BACKGROUND TO THE MANUAL The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), launched in 2000 in the aftermath of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and winner of the 2008 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Prize for Peace Education, works to stabilise post-conflict societies by promoting a culture of peace, justice and reconciliation through research and analysis, sustained interventions, capacity development and education. The IJR draws on lessons from its interventions in South Africa where the Institute’s Building Inclusive Societies (BIS) Programme’s community healing projects, specifically the Inclusive Community Development Project, have made significant strides to heal the wounds of the past and continue to promote reconciliation, peace and democracy at the community level. Since 2013, the IJR’s Justice and Reconciliation in Africa (JRA) Programme has partnered with the Peace Building Network of Zimbabwe (PBNZ), a network of 19 local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are involved in community peace-building activities across the country, in order to develop a community healing manual that will standardise and strengthen efforts involving community healing processes in Zimbabwe. The PBNZ envisions the realisation of a conscientised society in which coordinated peace-building activities contribute to building sustainable peace and development in Zimbabwe. The PBNZ monitors and assesses situational trends in Zimbabwe in order to develop strategic peace-building frameworks for effective coordination of appropriate interventions at the local, regional and international levels. The manual, whose modules were written by Zimbabwean peace workers who are members of the PBNZ, is the outcome of three successive workshops conducted in Zimbabwe over a period of two years in which modules were drafted, presented and revised, with such workshops culminating in a training-of-trainers workshop designed to create a core group of ‘reconciliators’ from the membership of the PBNZ. The idea of a training manual emanated from the realisation that violent conflicts result in dysfunctional, wounded and divided communities that are trapped by fear, anger and all forms of social ills that create a breeding ground for fresh cycles of violence. The manual was produced to enhance the capacity of members of the PBNZ in their peace-building work by way of a bottom-up approach that also seeks to complement the role that will be played by the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) and other local and national processes. Specifically, the manual is intended to develop the capacity of members of the PBNZ in their efforts to heal communities devastated by political violence, as well as by future instances of violent conflict, so that peace can be sustained in Zimbabwe. It is therefore a tool to be used by civil society and other development workers to assist communities to draw a line under their past experiences of political violence and rebuild relationships based on peace and development. The manual uses simplified language necessary for community work and equips the trainer with knowledge and skills, as well as with a variation of methodology, relevant for specific modules so as to save time when preparing for training sessions. At the end of each module, there is a list of references for conducting further research on the concepts discussed, when required. The manual is designed as a total package for fieldwork whose methodology promotes participatory training and facilitation that will capture the participants and keep them engaged, while at the same time leveraging their own existing knowledge to enable them to become part of the community healing process. ix