From 25th of February to 1st of March, students, volunteers and scholars from around the world gathered at LCC International University with a common desire - facilitation of peace in the world.  Hosted by the Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation, the peace conference “Creating Resilient Communities for Peace and Justice: Roles of Business and Civil Society” brought business owners, civil society researchers, faith communities, practitioners and NGOs together in exploring the importance of integrating cooperation across different backgrounds and exploring currently at times unimaginable paths to peace. They looked at ways for creating a mutual understanding regardless of social biases and differences. Thus, practices of building resilient communities happened as different fields brought ideas around prosperity and mutual cooperation into a learning dialogue. 

A preconference panel with Dorothy Nyambi from Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) set the stage for further understanding through “The Case for the Nexus: Economic Prosperity and Peace.” This opened a larger discussion on the relationship between economic development and sustainable peace, how systems fracture and create vulnerability which provided new ideas from which the conference began.  Virginija Poškutė, from ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius and our second keynote speaker emphasized ethical concerns and challenged us with the question “who is thinking about social responsibility?” and how business plays a role in society’s wellbeing.  

Over four days, participants engaged in plenary sessions with speakers, workshops, discussions, and interactive activities. These addressed the roles of business and civil society as essential to resilience in communities affected by conflict. Speakers and facilitators came from countries  across the globe including Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Lithuania, Germany, Croatia, Ethiopia, the United States, and beyond sharing their experiences and insights on ways towards transformation covering topics like culture and memory, social cohesion and community care, faith, civil society engagement, education, youth empowerment, and governance. 

One of the unique elements of the conference was the storytelling theatre led by Raffi Feghali, where participants had the opportunity to reflect on personal experiences and share their stories about resilience, faith, hope, and community. These transforming moments created space for deeper connection and dialogue among attendees. 

Our LCC student volunteers played a crucial role in the success of the conference. Many described the experience as both meaningful and inspiring. For International Relations and Development students such as AnnaRomanenko (a 3rd year student at LCC) shared that meeting people from different fields working toward peace gave her hope and motivation, especially during difficult global times. Uliana Horbenko,also a 3rd year student,noted that the conference expanded her understanding of peacebuilding and connected her with scholars, artists, pastors, and activists united by a shared goal. 

Salome Noniashvili, a first-year student, noted: “It was particularly interesting to connect business to peace and explore how they can complement each other”.   Yan Levyskyi , a 2nd year student said “The peace conference helped me shift my focus to building peace and being a peacemaker through various workshops and lectures given by educated individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds” He continued to identify “ how peace plays a vital role in todays wounded and broken world.”  

Throughout the conference, participants emphasized the importance of dialogue, cooperation, and resilience. The bringing together of individuals from diverse cultural experiences and professions was a positive element. As one speaker, Dr. Elena Šiaudvytienė comments, “during the conference meeting people from many parts of the world who are working to build a more peaceful and just world truly strengthened my hope”.  

Overall, the conference not only created a space for exchange of ideas and initiatives; it also developed common ground for future cooperation, leading participants in a journey into a relational web.  By remembering our common humanity and interdependency, it strengthened courage to dare hold out hope in difficult times while rethinking strategically the approaches and actions used to create resilience in communities.  

As the conference concluded with reflections and farewells, one message stands out to all of us who participated stood out clearly: building resilient communities requires collective effort, open dialogue, and a willingness to engage across differences. 

By Andrii Huk (peace intern) 

We are thankful to the support of Mennonite Mission Network (MMN) and Horsch Foundation for their continued partnership support of our peace work