The Post Yugoslav Peace Link (PYPL), is an informal group within Britain Yearly Meeting which also welcomes non‐Quakers and Quakers outside the UK to join with us in continuing to link with the Quaker inspired peace activists and activities in the countries of the Post Yugoslav region. 

PICTURE:
Former QPSW representatives share the final draft of To Trust a Spark with PYPL members at the QCEA Conference Brussels, December 2015 - click HERE to read a summary of the conference
(from left to right): Sally Markwell (PYPL), Goran Božičević (Croatia), Goran Bubalo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Zorića Trifunović (Serbia), Alan Pleydell (PYPL), Andrew Lane (QCEA).

(with thanks to Mark Spring - photography)

​THANK YOU!
To all of you who attended the launch of​          
To Trust a Spark
See below for purchasing details
     

Welcome to PYPL web pages

A little about ourselves

​Early Quaker work (1991) with the displaced, reconstruction and support of individuals led to establishing an office in Sarajevo with a programme which provided capacity- building and support for individuals and small groups engaged in peacebuilding activities. The Quakers then recognized that the work should move on to address the need to deal with the past (DWP) as an essential element of peacebuilding. This led to an ambitious programme with a team of locally appointed Representatives placed in Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Representatives developed a pioneering programme initially in each country, which then spread across the three countries and the region. They worked with activists, small groups and emerging NGOs with a range of activities, which varied in content but all containing a central core of addressing the past The DWP programme ended in 2008 with a follow-up meeting in Umag, for those who had been most closely involved in 2009. Scroll down the page for our latest appeal.

MANY THANKS INDEED!

To all our generous supporters for your offers of funds and help. It is amazing how our mailing was able to generate some really interesting and enthusiastic contacts.
 
We continue to celebrate the launch of our book “To Trust A Spark” and provide another successful ‘Summer Peace Retreat’ for peace-workers across the region. 

DO PLEASE CONTINUE TO MAKE DONATIONS WHICH ARE VERY MUCH  APPRECIATED AND CAN BE MADE BY SENDING FUNDS DIRECTLY TO OUR     PYPL ACCOUNT:
 
Code: 08-92-99
Number: 65387904
 
or by cheque (payable to PYPL) to our treasurer:
Ruth Baker, at Ludwell, Faringdon Road, Abingdon, OX14 1BQ
  
FOR ANY FOR DONATIONS OVER £10.00 (except those made through CAF)  
 YOU WILL ALSO RECEIVE A COPY OF
 TO TRUST A SPARK
 FEBRUARY 2018

​“There is no way to peace, peace is the way”.
We have been touched and grateful for all the messages of love and support from our former representatives and contacts across the Region as we have experienced the shocking tragedies in London and Manchester this year. We have been reminded that we are “linked, we need each other but not in terms of 'desperately needing', rather in knowing, sensing, feeling connection”. They have so clearly highlighted that the attacks are a stark reminder of the fragility of life and the importance of standing steadfast in our pursuit of a better and more compassionate world. 
​JULY 2017 

OUR WORK
​
A major focus of PYPL has been the commissioning of To Trust a Spark by Anne Bennett.
This book records the changing nature of the peacebuilding programme in the former Yugoslavia during the period 1991-2009. ​The title of this book is drawn from a quotation from one of the QPSW placements who had reflected on the focus of the experimental programme which was ‘to be there’ and that QPSW  ‘had an openness to what was the right way forward, to be defined and determined by local people.... Quakers freed themselves from constraints to pursue what seemed to be a good idea – to trust a spark’.

Regional Summer Retreats give local peaceworkers the opportunity to gather together and engage with each other for internal renewal and spiritual replenishment from across the post Yugoslav region. PYPL has been able to co-ordinate the funding of four out of the nine retreats provided within Croatia and Sarajevo since 2004, latterly through two QPSW Relief Grants. More recently, PYPL has embarked upon a training-the-trainer programme, which facilitates the opportunity for experienced facilitators to also provide coaching and mentoring to help less experienced colleagues to develop the skills and knowledge required to deliver the retreats themselves. Britain Yearly Meeting’s support has been valued by the participants. As one put it, “Thank you Quakers for supporting this project, thanks to God they haven’t given up on retreats. There are still more people who need this.”​

Please read the recent article about this work on page 6 of Quaker News Winter/spring 2017.
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