Month: June 2016

Activity Reports

Quakers hold conference on peace education for schools (UK)

June 30, 2016 0

On a day when Britain awoke, divided and disappointed by the EU Referendum and bruised by acrimonious campaigning, Quakers in Britain hosted a ground-breaking national conference for teachers to learn how to equip pupils to handle conflict in a constructive way and to develop critical thinking skills. Educationalists from more than 80 schools across Britain attended “Learning Through Peace” at Friends House in London. [continue reading…]

Activity Reports

Rwanda: Youth Challenged to Be Peacemakers

June 29, 2016 0

A three-day mobile art exhibition depicting poetry, paintings and featuring stories of peacemakers is currently underway in Kigali. The exhibition was organised to inspire and challenge the youth to become peacemakers in their communities. Didier Rutagungira, the communications officer at Aegis Trust, said the aim of the exhibition is to showcase peace stories and messages from different people from across Rwanda. “The stories primarily focus on individuals who initiated projects that fostered peace after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and still continue to do so,” he said. [continue reading…]

News & Highlights

The Future of Peace: How the Business of Peace is changing the Culture of Conflict

June 27, 2016 2

How can peace be understood as something just as thrilling, as daring, as engaging, as the struggle to deny our darkest paths? That is the future of peace. It is peace as more than a goal. It is peace taking its turn in the circle of hard marketing sells. Steve Killela initiated the first Global Peace Index (GPI) in 2006 in part to display the better business of peace critical to the 21st century. [continue reading…]

Opinion

Memorial day in Okinawa about more than just reliving the past

June 26, 2016 0

When 23-year-old Shun Kuninaka attended elementary school in his native Okinawa Prefecture, “peace education” was a turnoff. Children were forced to listen to accounts of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, and what they heard was gruesome and disturbing.

As a student at the University of the Ryukyus, Kuninaka became involved in peace education. But he also felt the futility of his undertaking. “What is the best way to get students to learn from history?” Kuninaka asked himself. This eventually led to the foundation of a student venture business that he called “Gachiyun.” The name is a combination of two Okinawan expressions: “gachi” for “serious” and “yuntaku” for “conversation.” [continue reading…]

Activity Reports

Teachers lead the way towards Peace in their Classrooms and Communities in Rakhine State (Myanmar)

June 26, 2016 0

Yangon: The Ministry of Education in Myanmar and UNESCO are jointly implementing the “Education for Peace and Development in Northern Rakhine State” project through funding support from the Belgium government. Teachers, principals and education officers from have been trained in life skills for peace and conflict transformation. This reaffirms the commitment of the Ministry of Education to promote peace education as a means for fostering mutual respect for cultural diversity at a school level. [continue reading…]

Opinion

The Need for a Conclave of Associations and Groups in Our Field

June 24, 2016 1

Professionals doing very similar peace work but participating in different groups are typically not connected and the lack of linkages or even communication between various organizations and their members present complications and roadblocks to advancing important social and policy change. In an era of limited funding coupled with the difficultly of finding time to participate in professional associations, would not the entire field benefit from knowing more about each other’s work, and thereby, find commonality that could advance practice, research, education, and policy outcomes? [continue reading…]