John Stewart

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Biographical Information

"John Stewart is Director of the service organisation, NOVASC - Nonviolent Action and Strategies for Social Change, in Zimbabwe, which works with collective and grassroots organisations in leadership development for change, and through campaigns, negotiation and nonviolent actions. NOVASC is a member organisation of the Nonviolent Peaceforce. Of South African parentage, he grew up in Lesotho, Kenya and Malawi. He studied social and political science, and after working in Congo Brazzaville for UNICEF, he settled in Zimbabwe in 1980, just after its independence. His work has included time as Director of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, and as Southern African representative for AFSC (Quakers); in addition he worked as a science teacher and school administrator, and ran a boisterous household with six teenagers - two natural children, one adopted son (the child of his sister killed in South Africa in 1993), and a semi-adopted Zimbabwean daughter (victim of Renamo violence), and two Angolan boys, sons of an Angolan friend married to an Irish woman. 'Managing that household was as tough as managing a war zone', he reminisces."

• Governing Council, Nonviolent Peaceforce