Rob Lancaster from Australia was one of the team responsible for training the peace and reconciliation mobilizers. This was his speech to the graduates of the four-week course which concluded on 1 May.


My life has changed dramatically since the days when I worked as an IofC volunteer
in Toronto. I am now in Damascus, Syria, my native country surrounded by division, violence, hatred, retaliation and war. Witnessing fighting under different names and in different ways but the victims are always people and the country.

While Indonesia still struggles with violence and religious intolerance, Miftahul Huda shows how initiatives to build trust between people of different faiths can overcome prejudice and ignorance.

At the start of President Obama’s second term of office, Randy Ruffin reflects on where the USA is as a country and finds grounds for hope despite the deep divisions.

Not all stories of change have to be dramatic 'Damascus Road' type experiences, writes Alex Martins. Some change may be more gradual, but no less profound.

A controversial myth claims that the modern day Lebanese are descended from ancient Phoenicians. However, it is in the experience of being reborn from the ashes that Lebanon's real connection with the Phoenix can be found, writes Wadiaa Khoury.

The recent shooting of innocent children in Newtown, CT, has caused us to ask ourselves how we can do better. In President Obama’s words, 'These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.'

Mercy Okalowe, a project coordinator with IofC for Toronto / SW Ontario recently attended the Africa Rising: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Frontiers conference in Toronto, in the hope of networking with individuals who were passionate about encouraging sustainable change in Africa and interested in building a stronger bridge between the array of diverse African nations and the diaspora in Canada.  To read her article click here.