International Peace Initiatives

10/07/2025

Hello, Colorado! Dr. K will be in the Denver area the evening of October 8 and would love to see you! We still have some space available if you're interested in attending! Please email [email protected] to rsvp!

05/13/2025

Herbs, Homeschool, and Hares 🐇?! These, and other revenue-generating endeavors are positioning IPI-Kenya to be more sustainable going into the future. Read about all the exciting projects happening at IPI in out latest newsletter!
https://ipeacei.org/herbs-homeschool-and-hares-sustainability/

03/08/2025

We are excited to share a new video update about KACH and Tiriji that was recently created by Nicole Alleyne! Nicole’s connection to IPI began when she was a participant in a summer program that IPI Board Chairman Mike Beerntsen led for Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder in 2017. After graduating from Yale, Nicole decided to spend a year volunteering with IPI-Kenya. Her journey is a testament to the power of the work that IPI is doing to inspire young leaders like Nicole in both the U.S. and Kenya. We hope you enjoy this brief video! https://ipeacei.org/volunteervideo/

01/01/2025

Happy New Year from all of us at IPI! We so appreciate your love and support and wish you a wonderful 2025!

12/31/2024

Today, you have the ability to give the gift of hope! IPI still has a funding gap of $19,000. We desperately need your help. What does your year-end gift mean to our KACH Kids? We'll tell you what it means to Beatrice, who has been supported by IPI since 2021.

By the age of 2, Beatrice lost both parents, was raised by older sisters, and eventually served as the sole provider for the household. She worked for neighbors in exchange for money, supporting her nieces and nephews’ schooling, and making her way through her own primary school studies.

“At times, I had to forget about studies. I had to concentrate on how to feed those four kids.” Eventually, in 2020, Beatrice was forced to drop out of school because she was unable to pay her school fees. Beatrice’s curious, outgoing nature became replaced with depression. “I had lost hope. I was just interested in going back to school and studying again.”

In 2021, she was introduced to Dr. Karambu. It was at KACH where Beatrice re-discovered her voice, began the journey of healing, and transformed into the leader she is today. Would you come alongside us and support the 83 children like Beatrice who call KACH home?

To those that have already supported us this giving season, THANK YOU! To those who wonder if you can really make a difference this year, YOU CAN! Your gift, no matter the amount, helps us provide the love, care, meals, tuition, medications, and shelter for our KACH kids. Don't delay - give the gift of hope today! Donate online: www.ipeacei.org/donate-now or via Venmo venmo.com/ipeacei

12/10/2024

Today is Colorado Gives Day! Seeds of IPI were planted in Colorado more than 15 years ago when Dr. Karambu was a graduate student at the University of Denver. In fact, she held IPI's very first house party fundraiser near campus! Colorado has always been a generous supporter of IPI, and today we need your help! We would like to give our kids a magical Christmas this year. Would you consider a gift this to help us provide a Christmas dinner, new outfit and shoes for each child? If you haven't given already, would you consider partnering with us today to give our more than 80 children a memorable Christmas? Visit our Colorado Gives page and consider donating today! Asante Sana! https://www.coloradogives.org/organization/InternationalPeaceInitiatives

12/03/2024

Did you know the average Kenyan salary is only $3 per day? Families often face the difficult reality they cannot afford to celebrate Christmas, let alone educate their children. Our 83 children are receiving an education and we would also like to provide them a special Christmas celebration. This please consider partnering with us so our children may have a wonderful Christmas. We would like to provide a Christmas dinner, new outfit, undergarments, and shoes for each child. Any amount helps! We are so thankful for your kindness! Donate online at: www.ipeacei.org/donate-now You may also donate via Venmo . ASANTE SANA!

P.S. a generous donor has agreed to match all gifts dollar-for-dollar through Dec. 31, doubling your impact!!!

