Attached are two documents - a report on the work of Foundations for Peace and a brochure describing the thinking behind Foundations for Peace. Foundations for Peace is a group of activist funders who believe that in societies living in a constant state of war or threat of war, religious or caste conflict or who are at the early stages of recovery from violent conflict, people face hurt, anger and pain with feelings of betrayal, disempowerment and loss of bearings. Without direct support and resources, they find it difficult to build relationships based on trust, respect and pluralism.

FFP believes that it is imperative that development funding, both national and international, takes cognisance of this and invests more -both strategically and substantially- in long-term indigenous peace building work.

It is FFP's view that this peace building work must build from within the affected community, society or country in order for it to be sensitive to local needs and sustainable in the long-term.

The Victim Empowerment and Peacebuilding report is a product of the Foundations for Peace Network and was developed to further a strategic FFP goal which is to ‘share models of good practice in various aspects of peacebuilding work’. The Network members work in regions of conflict and felt it important to share and learn from their practice in relation to the support of victims/survivors of conflict and to showcase the important contribution made by survivors in resolving conflict and building peace processes.

The report details a range of case studies which provide insight into the situations that many victims of conflict find themselves in. More importantly, the case studies detail the steps taken by victims as survivors to move on from their victimhood to contribute to peace building, human rights and social justice work. While each region has contextually different and very complex conflict issues, the impact on victims and their families is often similar and the learning offered in the report provides a practical tool for those with an interest in supporting victims of conflict to engage with peace and social justice work.