Linnes Chamadenga, a Global Peace Women Sunshine Family Volunteer, organizes an innovative program to bring families closer in Malawi.

Linnes Chamadenga is from Malawi. In her Chiradzulu community, she noticed something routine in the everyday lives of many families, yet deeply heartbreaking.

Families were technically living under the same roof, but they were no longer truly living together. Parents and children rarely spoke beyond errands, responsibilities, and instructions. Grandparents felt unheard. Siblings shared rooms, but not connection. Silence at the dinner table had become normal.

Distance was slowly pulling families apart, and it was the children who felt it most. Families were struggling with poor communication, cultural barriers, and the relentless demands of daily life. Children were growing up in homes where emotional connection was fading, and with it, their sense of belonging.

Linnes Chamadenga, a Global Peace Women Sunshine Family Volunteer, organizes an innovative program to bring families closer in Malawi.

Linnes saw this widening gap within families and recognized what was at stake. When families stop talking, children often begin carrying burdens they cannot name. Taking matters into her own hands, Linnes did something powerful. As a Sunshine Family Volunteer with Global Peace Women (GPW), she started the Family Ties Initiative (FTI), a project rooted in family connection and peacebuilding. Through storytelling nights, playful intergenerational activities, and deeper conversations among families in the community, family members began to rediscover one another, and parents reconnected with their children.

Grace, a mother of three, shared, “Before, we just co-existed, eating in silence, everyone on their phones… Now we have ‘story nights’ where we share our highs and lows. My youngest even calls it ‘our magic time.’” Read Linnes’s full story here: https://globalpeace.org/gpw-sunshine-family-volunteers-rebuild-family-ties-in-malawi/

Linnes’s story is a powerful reminder of how disconnected modern family life can become. As we commemorate the International Day of Families on May 15, we at Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and Global Peace Women (GPW) are proud to support peacebuilding that begins at home.

Her story also reminds us that this challenge is not unique to Malawi. Around the world, many parents struggle to stay meaningfully connected with their children. Linnes did not begin with a large-scale project. She started small, as a volunteer with GPW, asking a simple but important question: How can families reconnect with one another, between parents and children, among siblings, and across generations?

Children thrive when families stay connected, when stories are shared, and when home feels safe. This is where peace begins. This is where child well-being begins. While we often talk about well-being in terms of schools, healthcare, and protection systems, we can sometimes overlook the most basic and fundamental unit of all: the family.

This matters deeply because the family is where children first learn dignity and respect. It is where they learn trust, build confidence, and begin to prepare for the world.

GPF and GPW are proud to support transformational initiatives that begin with the family, the fundamental unit of society. The Women and Families in Peacebuilding initiative is built on the truth that peace begins at home, where values such as respect, empathy, and responsibility are first learned. Peacebuilding begins by strengthening family bonds, because when families are peaceful, societies are transformed. Children become emotionally safer and are better prepared to grow into adults who build peace.

Strong families remain one of the most enduring foundations for child well-being, social cohesion, and lasting peace.

Linnes credits much of the initiative’s success to the values of GPW, which inspired her to see families as the foundation of societal peace. “When families are strong, communities are strong, the world changes.”

Now Linnes is on a mission to expand her project, partnering with more organizations and envisioning family-bonding initiatives in every district of Malawi. In the meantime, she celebrates the small victories: the father who now asks his children about their day, the grandmother who finally feels heard, and the families who have rediscovered one another, one story at a time.

As we commemorate the International Day of Families, we at GPF remain committed to supporting families and communities. After all, peace begins in the home, and families are the first builders of it. Through a range of initiatives under Women and Families in Peacebuilding, GPF and GPW continue to invest in families as a pathway to peace.

If you would like to support our continued efforts in women and families in peacebuilding, please visit: https://globalpeace.org/?campaign=524075