The soulful sound of the Manipuri Pena captivated over 500 peacebuilders from across conflict-affected regions of the world during the Peace Connect 2025 conference held from October 13 to 17 at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya.<\/p>\n
Representing the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network, Dona Ngairangbam, popularly known as Pena Dona, showcased the rich Manipuri tradition of Pena as a form of indigenous storytelling and healing. Through her performance, she highlighted how her Pena classes with internally displaced (IDP) children in Manipur are helping them cope with trauma and rebuild hope amidst ongoing violence.<\/p>\n
Babloo Loitongbam of Human Rights Alert also participated in the conference as part of the Global Peacebuilders\u2019 Network (GPN) delegation. Speaking during a plenary session of the Asia Working Group on Civil Space and Rights in Crisis, he emphasized that civil society can no longer remain neutral as repressive regimes silence independent voices. He called for a universal approach to address the breakdown of rule of law, uphold human rights, and ensure humanitarian protection globally.<\/p>\n
He further drew attention to underreported crises, including the ongoing violence in Myanmar and the situation in Manipur, while urging progressive global actors to safeguard democratic values and human rights achievements from erosion in today\u2019s shifting world order.<\/p>\n
The week-long conference concluded with an intercontinental musical fusion, blending the melodies of Manipuri Pena with traditional Sudanese music, leaving the audience inspired by the spirit of unity and peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The soulful sound of the Manipuri Pena captivated over 500 peacebuilders from across conflict-affected regions of the world during the Peace Connect 2025 conference held from October 13 to 17 … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[349,350,351],"class_list":["post-4520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inn","category-uncategorized","tag-peace-connect-2025","tag-pena","tag-pena-donna","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8601,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions\/8601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}