Stories

Peace Counts sends reporters and photographers to areas that are or have been affected by conflict. They report on successful peacemakers and their methods and focus on possible solutions of violent conflicts. Up to now our teams have worked in more than 50 countries from A like Afghanistan to Z like Zimbabwe. Their inspiring stories are published in newspapers, quality magazines, radio, television and online. And in the book „Die Friedensmacher“ (The Peacebuilders; in German only). The project itself was awarded the Innovation Prize, one story from Libya with the journalism award „Andere Zeiten“.

Egypt: New Life for old Tradition

Tarek Ramadan practices law in Egypt. His current specialty is breathing life into old traditions: He recruits and trains “Muhakimin,” arbitrators who manage conflicts between neighboring families. That was the traditional role of the judge in Islam. By Patrick Hemminger

Brazil: Long live the favela!

Nowhere do so many people die of gunshot wounds as in Brazil – 40,000 in 2004 alone. Just inland of Rio’s perfect beaches, a war is raging. In the neighborhood of Cantagolo, once an embattled mafia stronghold, the organization “Vivario” has succeeded in stopping the killing. By Tilman Wörtz

Neve Shalom: School for Peace

In the jewish-arabic village Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam people try to achieve the apparently impossible: living together in peace and sharing the power. So they founded their “School of Peace”, where young Jews and Palestinians learn how to talk to each other in a critical and fair manner. By Tilman Wörtz

Peace Boat – Freedom on Sea

Japanese activists founded a peace university that constantly circles the globe. By Michael Gleich

Macedonia: Elena mediates

Intercultural dialogue requires translators – people at home in more than one world. Elena Gulmadova is from the central Asian republic of Tajikistan. She is a diplomat and a gynecologist. Her father worships Allah, her mother Jesus. She mediates in Macedonia between warring Muslims and Christians. By Michael Gleich

Sri Lanka: Reconstruction

A bloody civil war has destroyed northern Sri Lanka, where a Tamil with German citizenship is reinventing himself for the second time. Because peace needs economic progress to survive, he is leading an exemplary reconstruction effort. By Michael Gleich

Israel: Between Front Lines

The Benedictine Abbey of Hagia Maria Sion stands on the line dividing East from West Jerusalem. It is home to the prayers and labors of the Middle East’s smallest peace movement. By Michael Gleich

Jordan: Rivulet in the Lord’s Garden

Lot settled in the Jordan valley, so the Old Testament says, because it was “well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord.” Today the lower Jordan River is an open sewer. Environmentalists are hoping to change that with a unique cooperative project. By Bernd Hauser