Profiles of Short-Listed Applicants
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Peru
Organizational Overview
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)Â International is a membership-based organization of low- to middle-income families born in the wake of the civil rights movement in the USAÂ in 1970. In 2004, the Peruvian chapter of ACORNÂ was created to assist the Comedores Populares, a network of organizations who feed poor people in Lima. ACORNÂ Peru has helped over 3,000 families become active ACORNÂ community members who organize and advocate for themselves. These members have built campaigns that affect their whole community and regularly involve their community on issues of equality and human rights.
Project Overview
ACORNÂ Peru's project, "Strengthening Civil Society, Coexistence, and Convivencia", proposed that their multi-ethnic, racially diverse members work together on issues of common concern and justice, such as low-income neighborhood empowerment, access to water, national tax reform, and a campaign against telephone monopolies. By consciously organizing individuals across divides, they would seek to strengthen coexistence in Lima. The project would initiate a dialogue on coexistence across academia, labor, human rights, and other fields, both nationally and internationally, building on the ACORNÂ International movement.
ACORN Peru's website
Association for Peace and Development, Armenia
Organizational Overview
The Association for Peace and Development (APD) is a network of nongovernmental organizations based in Gyumri, Armenia, and consists of the following three organizations:Â the Caucasian Center for Proposing Non-Traditional Conflict Resolution Methods, the City Research Center, and the Caucasian Institute for Peace Problems Research. Since 2004, the Association has been promoting peace and democracy in the region and encouraging intercultural dialogue and understanding between the states of the South Caucasus. It also works to develop partnerships between individuals and organizations working in a variety of fields.
Project Overview
The project proposed by the Association for Peace and Development had two main components. First, strengthening and developing the Association's capacity to carry out effective coexistence work. Second, the implementation of several activities that encourage tolerance and cultural dialogue between the peoples and countries of the Caucasus region. These activities would include intercultural gatherings, research on coexistence, and the production of a documentary film about the entire process.
Association for Peace and Development's website
Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, Peru
Organizational Overview
Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) is an association that promotes freedom of information and an independent press. In order to achieve this it monitors and reports on the state of the media and freedom of expression both in Peru and across Latin America. IPYS also publishes country-specific reports on these topics and promotes debate about the role of the media. IPYSÂ coordinates a network of journalists in eleven regions of Peru and a second network covering ten Latin American countries, both of which publish alerts and articles in the Interprensa bulletin and the web page of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.
Project Overview
The IPYS project, titled "Mining Conflict and Journalism in Cajamarca", aimed to create better conditions for solving the conflicts between the mining companies that operate in the Cajamarca region (one of the poorest in the country while at the same time rich in natural resources) and its native communities. The project proposed to explore and diagnose the role played by the media in Cajamarca in possibly exacerbating the conflict, and to propose a more constructive approach by journalists in reporting on the situation in Cajamarca. The activities would include workshops and the production of a radio news program presenting all sides of the story. The project sought to involve various organizations and social groups in the exploration, including journalists, media, communities, mining companies, and the State.
Instituto Prensa y Sociedad's website
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), Ghana
Organizational Overview
With a secretariat based in Ghana, WANEPÂ provides guidance and support to the over 450 civil society organizations from fourteen West African countries that constitute the network. WANEPÂ serves as a coordinating structure for collaborative peacebuilding in West Africa with the ultimate goal of building sustainable peace and thereby creating an environment conducive to social, political, and economic development in West Africa. The Secretariat hosts experts in the fields of peacebuilding, mediation, conflict analysis, monitoring, and early warning and response, and is frequently called upon to assist its national network, embassies, and international organizations in peace and security issues.
Project Overview
The WANEPÂ project was titled "Collaborative Approach to Coexistence between Human Rights and Peacebuilding Organizations in the Mano River Union (MRU)" and sought to intensify collaboration between peacebuilding and human rights organizations in the sub-region. Activities would iclude national consultations bringing together human rights actors, peacebuilding practitioners, and the media to discuss coexistence issues in the region, media and policy outreach, and conducting a Mano River Union Forum to share experiences of collaboration. The project would seek to strengthen partnership strategies in conflict prevention and transformation, crisis management, and peacebuilding in the sub-region.
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding's website
|
