17/09/2026
Seventeen fellows and representatives from the International Geneva Peace Fellowship Programme visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 4 September as part of a community-building initiative—including fellow Wendyam Hervé Lankoandé, who will work at the WCC.
“The visit to WCC was part of a series of visits that the International Geneva Peace Fellows have been conducting since the kick-off of the program on 1 September,” explained Lankoandé. “It was a courtesy and learning visit in the sense that as a cohort we were impressed and exposed to WCC's insightful programmatic work including in peacebuilding across different jurisdictions in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Europe.”
Lankoandé reflected that the WCC values the concept of “just peace,” which has Christian roots. “As a young international Geneva peace fellow placed at WCC and who will be contributing to the establishment of an ‘Ecumenical Just Peace Network’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo, building resilient societies is all about the pursuit of just peace,” said Lankoandé. “I am proud to see WCC fully embodying this prophetic voice.”
The fellows will all work at different organizations in international Geneva this year. They received an introduction to the WCC, and then a panel of WCC staff led a discussion on the work of the WCC.
The International Geneva Peace Fellowship Programme is a partnership between Interpeace and the Geneva Graduate Institute, with support of the Foundation for the Adaptation of International Geneva, that fosters the next generation of leadership in peace and humanitarian diplomacy.
Peace fellow Minsa Salime, whose work relates to women, peace, and security, is posted at Interpeace. “The funny thing is, that I've lived in Geneva for two years but I've never really heard about the World Council of Churches, so this was my first time interacting with the work that they do,” said Salime. “I was very interested to see how faith is at the centre of their work and how present they are in different parts of the world, and how they cover a wide range of topics, from health, to climate, to children, to women and men, to gender parity.”
Salime also noted that the WCC staff were very much engaged in the work that they do. “For me, it was interesting to see how faith can contribute to peacebuilding, so I have further food for thought and I'm very happy about it,” said Salime.
Peace fellow Nathan Thomas said the goal is to come to international Geneva and to have the chance to contribute to peacebuilding in different fields, and to learn from the different organisations. “This programme allows us to see different organisations and help to cross the divides,” said Thomas. “I come from an area of the United States that is very religious and grew up in a Southern Baptist Christian household.”
Thomas said he definitely saw the work that his church was doing in the world. “Just to hear the broad range of initiatives that the churches are bringing together, such as fighting against racial discrimination, fighting against disinformation that might be related to vaccines or to climate change, to fighting for peace, to fighting against environmental degradation, which all are in line with Christian values, is not something that I saw growing up,” he said.
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