SONAD volunteers at the new Resource Centre

Dust whirls through the staircase while many curious visitors and volunteers enter the office of SONAD (Sudanese Organisation for Nonviolence and Development) from the gravel road outside. They all have come to see the official opening of the new Resource Centre on Nonviolence and Conflict Transformation in Khartoum. Provided with local snacks and juices, the visitors – trainers, activists, press, and volunteers – have a look at different books and enjoy the film „A Force More Powerful“ which is also available at the new resource centre.

“Literature on nonviolence is hard to get in Sudan, and most often just too expensive”, says SONAD’s nonviolence programme officer, Rafat Hassan Abbas, who is running the resource centre. Now, the staff as well as the numerous volunteers and partners can lend media from the library which comprises so far more than 150 books and films. In addition, a computer with internet connection provides information about conflict transformation worldwide.

The basis for the new resource centre consists of donations from Germany. Prior to her departure, the German Peace & Conflict Advisor collected books in English about nonviolence, peace, training manuals, capacity building and empowerment via the German cooperative „act for transformation”. The next step for SONAD will be the expansion of the library with resources in Arabic language.

The Resource Centre provides literature on different topics of peacebuilding

SONAD is one of the partner organisations of DED Civil Peace Service (CPS) in Sudan. It is supported by CPS with a Peace & Conflict Advisor in Khartoum and two Local Peace Experts in Khartoum and Juba. SONAD also gets support from the Swedish organisations SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) and SweFOR (Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation), by NED (National Endowment for Democracy) and others. It is a member of COPA (Coalition for Peace in Africa) and WRI (War Resisters International). In 1994, student activists from Southern Sudan founded the organisation in Khartoum. Nowadays, SONAD has two offices, one in Khartoum and one in Juba in the South. Originally with a purely Christian background, the members and volunteers now belong to different religious and ethnic groups from all over the country, a composition which is by no means common in Sudan. Democracy, reconciliation and nonviolence are actively practised in SONAD, thus setting an example for others. Through workshops and trainings, the staff and the many volunteers try to impart nonviolent methods for conflict transformation, with the aim of a peaceful and equal society. Target groups are in particular CBOs, community and religious leaders, students, and women. The NGO cooperates with over 50 national CBOs and networks, e.g. the AVP Forum (Alternatives to Violence Project), the Nonviolence Forum Sudan and other partners who share its values and aims. All the more important is now the creation of the resource centre for SONAD.

Speech at the Opening

The aim of CPS is to identify civil society-based peace potential in cooperation with local partner organisations, as well as to enable them to resolve conflicts in a peaceful way (working on conflict). DED contributes to CPS in Sudan with currently five Peace & Conflict Advisors and three Local Peace Experts, and thus actively supports the peacebuilding process after more than 20 years of civil war.