11/30/2024

It's Small Business Saturday! Did you know IPI Polytech trains young women in industries such as hairdressing, jewelry making, catering and tailoring? 250 of our graduates have gone on to open their own small businesses that not only provide for their own families but employ others so they, too, may lift themselves out of poverty. When you give to IPI this Small Business Saturday, you are helping us train women like Salome who has learned valuable skills and now owns her own small business selling beautiful handcrafted items! Support Small Business! www.ipeacei.org/donate-now

06/25/2024

At International Peace Initiatives we continue to build our food sovereignty and regeneration through production of organic products from our food forest. This Organic Homey is packaged by Tiriji Ventures, an Agri-biz that supports the Kithoka Amani Children's Home (KACH) and other IPI programs. We are selling 1 kg of our Organic Honey at Kshs. 1,000 and half a kg at Kshs. 500 ONLY! Make your order today!

06/17/2024

Working across cultures is about nurturing relationships and reminding ourselves of all the ways we are interconnected and interdependent - not only as humans but also with nature and all non-human beings. In my view, these interactions lead to enhancing understanding of the 'other.' I believe that world peace is possible when we see the humanity of another - and remember that we are in this life dance together.

Dr. Karambu, Founder and President of International Peace Initiatives speaks about our partnership model.

06/11/2024

We are hosting a conference at Tiriji Eco Spiritual and Retreat Center for the Master of Development Practice program based at the Regis University, Colorado. I have been thinking about the notion of 'development' and 'aid' and what these mean for me and my work in Africa. I have come to the conclusion that our approach showcases a way of "decolonizing" global partnerships. I have been thinking a lot about why and how the ways in which the International Peace Initiatives and Students Shoulder to Shoulder (IPI-SStS) partnership is different and I have come to this conclusion:

One: The mainstream development narrative is based on a dichotomy of power over; rather than power with. In fact, the word 'power' and how it is used (e.g. giving poor people the power to make their own decisions, ETC) embeds and enables the perpetuation of the dichotomies. In some African languages, we do not have a word for power - rather, we talk of strength (everyone has strength but not everyone has power).Why? Because power is given but strength is inherent in (and available to) everyone. Our partnership has been built on recognising and building on our strength, and vice versa - SStS recognises its strength and builds on it.

Two: Intention-based and agendaless engagement - we all come to the arena with an intention, rather than an agenda. An agenda is defined as a concrete plan with a concrete outcome - mostly the purpose is hidden, and there is an attachment to the outcome. I see an intention as inviting openness, where everything is welcome. There is no attachment to an outcome created beforehand. There is emergence and a deep trust in the process of what the intention is meant for. This is how our partnership has evolved, inviting a spaceciousness that is open more than controlled.

Three: Regeneration - the recognition that we work in order for people to step into their strength - to recognise it, embrace it and embody it. The systems that have programmed us have 'stolen' (or we have given up) our strength to another's power narrative - and thus, we have forgotten who we are! Regenerative work does NOT do anything for/to anyone. It merely holds a mirror for people to remember who they are! It enables one to re-encounter ourselves and to remember who we are and why we are here.

The stories we hear from those who have experienced the SStS/IPI encounter see what is possible for them and remember they are indeed ethical leaders who have a purpose to bring this way of being into their world - both within them and without. The encounter is a meeting with oneself to remember and reclaim their strength (not power)! It is like our kids recognising that the world may call them orphans (a marking that defines them via their circumstances), but they refuse to see themselves as such because they are alive - they are not the ones who are dead.

For me, my work is about awakening this awareness in people - that we are more than the world systems have defined us as. We need to remember and reclaim who we say/know we are and step into it and live (BE) that.That is where flourishing comes alive! Not merely surviving (that is from a victimhood mindset - the systems speaking again). This way of BEing gives us permission to define ourselves and to remember that there is one thing no person or system can take away from us: 'how I choose to respond to any circumstance' (Viktor Frankl).

06/08/2024

The systems we live in have programmed us in ways that have led us to forget and give away our power and sovereignty to them. The results have led to a self-righteousness that has led to destruction of our planet, its people and we have forgotten who we are and our power as powerful co-creators with the Divine. We can awaken to and reclaim our power and Divine essence and heal both ourselves and our planet and its inhabitants - both non-human and human! Do we DARE?

Dr. Karambu Ringera, Green Tent Circle's May Illuminator, is the founder and president of International Peace Initiatives (IPI: www.ipeai.org), an organizati...