Interfaith Peacemaker Teams (IP Teams) comprise approximately 20 OMNIA-trained clergy and lay faith leaders. Tough-minded and focused, these women and men:
- collaborate across identity barriers
- build power by organizing people and organizing money
- act strategically on urgent, relevant and winnable issues that arise from the ground-up.
The IP Teams are demonstrably effective. The stories of their success are featured in our communique, A Compilation of IP Team Stories.
As the number of Teams in an area increase, and their impact get to be well-known, the effectiveness of interreligious collaboration will produce a cultural shift. In that community, OMNIA expects to see a decrease in people’s tolerance of extremist religion and an increase in their affirmation of pluralistic religion.
The IP Teams are designed to become a component of a community’s social-infrastructure that encourages democratic citizen engagement for peacebuilding.
Today, in Northeastern Nigeria there are 101 IP Teams. Sri Lanka has 39, Bangladesh has 35, Uganda has 3 and there are 3 Virtual IP Teams, making a total of 181 IP Teams. While OMNIA’s values, principles and method are the same in each country, Teams function according to the unique features of each context.
The next Virtual IP Team training will be held in January 2023. Please click here for more details.