PAIMAN Alumni Trust (PAIMAN) aims to reach out to women and young people in the conflict-ridden region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, and conflict affected and conflict-prone districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through awareness of the impacts of radicalisation and extremism on their lives and the role they can play in combating it.
Let’s Live in Peace is PAIMAN’s initiative for conflict transformation and peacebuilding in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. The organisation believes that with the current situation there is an urgent need for developing the understanding of people on various aspects of conflict transformation and peacebuilding and its application at a community level.
The organisation believes that an indigenous approach is indispensable to successful peacebuilding. It is required, not as a moral imperative or an infallible theory, but simply because peacebuilding cannot succeed without people’s involvement in local society. Based on the well-established principle of ‘local ownership’, PAIMAN is working with communities hard hit by the ongoing conflict.
PAIMAN’s projects include various stakeholders – including elected representatives, government officials, clergy, teachers, journalists, youth and female – from FATA and other conflict-torn areas as part of its conflict transformation and peacebuilding programmes. It has established youth and female peace groups called ‘TOLANA’ working at the community level across the provinces. Both male and female groups carry out community meetings to educate their respective communities on the impact of radicalisation and mobilise them to work for peace and conflict transformation. They are actively involved in negotiation and mediation in their respective areas. On a regular basis, PAIMAN conducts surveys and research studies regarding the socio-political and economic dimension of conflict, and the impact of conflict on youth and women in FATA and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunhwa.
PAIMAN has established the Centre for Conflict Transformation & Peacebuilding at its head office in Islamabad which acts as a resource centre and training institute on relevant subjects for South Asia and beyond. The user-friendly training manuals and associated training materials are developed in the context of the Pakistan conflict and its dynamics. Short courses and workshops on conflict transformation and peacebuilding are also conducted.
Working in the context of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, PAIMAN is interacting and networking with women’s groups in Afghanistan to set up a network of peacebuilding between the two neighbouring countries. PAIMAN is actively engaged in peacebuilding initiatives at the regional and global levels being the founding member of Regional Women Peace Forum, Gender Concern International, and Hague and Afghan Women Network.
PAIMAN has initiated a ‘Peace Education’ program in two schools of Peshawar as a pilot project in December 2008. Under this programme students are given orientation on various aspects of conflict transformation, peacebuilding, human rights, tolerance and inter-faith dialogue.