind the scenes.

Hollister