“We are living in a time when the number of wars has more than doubled in the past ten years. Just in the last few days, we have seen the horrifying escalation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The war in Ukraine is the largest war in Europe since World War II. Millions of people displaced, billions in infrastructure destruction, and the reality is that violence is escalating. Peacebuilding is like medicine. In the same way that doctors work to understand the causes of diseases and find real, effective, and practical treatments, so too is peacebuilding in combating conflicts.”
— Kai Brand Jacobsen, Executive Director of PATRIR – Peace, Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania.

Alis Costescu, Project Manager at PATRIR – Peace, Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania, talks about why we still need a peace institute, about nonviolence as a fundamental principle in PATRIR’s work, and about the multiculturalism that the NGO practices, bringing together employees and volunteers from all corners of the world. Last but not least, Alis speaks about the challenges and crises the organization manages, which are inevitable when working with people from vulnerable communities, as well as life lessons from various international citizen communities.

 Kai Brand-Jacobsen was invited to discuss some of the most critical tensions facing our world today and the role we can all play in building a future of peace and security.

Alis Costescu, Project Manager at PATRIR – Peace, Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania, talks to us about the needs of non-governmental organizations, as well as what each of us can do to develop the communities we are part of and contribute to a functioning democracy.