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One Global Family Actions

Once we realise that we are one global family, we will want to live it out more and more. Starting from where we are today, we can diligently grow into deeper expressions of solidarity. Let's commit to doing that together.

 

Personal Examples

Here are some of the actions I and my friends have taken:

  • My church community sponsored a refugee family with housing, finances and friendship.
  • I love dancing, and although I'm not a professional, I led 5 Rhythms cathartic movement classes with peace clubs in Rwanda and my church in Canada. They loved it!
  • Whenever I travel, I get beyond my shyness and talk to strangers by asking them, "What does peace mean to you?" and, "Are you experiencing it?" It has led to hundreds of meaningful conversations and some very inspiring stories.
  • My friend William in the Congo is holding sports events between two tribes that traditionally fight. Playing together instead of fighting - how familial is that?
  • William also convenes community problem-solving meeting with dozens of global family members - police, teachers, politicians, community members, youth - to resolve unmet needs and constructively solve differences. True family values in action! He empowers community members to continue solving problems themselves.
  • My friend Alvain supports street youth in the Congo with food and fatherly advice, while raising his five younger siblings. He also intervenes in disputes, for example, paying disputed bills while demonstrating peaceful conflict resolution.

 

Make it your own

The beauty of our one global family is that we live all over the world, speak every language, know diverse things, and have unique ideas. Please use the one global family framework to challenge your own community to reflect on its divisions and solidary, challenges and opportunities, and ways to come closer together as a family. Here are just a few ideas:

  • Do you have skills to share or learn with your community, e.g., non-violent communication, environmentalism, interfaith dialogue, or dancing?
  • Wouldn't it be cool to talk to get to know other members of the one global family? I live in Toronto, where one global family members from all around the world could easily meet, but we usually don't talk to strangers. Suppose we wore One Global Family pins or tshirts inviting strangers to talk to us in lunchrooms, classrooms, offices, or on public transit? To help people break the ice, we could share 10 questions to ask strangers.

 

Where have you instigated or experienced the sense of being one global family? Please share photos and stories of your #oneglobalfamily actions to inspire and educate us all! Tag your Instagram pictures with #oneglobalfamily #country @crypeace2, or

 

More Ideas for Action

Individual acts of family affection come from our daily actions and choices. Here are some examples:

  • Interpersonally
    • Be respectful and kind to everyone.
    • Talk to strangers, especially newcomers or outsiders to your community.
    • Solve differences with curiousity and questions, instead of anger or violence.
  • Economically
    • Shop at stores that pay fair wages, both to the local staff and international suppliers.
    • Share with people less fortunate than you, through gifts or meals.
    • Buy fair trade coffee, chocolate and bananas.
  • Environmentally
    • Reduce waste by buying fresh, unpackaged produce.
    • Use refillable water bottles and travel mugs.
    • Use reusable food containers. Keep containers and silverware in your car or backpack for takeout meals.
    • Buy local goods to avoid the pollution of transportation.
    • Drivers, can you walk, ride a bike, take transit or car pool once more per week? Can you combine grocery trips with your neighbour to reduce emissions?

 

Communal actions will take more research to uncover underlying injustices and what integrity looks like in different scenarios. Let's share our questions, examples, and discoveries with each other so we can progress more rapidly. Ideas include:

  • Interpersonally
    • Lead or recommend positive values training at school, work, or your religious community.
      • The Living Values course is one of the oldest, most global examples.
      • Founded by Scarlett Lewis, who lost her son at the Sandy Hook school shooting in the USA, Choose Love offers free programs to nurture empathy and peace in schools, communities and workplaces.
      • The Rotary Positive Peace Academy provides free introductory peace education to over a million students.
      • Be the Bridge helps white people in North America understand the historical injustices and present racism that our black brothers and sisters face every day.*
      • Peace Education and Action for Impact is a mentorship course to empower global youth leaders.
      • The Colossians Way helps churches explore difficult topics in Biblical ways.
      • Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute helps citizens and professionals transform psychological trauma into nonviolent power.
      • CryPeace is reviving a proven peace curriculum developed in Uganda for use in the Congo and beyond. Contact Carole to get involved.
    • Become a regular supporter of an orphan, newcomer, elderly person, or person with disabilities. Ask a social service agency to give you the skills and connections you need.
    • Where there are ongoing community conflicts, brainstorm how to invite the stakeholders to a problem solving process. But first, get trained.
      • OMNIA Contextual Leadership teaches a simple but powerful way for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. If it works where religious violence leads to death, it can work everywhere.*
  • Financially
    • Research and support social agencies who can make a bigger difference to people at risk (at home or abroad).
    • Research and support ethical suppliers in industries, such as mining and garment factories.
    • Boycott exploitive companies.
    • Divest from arms producers and exploitive industries in your investment funds, and ask your pension fund manager to do the same. Invest in ethical companies instead, such as www.Kiva.org.
    • Donate to proven organizations:
      • OMNIA Contextual Leadership is one of the most powerful, cost-effective peace programs I know.*
      • World Beyond War is my go-to source of global analysis, visionary thinking and practical actions to build a world peace.*
      • Women's International Peace Centre trains women leaders in the global to make a bigger impact.*
      • My friends work tirelessly for Servants Heart in the Dominican Republic, which sponsors child and youth programs for disadvantaged children.*
      • Africa New Day has trained 15,000 youth leaders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plus men and women, and started a school.*
      • Baptist Peace Fellowship North America multiplies its "loaves and fishes" to support peacebuilders, primarily in Latin America.*
      • CryPeace is currently 100% self-funded. With your support, I'd love to devote more time to peace, starting with the proven Are We Together? peace curriculum.
  • Environmentally
    • Help your school, work or faith community reduce waste and recycle. Lead an awareness campaign.
    • Organize car pools to places you regularly commute to.
    • Boycott and petition exploitive companies, such as disposable bottled water suppliers. 

*I can personally vouch for these excellent programs.

 

International actions are the hardest, but will have the biggest impact. CryPeace's dream is to launch the proven Are We Together? peace curriculum in the Congo, then expand its reach. It will take the one global family to accomplish this. Can you help, in these ways or more?

  • Edit the curriculum in peace (copyediting or Word formatting).
  • Fund its translation into French ($1,000 US).
  • Train the facilitators in participatory learning (online at first, in person as the program grows).
  • Project planning, management and communications.
  • Monitoring and evaluation for evidence of impact.
  • Fundraising.