Contribute to Peacebuilding

The opportunity to contribute to MBB's peacebuilding initiatives is open to everyone. MBB is grateful for any help. Below are 30 ways that you can contribute to peacebuilding.

How Can I Help
Adapted from Ken Cloke's Conflict Revolution: Mediating Evil, War, Injustice, and Terrorism.

• You can begin by joining MBB and helping to publicize its work.
• You can send a donation to MBB or assist in locating potential funders and media contacts in your area. 
• If you have expertise in a particular region, country, language, or conflict, and would like to become a member of a volunteer MBB Project Team that will commit to working in that country over a period of several years, fill out our Volunteer Form.
• If you have developed training materials on communication, dialogue, problem solving, negotiation, mediation, prejudice reduction, conflict resolution, and similar topics that might be useful to people in other countries, especially if they are in other languages, please contact the MBB Education, Research, Training and Events Committee Board Liason Nan Waller Burnett.
• If you have useful information regarding a country or region where conflicts are occurring, make an entry in MBB's Conflictpedia.
• Select a country or region where conflicts are occurring, form a small group of like-minded people in your area and begin to study and think about what is occurring there. 
• Go online to www.wikipedia.com and similar sources to see what has already been written about the conflict. 
• Prepare a brief summary of the history of the country, or a description of the dominant political forces and constituencies, or the economic factors or environmental concerns that impact the conflict, or list the sources of impasse, or similar information that might be useful in briefing members of the MBB Team that may work in that country, and contact the MBB Education, Research, Training and Events Committee Board Liason Nan Waller Burnett to pass them on.
• Adopt one or more "pen pals" in the country or region you have selected, and wherever possible add correspondents from the opposing side. 
• Once you have made contact, ask questions to expand your knowledge and understanding of what is taking place there. 
• Find out what is needed or desired by way of assistance. 
• Identify important cultural "do’s and don’t’s."
• Prepare a list of useful quotations from indigenous authors, including poetry, stories, folklore, novels, religious tracts, and political ideas and create an entry in MBB's Conflictpedia.
• Develop a list of stereotypes used by each group against its opponents. 
• Start a local area blog. 
• Collect important news articles from media in and around the area you have selected and forward them MBB Education, Research, Training and Events Committee Board Liason Nan Waller Burnett. 
• Create a list with useful descriptions and contact information identifying the mediators, facilitators, trainers, and allied professionals in the country or region who might be willing to assist.
• Create a list of other potentially useful contacts, such as leaders in government and hostile organizations for use by the MBB Team that may eventually work in the country. 
• Identify institutions and organizations in the area that are already contributing to peace, including descriptions and contact information. 
• Relay the information you gather and any other suggestions or ideas to MBB Education, Research, Training and Events Committee Board Liason Nan Waller Burnett.
• Send your "pen pals" information about MBB (visit Promote MBB) and encourage them, where safe and possible, to support conflict resolution in their area.
• Send your pen pals information regarding mediation and conflict resolution that may be helpful to them locally, including books, training materials, and articles that appear on mediate.com. 
• Ask to assist the MBB Education, Research, Training and Events Committee in preparing training materials targeted to the area you have selected.
• Contact local media to increase awareness of the importance of exploring conflict resolution options in the area.  Write letters to the editor, or op-ed pieces advocating a meditative approach.
• Contact your local political and Congressional representatives to encourage support for conflict resolution in the area. 
• Write to the United Nations, especially the country representative for your area, to encourage increased use of conflict resolution options. 
• Ask others in your area to join similar groups and branch out to include more countries in the region. 
• Invite friends from ethnically diverse communities to a dinner party and ask them to bring food and cultural artifacts and materials to share, or ask them to select a culture or region to represent. Then open discussion about conflicts that affect their lives, and what they might be able to do to reduce tensions. You can even make it into an MBB fundraiser. Give them copies of this list.
• Travel to an area of interest and gather information first-hand, but do not try to intervene in conflicts without adequate preparation, support and assistance. 
• Don’t give up. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.