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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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December 2005 |
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Visitor from Fiji says 'thank you'Aisake Casimira, Executive Director for ECREA came to Australia in October to thank Australians for their support. He spoke with Will Longbottom in Hobart. In 2000 a violent uprising in Fiji scarred the nation. Five years later, Fijians are still suffering the consequences, but a small group of people have been working hard to restore peace to Fiji and to heal some of the wounds. The Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy (ECREA) is funded by the Christian World Service's Christmas Bowl program and runs peace and reconciliation programs in Fiji. 'The immediate need was to get the different races together, especially the leaders, and talk about how they could calm things down.' Mr Casimira said. 'People come away with the sense that they can make things work between them.' He said that this was only made possible through the Christmas Bowl program. Currently ECREA runs a Peer Mediation program in schools and in January 2006 it will launch a Youth Peace Camp. People aged 18-25 will focus on skills in peace-building, mediation and trauma healing. Combining music, theatre and song writing, the program will raise the participants' awareness of different ways to promote peace. 'These people will be our insurance policy against future conflicts,' Mr Casimira said. 'But we also want to build them up to be guardians of ...the rule of law, of tolerance, inclusivity.' Next August ECREA will launch their Peace Centre where community leaders will attend an intensive training course to develop peace-building skills. ECREA receives no government funding and is only supported through the Christmas Bowl program. Mr Casimira says that the money has 'brought a lot of smiles to the people of Fiji.' 'It builds a lot of understanding, it builds trust. It has contributed to people sharing their stories. And out of those stories people have hope to carry on.'
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