Esperas

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

Esperas also welcomes other organisations that want to highlight women as actors for sustainable peace and create a better future for women in conflict zones.

Under the name Esperas, we want to explore the benefits of small organisations working together, making their work easier and running more powerful awareness campaigns, in the hope that by joining forces we can open doors that have remained closed until now.

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 be assisted by Het Peleton for the editing. Once completed, the 25-minute reports 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.