This is our third in a series of posts about Making a Difference.

When a conflict is over, a war has ended, the devastation on the ground is immense. Lives have been broken, careers ended, families collapsed, schools razed to the ground, hospitals flattened, government institutions paralysed. In short, it’s disastrous. It can take a generation or more for nations to recover. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to contribute to either peace building or maintaining peace or assisting in post-conflict situations.

Here are some interesting organisations doing their bit.

Liberian Akawelle Jewelry. An inspirational young woman from Liberia chose to turn some awfully bitter lemons into sweet lemonade after the civil war ended in Liberia in 2003. Lovetta Conto began designing and creating pendants and other items of jewelry using recycled, melted and moulded bullet casings left over from the war.  This works on so many levels. She’s cleaning up (albeit the volume of casings probably outweighs her need), she’s taking responsibility, she’s earning export income and she’s educating others. This is a truly inspiring small organisation doing their best to improve an otherwise awful post-conflict situation. You can buy jewelry in leaf shapes inscribed “life” that were melted from casings and with bullet heads as pendants directly from the website.

Stones into Schools

IKAT & Pennies for Peace: You may have read Three Cups of Tea, the story of US citizen Greg Mortensen’s failed attempt to climb K2 and his subsequent visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan over many years to build schools in the mountainous regions of those countries. Even if you have no interest in this, the story is so compellingly told that it’s absolutely worth reading. It wasn’t until writing this entry and double checking web addresses that I discovered that, in 2009, Mortensen was awarded the “Star of Pakistan”, Pakistan’s highest civil award, “for his dedicated and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for fifteen years.” In addition, according to the site, “several bi-partisan US Congressional representatives nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, I think, in 2009. (We acknowledge the irony.) While this entry could sit just as well under education, we have included it here because we felt his organisation is doing more than its fair share to create peaceful relations between western culture and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Alternatively, buy the book. Oh, I just saw there is a subsequent book: Stones into Schools, the cover of which is posted here from www.threecupsoftea.com.

Jeremy and Kofi

Peace One Day. In early 2008 a friend gave us a film which documents Jeremy Gilley, a failed actor (what is it with these failed, big-hearted guys?) turned activist’s attempts to convince the UN to create one “day of peace” annually. On this day communities, groups and schools in peaceful nations would do something towards recognizing peace. Importantly, warring nations, regions or communities would agree to a ceasefire for at least this one day, enabling organisations to deliver necessities like food and medical supplies to otherwise inaccessible areas. Just like Three Cups of Tea, if you haven’t seen these films, we absolutely urge you to get hold of them—you might think blah, but it’s really, really worth it. Be prepared for an honest look into the workings of the UN, for seeing how one ordinary person can make a difference, and for seeing Jude Law and Mr Gilley bring about unprecedented action in Afghanistan. The image is from Jeremy’s nerve-wracking meeting with Kofi Annan in attempt to persuade the UN to make the day a reality. But it’s what happened in the years after this, and is still hapening now, that is most compelling.

Jeremy and Jude Law in Afghanistan

Check out the award-winning film The Day After Peace here.