Learning to Live Together: Using Distance Education for Community Peacebuilding 

Rawwida Baksh and Tanyss Munro, Editors
August 2009

As the number of violent conflicts around the world escalates, peace-building is an increasingly important priority – particularly at the community level, where attitudes are often formed and reinforced.

Learning to Live Together includes a range of community peacebuilding experiences from across the Commonwealth that have been applying open and distance learning (ODL) approaches. The case studies offer insights into the challenges as well as the kinds of interventions that have worked and how they can be built upon. They show that ODL can be an effective and efficient way to involve many of the people most affected by conflict in being part of its prevention, mitigation and resolution.

It is hoped that this publication will set the stage for further work in this area and expand community learning opportunities in Commonwealth countries.

CONTENTS

Acronyms and Abbreviations • v

Foreword – Sir John Daniel • vii

Introduction: Setting the Context
Rawwida Baksh, Tanyss Munro and Carley Robb • 1

1. Using Open and Distance Learning for Community
Development
– Tanyss Munro and Ian Pringle 13

2. Bush Radio in South Africa – Sanjay Asthana 25

3. Doorways for Open and Distance Learning in the
Kingdom of Lesotho
– Kallie de Beer 31

4. Creating Spaces for Dialogue on Children’s Rights:
“Curious Minds” from Ghana
– Sanjay Asthana 41

5. Learning for Peace Through Community Radio
in Northern Uganda: the Case of Radio Apac
– Carol Azungi Dralega 45

6. Learning Through Radio: the Experiences of Rural
Women in Zambia and Zimbabwe
– Rashweat Mukundu 59

7. Conflict Resolution and Land Reform in Zimbabwe
– Herbert Mudzamba 71

8. Empowering Women as Peacemakers Through
Culture in Bangladesh
– S. Senthilnathan, Rafiqul Islam Khokan
and Swapan Guha
83

9. Fractured Community: Prospects for Communitybased
Reconstruction in Kashmir
– Seema Kazi 91

10. Rural Peacebuilding in Pakistan
– Tasneem Ahmar and Sara Khan 103
Box: Healing Communal Scars in India 112

11. Engaging Canadian First Nations Youth in E-learning for Peace
– Wendy Drummond and Gregory Cran 115

12. Towards Peace in Jamaica: Learning to Build Community
– Horace Levy, Rosamond Brown, Mervin Jarman and
Elizabeth Mary Ward
129

13. Youth Violence and Innovative Approaches to Peacebuilding
Education in Trinidad and Tobago
– Rowena Kalloo 149

14. Pacific Women Transforming Conflict Through
Community Media
– Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls 169

15. Using Live and Video Drama to Reach Communities in Vanuatu
– Peter Walker 185

16. Learning in a Post-conflict Environment: the Case
of Bougainville
– Volker Boege and Pam Christie 197

17. Youth Collaborating for Peace with Community
Media in Solomon Islands – David Leeming • 211

Conclusion – Rawwida Baksh and Tanyss Munro • 225

Author Biographies • 235

Acknowledgements • 244