Esperas

Esperas brings together three associations, Make Mothers Matter, Mothers for Peace and Mama Kivu, each with its own mission but sharing the same vision.

Esperas aims to be ‘the megaphone for women working for peace and reconciliation throughout the world’. it also welcomes other organisations that want to highlight women as actors for sustainable peace and create a better future for women in conflict zones.

Women are generally only seen as victims of conflict or fragile states, and they are rarely seen as part of the solution. Women make up half of the population, but they are still under-represented at the political negotiating table or involved in peace processes. Yet they have a fundamental role to play in building and maintaining peace within society.

Esperas’ main objective is to promote this fundamental role, in particular by giving a platform to all the women who are working, often behind the scenes, to (re)build peace throughout the world. To this end, Esperas regularly organises ‘peace labs’, conferences and podcasts – mainly in Dutch.

No Man’s Land: Esperas’ first ‘Peace lab’ project

In order to fulfil our mission, we took part in a call for projects and received European support via Frame Voice Report under the 4th pillar 11.11.11.

Esperas then put out a call to young journalists to make a 25-minute documentary on a woman/mother who acts and provides a solution for peace in a post-conflict region in a southern country.

3 teams were selected and travelled the following year between February and April to film. The teams were then assisted by Het Peleton for the editing. Once completed, the 25-minute documentaries were broadcast on VRT’s ‘Vranckx & de Nomaden’, a programme by Rudi Vranckx.

This first project was followed by other Peace labs and events, that all aimed at promoting and highlighting the often untold peace-building stories and actions of (extra)ordinary women/mothers.