MPACS Alum Launches Peace Resource Centre in Pakistan

After years of planning and several months of consultations, on January 12, 2020, Master of Peace and Conflict Studies (MPACS) alumnus, Rizwan Rizwan, helped launch the Shantinagar Peace Resource Center in Khanewal, Pakistan. The Center is a peacebuilding initiative that was a vision of Rizwan's when he enrolled in the MPACS program in 2017. Now his vision is finally a reality.

Rizwan is from Shantinagar, a town in Pakistan that experienced religious violence during his upbringing. Ever since, he hass been an advocate for peace. Before studying at Conrad Grebel University College (University of Waterloo), he was already building allies with local leaders and advocates.

"My studies prepared me to think and design the whole process," explained Rizwan. "The idea was put on paper for a final project I completed with Lowell Ewert." The project involved developing a proposal for a civil society initiative. It was then that he developed a mission statement for the organization: a commitment to human rights education and nonviolent resistance. Rizwan ultimately hopes that the Center will change the image of the town and sow seeds of sustainable peace.

Through consultation with local leaders and stakeholders, the team involved in the centre -- representative of the various faith backgrounds in the town -- decided to begin their work by building networks and relationships with women groups in the region. Rizwan explained that women and youth were impacted most by the violence, which is why the team decided to use the first six months of operation to learn from and listen to women in the region, before determining how best to conduct future advocacy and programming.

A local church has provided office space and the community has rallied behind him. "It's very much a grassroots organization," said Rizwan. "We have a strong team of volunteers."

Rizwan hopes that after its first year of operation, the Centre will be able to expand its efforts to work with more populations, but he realized that strong peace initiatives are built on relationships with people on the ground -- a process that takes time.

In the meantime, Rizwan is developing a proposal to form a partnership with the United Nations. In October 2019, he was the main speaker at a UN event called "Inspiring peace makers" in New York City.

"When I came to this program, I didn't have enough courage or a clear plan to launch the resource centre," said Rizwan. "I was confused about the design and implementation of the concept. As I reached the end of the MPACS program, I had enough courage, plans and clarity to design the whole idea, from mission statement, to working team formation, content development, and budgeting."