Portraits of Survivors

Unlike many international organizations, the Global Initiative for Justice, Truth and Reconciliation knows that in conflict and post-conflict settings, local communities know best what they need. For this reason, in all their projects, the GIJTR works hand in hand with local civil society organizations to ensure they have the support they need to help their communities preserve and share their experiences of conflict and play an active role in forging a more stable and peaceful future – often through art-based programming. Below are examples of such GIJTR-sponsored community outreach initiatives.

Historias en Común (Stories in Common)

As a documentation initiative, GIJTR supported victims and survivors of the Colombian conflict to produce the first "locally-led" podcast where they had the opportunity to tell their stories in their own words.
Survivors were interviewed in their houses while doing their daily routines. In this image, a participant from the rural community of Choco is sewing while giving an interview.
Episodes included music developed by community members. Music is an art-based approach used by local communities in Colombia to tell their stories.
Community members visit a victim of the Colombian armed conflict in his residency to document his story.
Community members visit a victim of the Colombian armed conflict in his residency to document his story.
Episodes included music developed by community members. Music is an art-based approach used by local communities in Colombia to tell their stories.
In many cases, community members developing episodes were victims themselves, having a chance to have a platform to share their stories.

Advocacy and Awareness in Guinea

With support from GIJTR, local partners joined together to form CONAREG - the National Coalition in Support of Reconciliation in Guinea - and produce this documentary which shares victims' testimonies to raise awareness of socio-political unrest in Guinea from independence to the present day.

Rohingya Women and the COVID-19 Pandemic

To address COVID-19’s impact on women in the camps, GIJTR partner AJAR conducted daily COVID-19 “Awareness Discussions” with members of the network of Rohingya women facilitators.
The aim of these conversations was to listen to how the women were feeling and provide a safe space for them to voice their concerns and how they are processing any changes during these times.
In the initial months, women reported many misperceptions about COVID-19 that were spreading through the camps. In response, AJAR communicated directly with 80 women, providing accurate information on COVID-19 risks and mitigation measures.
The women have since shared this information with at least 375 others, protecting these and many others’ lives.
Given that women and girls are disproportionately affected by conflict, and that in recent months there has been a spike in domestic violence reported in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, the program supports one of the project’s key goals: women’s voices are not lost in this context.
In May 2020, GIJTR and AJAR collaborated with the Liberation War Museum (LWM), a founding Site of Conscience in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to launch an online exhibition sharing stories from Rohingya women survivors told through embroidered panels. For more information, visit: https://asia-ajar.org/quiltofmemoryandhope/

Memorial Benches

During Lebanon’s civil war (1975 – 1990), over 100,000 people were killed and at least 17,000 people disappeared. The 1989 Taif Agreement, also known as the “National Reconciliation Accord,” allowed for some political compromise, which was enough to end the war but failed to initiate a reconciliation process. At the heart of the legacy of the Lebanese war lies the unresolved fate of thousands of people who went missing during the conflict. The families of these missing and forcibly disappeared people are still waiting for information on the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

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