Community Building

Fostering strong, healthy communities is at the core of URI’s work.
Youth for Peace CC's summer school in Bosnia and Herzegovina

URI encourages people to help each other by reaching across religious, ethnic, and cultural lines, creating a culture of respect and safety that fosters peace even during difficult times.

Examples of our work in this Action Area:

  • In Pakistan, the URI MCC Islamabad office works for inter-religious peace by addressing local Muslims' and Christians' joint need for necessities like roads, sewage systems, gas and water
  • In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Youth for Peace CC's summer school brought together young people from different backgrounds to serve their community through volunteering efforts like helping disadvantaged families, painting houses, and repairing old cemeteries
  • After a Helsinki mosque was vandalized, URI members from the URI Multiregion formed an interfaith group to clean it, sending a strong message that they would not allow their community to be divided
Search for Cooperation Circles (CCs) with a focus on Community Building

Stories

Inter-religious Peace and Solidarity Prayer for the Victims of Indian Shelling at Village Kundanpur Sialkot - Pakistan

As on 28th August 2015 the Indian Army resorted to heaving firing and shelling in village Kundanpur along the Sialkot working boundary on innocent and unarmed civilian population which claimed more than eight lives and injured more than 48 including 22 females. To show solidarity with the martyred and affected people Pakistan Council for Social Welfare & Human Rights organized interreligious peace and solidarity prayer at village Kundanpur. Hindu, Christian and Muslim’s religious and political leaders, civil society members, teachers associations, and others participated in the peace and solidarity prayer. A peaceful protest was also held to condemn the Indian’s Army inhuman act. 

Interfaith Action: URI Cooperation Circles Around the World Provide Care to Refugees

With the world's eyes fixed on the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East, URI Cooperation Circle from Germany to Bulgaria to Bosnia and Herzegovina are building "safe places" and "giving hospitality" to refugees. With the recent influx of refugees, Cooperation Circles across Europe are mobilizing to welcome refugees, providing for basic needs and more.