Holding Space, Nurturing Peace
Reflections from Peace Connect 2025
Peace Connect 2025 brought together civil society activists, community defenders, peacebuilders, and Indigenous groups in Nairobi for a gathering rooted in care, reflection, and collective response to a year marked by funding shocks, shrinking civic space, and escalating conflict. In these reflections, Josephine Atuhaire explores the shift toward community-led pathways for resilience, including community philanthropy, mutual aid, and local accountability, while questioning donor-driven measures of success and calling for power, decision-making, and risk to move closer to communities. With wellbeing intentionally centred through rest, counselling, and space to process, the gathering became a lived reminder that collective care is possible and that peace remains within reach when shaped and resourced by those closest to the work.