EDUCATION FOR PEACE .
by Syeda Rumana Mehdi and Kanupriya Gupta
Inviting young people below 21 years of age to share short stories, poems, posters and paintings for the Peace Gong E-book.
“Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity are more essential than ever in a world where people are becoming more and more closely interconnected.”- Kofi Annan
The former UN Secretary General has rightly underlined the centrality of tolerance, promotion of inter-cultural dialogue and mutual respect for global peace. At a time when various parts of the world is hungering for peace and the phenomenon of racism, xenophobia, extremism and various other forms of violence are stirring the very edifice of a peaceful global society, all efforts needs to be made to promote voices of compassion and love.
All cultures of the world inherently promote the ethereal values of compassion, respect, tolerance and mutual understanding. It is only when negative elements try to exploit situations leading to self-destruction and conflicts. This is the challenge the whole humanity faces.
Promoting dialogues amongst different cultures, sharing unique stories of respect for diversity and nonviolence, bringing out the transient nature of peace in every culture will go a long way in challenging divisive forces. As Kofi Annan says people are becoming more and more closely interconnected, we need to share these stories so that we can promote mutual understanding.
In this context, The Peace Gong plans to bring together an E-book comprising of short stories, poems, posters and paintings which draws how different cultures promote the values of mutual respect, tolerance, dialogues and humanism. As the book would be aimed at youth, it can be a unique melting pot of stories and poems by young people from different cultures on peace and nonviolence.
Those below 21 years of age can send their entries. The entries can be sent to thepeacegong@gmail.com
Short stories should not be more than 1000 words in length.
Paintings and posters should be in jpg format.
A small undertaking should be sent by the writers/poets/painters that their work is original and not plagiarized.
Contributors should also send a few lines about themselves and their education along with their email and a photograph.
We plan to put together this E-book by October 2, 2015 the International Day of Nonviolence.
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Peace-building Stories, literacy development with peace-building
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The Peace Gong is a children’s newspaper brought out from India aiming to promote voices of young people from different cultures.
The Guiding Principles are: “Let every dream become Martin Luther King’s dream, let every step towards peace become Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March and let every obstacle in your path become Nelson Mandela’s painful twenty-seven years in prison. Promise yourself that you will contribute your best to make the phenomenon of violence outdated, promise yourself that you will try to motivate your friends to walk on the path of nonviolence.”