To celebrate this year, Peace Partners are both sharing thoughts on 'What does peace mean... to you?' as well as sharing lots of wonderful peace related content including video interviews, social media chatter and updates from our partners.
Given the current climate and challenges around hosting physical events, we felt we could still connect virtually to share 'Shaping Peace Together', the United Nations' international theme.
There is war, there is conflict on our planet, but there is also hope.
Peace Partners strives to share a message of personal peace via the Peace Education Programme, partnering with The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF). And we support their humanitarian initiatives across the globe, as well as sharing collaborative platforms with our other partners.
Join us! Join in!
What does peace mean to you?
To celebrate the International Day of Peace, we would like to ask you to share your thoughts on what peace means to you. We will post all responses on the day to showcase what peace means to us. All comments are anonymous. Thank you!
One aspect of shaping peace together is the link between Peace Partners andformer gang members, the Bloods. In the past, these young Ecuadorians were involved in gang violence in their Alpachaca neighbourhood of Ibarra. But eight years ago, their lives were radically changed when Paul Murtha introduced them to TPRF's Peace Education Programme.
Watch this fascinating video in which Paul, interviewed by Wendy Martin, one of our Peace Partners volunteers, speaks about how the Bloods changed their lives and changed their name to ‘Calle Paz y Respeto’ (Peace and Respect Street). During the COVID lockdown, this group of young people began delivering emergency food baskets to the vulnerable in their local communities and those who had been hit hardest by the pandemic.
The Calle Paz y Respeto also became involved with the ‘Seeds of Hope’ project, an initiative that develops seed banks and encourages local families to start gardening, This initiative promotes a more sustainable solution, providing sustainable nourishment among the locals of the Imbabura Province. This ‘Seeds of Hope’ project is sponsored by The Prem Rawat Foundation, with whom Peace Partners are affiliated partners.
Watch the interview with Paul Murtha:
Watch a short documentary about the Seeds of Hope initiative:
Update! Watch and listen to Calle Paz y Respeto (Peace and Respect Street) with a performance of their own rap song on the International Day of Peace 2020 (in Spanish, with English subtitles).
PEACE IS POSSIBLE
Maddie Henson, the Mayor of Croydon, returns to the Fairfield Halls, Croydon to speak about the impact of her participation in Peace Partners' International Day of Peace event there a year ago:
“... my name is Maddie and I am the Mayor of Croydon. One year ago when I was deputy mayor I went to this building and I did an event with Peace Partners. I can honestly say it was one of the most moving and heart warming experiences of my life. I came away genuinely believing that a better world was possible that we could all live in peace together ...”
'September 21st has come to symbolise our shared hope of a more harmonious world. Introduced in 1981 under declaration of the United Nations general assembly, International Peace Day is honoured each year by UN-member states around the world. It provides a brief, though essential, moment for us to reflect on the complexities of our human family, and how we might reach a more egalitarian future together ....'
Read our celebratory article by Sean Morrissey in full on our Writings for Peace blog:
Our partner PeaceCast.tv is an online media channel airing humanitarian and peace-related video content provided by people and organisations worldwide. Throughout the year, these crowd-sourced videos are featured and promoted. To celebrate the International Day of Peace, PeaceCast.tv produces the annual PeaceCast, a worldwide webcast of streaming video for 48 hours – as long as it is Peace Day anywhere on the Planet.
This year the Peacecast.tv webcast will hopefully include several screenings of some of the above video content. Last year our Peace Day 'Practice Peace' event from Fairfield Halls Croydon was live-streamed worldwide via the webcast. You can view our short video summary of the event here.
Peace One Day’s objective is to institutionalise Peace Day 21 September, making it a day that is self-sustaining, an annual day of global unity, a day of intercultural cooperation on an unprecedented scale.
In 1999, actor turned filmmaker Jeremy Gilley set out to document his efforts to create an annual Peace Day. To this end he founded the non-profit organisation Peace One Day. In 2001 the organisation’s efforts were rewarded when the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the first ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September – Peace Day.
Through the years millions of people have been active on Peace Day in every country of the world, and hundreds of organisations have carried out life-saving activities in areas of conflict.
Find out about Peace One Day's campaigns this year:
Our Peace Day 'Practice Peace' event last year included a premiere video screening of a conversation between Jeremy Gilley and TPRF founder, Prem Rawat. You can view it here.
The Prem Rawat Foundation's Peace for People campaign celebrates Peace Day again this year. Watch its new video, called 'Voices of Peace', and find out more.
