PO Box 10372
San Antonio TX 78210-0372
Telephone: 877 814 6972
E-mail: [email protected]

From the Editor by Val Liveoak

This has been an exciting issue to edit because if focuses on the work that Friends Peace Teams Project (FPTP) has planned in Africa. It has also helped that the authors were very prompt in submitting their articles! Some people are living up to their New Year Resolutions!

When the governing body of FPTP approved the ongoing work of the African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI), we decided to delegate most of the day-to-day decisions about the work to a sub-committee, the AGLI Working Group, which includes several people with outstanding experience in Africa, and also includes John Calvi, whose article about healing is included in this issue. AGLI projects will be coordinated by David Zarembka of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, who has written most of the information in the other articles about the region and the upcoming projects. By the time you receive this newsletter, the team we have sent to Uganda will have returned. (See Peace Team Delegation in Uganda.) For those wanting to see its report, see Contact Information.

I’d like to repeat the request for help with these projects. In its 6 years of operation, FPTP has raised around $30,000 in all for its administrative expenses. Most of the work is done by volunteers. During the last year AGLI has raised ~$50,000 for its two 1999 peace team projects and will expend over $15,000 on the Uganda team of Alternatives to Violence Project trainers. The Burundi Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Center project is budgeted for around $70,000 per year for two years and will need some very good people to serve on the team who will work on the project, as well as people here who’ll tell their Meetings and Churches about our work. As we move into greatly increased work and expenses, we need all sorts of help—spiritual, financial and personnel. What can you do? Contact me to let me know how you can serve at: Val Liveoak, PO Box 10372, San Antonio TX 78210-0372; tel: 210 532-8762; e-mail: [email protected].

We are happy to announce that Illinois Yearly Meeting has joined Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Intermountain Yearly Meeting, Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative, New England Yearly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, Pacific Yearly Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, South Central Yearly Meeting, Southeast Yearly Meeting, Southern Appalachia Yearly Meeting and Association, and Wilmington Yearly Meeting as members of FPTP. At least one other Yearly Meeting is considering joining. If you are a Quaker and your Yearly Meeting isn’t on this list, would you be willing to help us with outreach to your YM?

On March 23-26, FPTP’s governing body, the Coordinating Council, will meet in Washington DC. CC meetings are open to the public, so if you’d like to attend part or all of them, please contact me. Before and after our meeting, CC members will be available to speak to groups of Friends, students or others about our work. We are especially interested in being invited to speak at Meetings in the area on Sunday, March 27. We will also have a public presentation about our work in the evening of either Friday the 24th or Saturday the 25th. Please contact Mary Lord at 301-588-0626 about scheduling a speaker or about the time and place for the public presentations.

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