Learning from other conflicts-- strengthening people-to-people
solidarity for peace.

The lessons learned by peace builders from their counterparts in
other conflict areas through the exchange of opinions and sharing
of experiences on the ground are creating networking across
borders. Armed with new ideas, stories, and friends in other
countries, the peace builders return with stronger commitment
to incorporate at home what they have learned. Exchanges
between people can be in the form of international forums, joint
advocacy, campaigns, learning and sharing lessons and intern-
ships.

Experience One
Soraya Jumjuree, head of the womens peace building community
radio, Friends of the Victimized Families Groups, based in Yala
province, a conflict area in Southern Thailand where there is an
ongoing conflict between the Muslim and Buddhist Thai popula-
tion.
She visited Buenos Aires in Argentina in November 2010 to
participate in the World Association of Community Radio (AMARC)
conference. Her visit was sponsored by the Sasakawa Peace
Foundation. Accompanying her to the conference was Arifin
Tenguku Cik, freelance radio broadcaster for several radio sta-
tions including 10.5 FM also based in Yala. He is also the
President of Islamic Cultural Foundation of Southern Thailand.

Q. Tell us what is so special about visiting and meeting people in
other conflicts.
Soraya. After decades of working on peace with affected women
in Southern Thailand, I got my first opportunity to travel abroad
last year. My visit to Rio in DATE was a landmark in my work for it
gave me the opportunity to meet many radio stations from differ-
ent countries. I was fascinated when I met people who ran radio
stations in East Timor. I learned from them that their community
radios played an active role in peace building. In particular I
learned how radio can address ideas from one community and
shared with other communities. In East Timor there are local
radio stations working to bring ideas across fifty different
communities and they did this by building a radio community
network. This realization was very exciting and I want to replicate
it in my area. The idea of a network to develop solidarity is very
useful for Southern Thailand where we have hundreds of
established community radios but we also face various issues in
the development. A network will help the radio stations to learn
more from each other.
In 2010 I traveled to Japan and also learned the same thing. My
visit to Kobe gave me the opportunity to discuss the role of radio
during disasters and brought me new ideas. I learned how FM
Wai Wai (http://www.tcc117.org/fmyy/en/index.html) steadily aired
broadcasts to the community during the Kobe earthquake in 2004
and played a crucial role to help people to evacuate to safety,
find their loved ones and keep up their spirits. The radio station
also broadcast disaster relief instructions in the languages of the
different minorities living in Kobe because they did not speak
Japanese. The radio can save lives in this way. I took all these
ideas back home and I am proud to report that I used this lesson
to develop a new disaster program on my own community radio
which worked wonderfully during last October's devastating
floods in Southern Thailand. My radio broadcasters worked with
the leading radio and online news organization, Deep South
Watch, which became an information centre during the crisis.
We worked together to issue reports to mainstream radio about
the affected villages and also to answer questions and provide
help in Malayu language to the local people. We were so suc-
cessful in drawing public awareness to the plight of flood
affected communities through radio reports and photo exhibi-
tions taken by us that we raised awareness in Bangkok where
the mainstream press had not bothered to focus on our situation.
A major achievement for us was on November 14th, when
Thailand's deputy prime minister visited the village Datuk,
located in Pattani province to see for himself the damage
the floods had caused. This really brought attention to our
problems.