In this recent update, Executive Director Marisa Smucker highlights the hard, beautiful work of global partners who are building communities of peace. One of those partners is SADRA Conflict Transformation in South Africa.
SADRA, founded in 2013 by Oscar Siwali, is a Christian organization dedicated to fostering nonviolent ways of resolving conflict. Through training, dialogue, and direct intervention, the team works across schools, churches, families, communities, and election spaces to raise up peacemakers and transform the places where violence has taken root.
“I work for SADRA Conflict Transformation, and SADRA focuses on peace building, which is broken down into training, into dialogues, into intervention in spaces where there are conflicts,” Siwali explains in the video.
The organization trains young people to serve as mediators in schools, equips women as peacebuilders and prepares church leaders to step into family and community disputes.
A distinctive part of SADRA’s ministry is its role around elections. Rather than advocating for any candidate, the organization serves as a trusted neutral presence. For South Africa’s local and national elections, SADRA facilitates dialogues on accountability, what happens after voting and the meaning of democracy itself. Embassy staff and community leaders often join these conversations, sharing perspectives that help people engage thoughtfully.
“South Africa is only 30 years old as a country [in its democracy], and so people still want to hear what does this thing mean? What is this whole democracy thing about?” Siwali says. “That’s really the work that we do on a daily basis.”
Since its founding, SADRA has trained more than 4,000 people according to recent reports — working in township schools affected by bullying and gang violence, supporting courts with family mediation, collaborating with police and traditional leaders and helping create safer spaces during times of political tension. The organization’s approach draws on both practical conflict-transformation skills and a deep Christian conviction that followers of Jesus are called to be active peacemakers.
We grateful to continue partnering with SADRA. Their calling to pursue Christ’s peace through mediation and training is one the network wants to share widely.
There are many ways to join this work: through prayer, by volunteering in service, or by giving financially to support partners and ministries around the world.
