RECONCILE International

RECONCILE International was established in 2003 as an affiliate church organization by the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC). The recent civil war killed an estimated 2 million people, and has had a dramatic affect upon the peoples of southern Sudan, resulting in an environment where it is difficult for communities to build trust, heal the wounds of trauma, transform conflict into peace, and promote reconciliation. We aim to contribute to Nation Building and realization of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement by equipping communities with knowledge and skills for peacebuilding through psychosocial rehabilitation, civic education, and advocacy. This will ultimately help to create an environment for a healthy, peaceful, democratic society.

RECONCILE’S Objectives

1. Enhance understanding of the Sudanese society on issues of  accountable governance, the respect of human rights, rule of law and democratic transformation.
2. Strengthen conflict transformation capacity within the religious and community leadership in the marginalized areas of southern Sudan.
3. Educate citizens on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
4. Enhance capacity of community and church leadership on reconciliation and healing of trauma caused by conflict.
5. Research and document cultural values that promote tolerance, reconciliation and coexistence among people of different cultural backgrounds.

RECONCILE’s Programme Areas:

• Civic Education and Peace Building- Conscientization on issues of accountable governance, democracy, and human rights and conflict transformation. Awareness of the CPA and the Constitution and their dissemination to the people, and training in advocacy. Voter education in preparation for elections and referendum. Orientation for parliamentarians to introduce them to parliamentary procedures and policy formation.

• Psychosocial Rehabilitation – Dealing with reconciliation and healing of memories and wounds of war through trauma awareness and healing programs, and reconciliation seminars and workshops. Training Sudanese as peer counselors to serve traumatized community members.

• Intercultural/Cross cultural Exchange Learning Tours and Interfaith understanding with the aim of creating conditions for coexistence through: religious tolerance promotion visits, collection and dissemination of ethnological material, and training church leaders in understanding Islam.

•  RECONCILE Peace Institute- the training institute of RECONCILE. Offered annually for three months. Runs as six modules under the course titles Peace studies and Conflict Transformation; and Community Based Trauma Healing. The programme provides in-depth knowledge and practical skills in peace building and trauma recovery. It is taught by Sudanese and International Faculty. For more information about RPI, Click Here. To apply, email with subjectline RPI application form to:  info@reconcile-int.org

RECONCILE's Values and Principles:

• Promotion of peace culture- the greatest challenge is to transform the society into constituencies and cultures of peace following the many years of war, conflict, hostility, injustice, and oppression. A prevailing culture of violence and despair is the most devastating consequences    of the long war, and RECONCILE seek to transform the conflict from a violent force to one that produce meaningful social change towards improved well-being.
• Maintaining People-Orientation. For peace and civic education to be effective, it must be owned and driven by the people recognizing their capacities and assets.
•  Grounded in moral Authority. Those entrusted with moral authority within their communities must be at the center of social transformation and civil leadership.
• Youth in the lead. Community-based people oriented civic education must be grounded in the respective communities, through the involvement of the youth.
• Inclusively in peacemaking. All stake holders must be involved in some meaningful way to create the proper avenues for civic space.
• Involvement of women. Women are indeed the emblem of candid articulation of conflict issues and instruments of accountability. This role must be built such that they are consistently engaged in shaping civic debate ad peace building.
• Openness and Respect. The war has create great suspicion among communities and individuals throughout Sudan. There must be openness and respect for the other as a process along the path of reconciliation.
• Taking Responsibility. Successful peacemaking depends upon local peoples taking initiative to resolve local conflicts using local capacities. For social reconciliation to be successful, people must take responsibility for past abuses for the sake of their future and the future of their communities.
• Synergy of Indigenous and External Resources. People and Churches throughout Africa and the world are engaging in civic education, and RECONCILE  seeks to learn from these useful resources, and contextualize them within the local settings, necessities, and indigenous resources of the Sudan experience
• Transparency and Accountability. Successful peace education and trauma healing must itself reflect the aims of transparency and accountability desired of civic Institutions. This includes openness about processes and procedures, financial accountability, and so forth.