Transnational peace building: bringing salt and light to Colombia and the USA

Overview

In 2003, Lutheran World Relief (LWR), an international relief and development NGO, began a peace-building initiative in Colombia. It facilitated the formation of a partnership between peace-sanctuary churches in Colombia and six communities of faith in the US Midwest, co-ordinated by LWR staff. This partnership, called ‘Sal y Luz’ (Salt and Light), has the goal of education and advocacy both in Colombia and in the USA. Sal y Luz represents a powerful example of transnational solidarity for peace. There are also implications and lessons of this case study for the broader field of NGO peace-building work. The Sal y Luz model of peace building brings benefits in terms of NGO accountability and effectiveness. The key innovation of the model is the means by which LWR effectively helped its US constituency to understand and become involved in peace-building work.