Kenya Peace and Solidarity Committee
Kenya Peace and Solidarity Committee, or KPSC, is an international organization that was created in early January 2008 in order to address the electoral crisis and subsequent violence that broke out in Kenya following the December 27, 2007 presidential election.
The KPSC is a coalition of organizations and individuals engaged in responding to the crisis in Kenya, with a view to addressing the emergency and find lasting solutions to the crisis.
The KPSC enables community organizations and NGOs engaged in conflict resolution, human rights advocacy, as well as international development efforts, to learn from each other, and to give a face to the people involved in responding to the crisis. The KPSC organized several public forums featuring presenters and public discussions. It also organised fundraising to help displaced people in Kenya, as well as a memorial for the victims of the violence. The KPSC supports activities by other groups that are addressing the crisis in Kenya.
The KPSC is part of the worldwide process of mobilizing solutions to the emergency in Kenya and to the structural and systemic causes of the crisis. The KPSC facilitates events to enable organizations involved in the crisis resolution process to exchange information about each other, and to create common strategies, and to prevent similar crises in the future.
Background[edit]
The KPSC is part of a comprehensive international process to respond constructively and to assist communities inside and outside Kenya that are impacted by the crisis.
The KPSC was the result of two meetings held at Simon Fraser University. Initially it was called the Kenya Solidarity Committee, but it was later changed to the Kenya Peace Committee, and then the two names were combined so that it became the Kenya Peace and Solidarity Committee.
Organization[edit]
The KPSC was designed to have two coordinators, in order to facilitate its activities. The KPSC voted to reserve one of the two coordinator positions for representative of a formally constituted Kenyan organization, in order to ensure that members of the Kenyan community were formally included in the decision-making process of the KPSC. Tara Cooper was elected as the first coordinator of the KPSC. The KPSC also has established sub-committees designed to facilitate easy administration of assignments, such as the drafting of petitions, or organizing an international video conference.
Some of the events that the KPSC has organised or sponsored include: a memorial for the victims of violence in Kenya; a petition aimed at helping the Canadian government to respond constructively to the crisis; a series of public forums featuring presenters on various topics addressing the crisis;[1] implementing a media relations strategy to help the press to respond constructively to the crisis.
Organizational Membership[edit]
Sponsoring organizations involved in the KPSC include:
- Africa Awareness
- African Canadian Association of British Columbia
- Africa Peace Forum
- African Unification Front
- International Students Association, University of British Columbia
- Kenya Community in British Columbia
- Purdue University, Indiana
- Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
References[edit]
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