Our Peace Leadership Journey
The world needs better leaders.
Sarus is where they grow.
Invest in peace leaders today.
Overview
We live in a world increasingly divided across national, ethnic, religious, economic, and political lines. Dehumanization has sadly become the norm. For the last seven years, Sarus has been quietly running programs that illuminate our shared humanity. Our programs create a unique environment for young leaders to safely explore identity, diversity, and conflict through reflection, dialogue, and collaborative service projects. Our 200+ alumni are emerging as peace leaders in their communities and have the potential to peacefully transform higher-level systems. The funds raised in this campaign will be used to train, mentor, and empower our alumni in this next stage of their peace leadership journeys. Now is the time to invest in a peaceful future.
The Problem
You don’t have to look far to see that our world is hurting. The Global Peace Index has reported a historic ten-year deterioration in peace including battle deaths at a 25-year high, the highest number of refugees since World War II, and all-time high incidents of terrorism. The economic cost of violence in 2016 alone was estimated at $14.6 trillion, which is equal to 12.6% of the global GDP or $5.40 per person per day. And this only takes into account physical violence. Latent conflicts in the form of cultural and structural violence are present in all countries and are at risk of spiraling into physical violence.
These conflicts take place in the context of unprecedented advances in information technology, transportation infrastructure, and the advent of social media. We live in a world which is more connected than any other point in human history. The challenges we face today are global in dimension: climate change, inequality, terrorism, and human rights violations. Everyone on the planet is affected by these issues, and inaction is no longer an option. In order to solve these immense challenges, we must find ways to work together across traditional lines at all levels. We must elevate our consciousness and recognize our profound interdependence and shared humanity. At Sarus, we believe a special type of leadership is required to solve these problems: peace leadership.
What We Do
Since 2010, Sarus has been bringing together emerging leaders from communities in conflict with each other. We provide a safe, nurturing environment for young leaders to collaborate on meaningful service projects in their communities, reflect on their values, identities, and dreams, and engage in substantive and meaningful dialogue with each other.
Our programs change hearts and minds and plant seeds for peace leadership. Peace leadership involves leading ourselves and others towards truth, justice, and compassion. Peace leaders identify and elicit our shared humanity in ways both large and small, seen and unseen, in the many moments and contexts of our lives: at school with classmates, at work with our colleagues, at home with our families, and on a larger scale in our communities, societies, and globally. Peace leadership is an ongoing commitment, a personal choice we make each day which demands courage, perseverance, and the ability to keep our heads up and hearts awake no matter what the world throws at us.
Our Record
Since 2010, we’ve run 18 programs for over 200 emerging peace leaders in Asia. Our programs are different from each other because they’re built for different cultural, political, historical, and educational contexts. They’re designed to draw deeply from the knowledge and creativity of local contexts in order to unlock grounded, relevant forms of peace leadership. For seven years, we’ve run month-long, two-way exchange programs between Cambodia and Vietnam, in which university students from the two countries run soccer camps in underserved rural areas of the two countries. Since 2016, we’ve also run female-only, two-way internship exchange programs between Bangladesh and Myanmar. To deepen our impact, we also have programs for alumni including workshops, retreats, and small grant opportunities.
How It Works
Our theory of change is divided into two phases. The first phase is premised on a social science hypothesis known as the contact theory. If you bring together people who are in conflict for positive, constructive engagements, then friendship will develop, and perceptions and behaviors of individuals in the two groups will change. The second phase in our theory of change is based on the multiplier effect or ripple effect. Alumni who have been transformed by the programs share their experiences with others and eventually lead peaceful change in the systems they occupy. Our focus and strength to date has been the first phase. Now that we have seven generations of alumni, we are shifting our focus to the second phase. This campaign will support peace leadership programs for our alumni.
