About Petra Peacebuilders
petra VISION
A global humanitarian system will exist that enables peacebuilders to thrive with the personal and professional resources to operate with the inspiration and integrity necessary to effect lasting positive change in the world.
Petra Mission
Petra Peacebuilders aims to empower people building peace to transcend with breakthrough resilience in their global peacebuilding endeavors. We accomplish this by facilitating transformative experiences in the context of supportive relationships and creative collaboration.
Petra concept
In Greek, petros means a single stone: insecure, shifting, rolling. Petra, however, means a mass of connected rock, a solid, fused formation. Petra Peacebuilders exists to form precisely such a community of individual stones who together become an enduring force of unshakable resilience in the face of today’s worst global threats.
Petra is also a location in Jordan, a strong, fortress-like structure in a desert climate with an ancient, built-in watering system. Metaphorically speaking, this self-watering for resilience of heart, body, mind and soul while working in tough places is what Petra Peacebuilders aims to produce in the people we serve.
Who is Petra?
Two decades of global humanitarian work across Asia, Africa, and Latin America led Petra’s founder and executive director, Bianca Neff, to found Petra Peacebuilders in direct response to the needs in the sector.
Petra’s board of directors similarly shares far-reaching experience in widespread nations, from grassroots to the United Nations Headquarters. These experiences give Petra’s leadership an exceptionally broad perspective on the global non-profit enterprise.
Similarly, Petra staff and our expert contracted professionals all boast extensive international experience. Each one is trained to provide staff care for international humanitarian field personnel in ways that “normal” counselors and coaches cannot, by virtue of their specialized training in the challenges that are unique to global humanitarians.
Who Does Petra Serve?
Global peacebuilders and frontline civilians are men and women across the globe, from both developed and emerging nations, who courageously work during both conflict and calm to promote peace and justice in their respective vocational communities at the local, regional, and national levels. Their work is multi-faceted, incorporating relief aid, education, economics, government, infrastructure and nation building, and many other arenas.
In a spirit of humility and service, and with the conviction that the sector has a moral responsibility to take care of its own wounded and to help in the prevention of unnecessary wounding where possible, Petra Peacebuilders exists to serve these peacebuilders in order to maximize their highest potential.
