Peace One Day

Saving Lives 2010

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. World Vision is dedicated to working with the world's most vulnerable people and serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. World Vision peacebuilding weaves a fabric of resilience throughout a community in order to help communities resolves their own conflicts, build capacities to heal broken relationships and nourishes more just systems and structures. World Vision partners with children, families and communities to identify and overcome obstacles that may prevent them from experiencing peace. World Vision also works to empower communities to know and to speak up for their rights at local, national and international levels. World Vision's peacebuilding work, focused on capacity-building through peace programs, occur all-year round. However, the International Day of Peace has often been a significant day for World Vision in the nearly 100 countries where they work. In partnership with World Vision, schools organise peace marches, children perform musical and dramatic expressions of peace messages, children and youth participate in peace sport tournaments, and communities plant trees for peace. International Day of Peace activities are incredible expressions and opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact and work together for peace.

World Vision also recognises the significance of sharing stories of peace and bringing hidden stories of courage and competence to the global stage. World Vision International's Peace Prize is one opportunity for these stories to be heard. Recipients of the Peace Prize are announced and celebrated on the International Day of Peace, 21 September. To nominate an individual or organisation for the World Vision International Peace Prize please visit: www.wvi.org/peaceprize

Saving Lives 2009

On Peace Day 2009, there will be life-saving activities taking place all around the world in the areas of water and sanitation, disease control, children's needs, housing poverty, sustainable development, peace and security and education.

Peace One Day would like to thank the UN agencies and non-governmental organisations who are helping us spread the word about Peace Day and inspiring millions of people to take action.

UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
World Health Organisation (WHO)

Afghanistan

UNAMA is asking all UN agencies, non-governmental organisations, government departments, civil society, media outlets, business, and the whole country to call for peace.

UNAMA will also be calling for a ceasefire and they hope it will be followed by all parties as last year.

UNICEF, WHO and the Ministry of Public Health are scheduled to carry out a major 3-day polio vaccination campaign on 13/14/15 September.

Other activities around the country to celebrate Peace Day include a two-day cricket camp followed by a match for 50 disadvantaged children (UNICEF in conjunction with Afghan Youth Cricket Organization) and a three-day painting workshop for street kids from Kabul (UNICEF in conjunction with Aschiana NGO).

Star Syringe

"2009 brings the 10th anniversary of Peace Day. But so what! Many will not know this, nor the immense efforts put in, day in day out, by Jeremy Gilley and his team to bring a day of peace and ceasefire to them. For these people the day will still be lived on one dollar, slept on floors, eat the most meager of meals and with no purpose other than to hope to make it to the following day. So thank goodness people like Jeremy care enough to dedicate their life to changing their situation and working towards a better condition on Earth. That is why it is an honour to also play our part at Star Syringe and celebrate this global effort to make conditions improve. The safe injections we deliver on Peace Day 2009 will be a small percentage of all those given that day, but each year we give more and one day we will reach a tipping point for safe injections, and one day the Earth will also experience Peace. How long will this take no one knows but that is not the point at this time, more importantly is that there are millions DOING something about it. And if we keep doing and keep growing then one day conditions will improve enough that we will be very proud to have played our part."
Marc Koska, founder of Star Syringe

For Peace Day 2009, there are over 14,000 vaccinations are planned in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria. There will be other humanitarian assistance held in many countries in an even larger scale than the vaccinations.

In India, Star Syringe initiatives will be their biggest yet in the country, with activities taking place in different places nationwide, including places in the region of Madhya Pradesh and the state of Kerala.

Pump Aid

Liberia

"Pump Aid is proud to bring the principles of Peace one Day alive on the 21 September, in a country that knows only too well the value of peace and the damage of war; Liberia. Pump Aid currently runs a programme training ex child-soldiers in Pump and toilet building as a way of both providing vital resources and also to re-building trust amongst communities. Peace One Day gives us hope that we will never again have generations of children so deeply compromised and abused and that projects like ours in Liberia will not be needed again."
Kathryn Llewellyn, International Director, Pump Aid

For Peace Day 2009, Pump Aid will involve ex child-soldiers and local communities in Liberia in building / setting the foundations for their elephant toilets and they are also hoping to organise a football match in keeping with the One Day One Goal initiative.

Pump Aid will also be holding a workshop program to educate people on the importance of peace and what can be achieved when this happens through one on one and group work.

Camps International Trust

Kenya, Tanzania and Malaysia (Borneo)

Human Wildlife Peace Day 2009

As human populations continue to grow exponentially, an increasing number of people are moving away from towns and encroaching on traditional wildlife habitat, forcing animals into ever smaller and fragmented areas where people and animals are increasingly coming into conflict over living space and resources such as food. The impacts of this are often huge. People lose their crops, livestock, property and sometimes their lives. The animals, many of which are already endangered, are often killed in retaliation or to ‘prevent' future conflicts.

The primary focus for this day will be to bring communities and wildlife that are essentially at conflict together to leave aside the conflict and celebrate a shared environment. The sustainability of this approach will be explored through our long term commitment to reducing human-wildlife conflict and equally important to explore the possibilities of a global paradigm shift from ‘Human-Wildlife Conflict' to ‘Human-Wildlife Cooperation' This might be ambitious to push for a change in approach through language and implementation but has a range of positive possibilities that could follow.

Counterpart International

"The mission of Counterpart International is to empower vulnerable people to implement innovative, holistic and enduring solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges.

No matter their race, ethnicity, or religion; every person wants to exist in a safe, clean, and healthy community. Unfortunately, the tolls of war, famine, disease, and economic instability across the globe often prevent people from realizing these goals. With 350 staff currently operating in 25 countries, Counterpart's programs encompass humanitarian aid and relief assistance, health care, democracy and governance, natural resource management and feeding the impoverished. Our dedicated and talented staff works to make peace every day.

In specific observance of Peace Day, 2009, our staff across the globe will play football (soccer), screen and discuss The Day After Peace and distribute much needed humanitarian aid." Jennifer Leigh Grizzard Ekzarkhov, Director of Communications, Counterpart International

There will be screenings of The Day After Peace taking place in Counterpart International Headquarters in the USA and in their offices in Kazakhstan, Mauritania and Azerbaijan.

Counterpart in Tajikistan is arranging a One Day One Goal football match and distributing donated humanitarian assistance (clothing, school kits, food, footwear), through their long-term partner, to children, invalids, orphans and mentally disabled people in the district of Gissar.

In Afghanistan, STEP will dedicate their weekly staff discussion to the Peace One Day initiative and Counterpart staff will be joining them. And in Georgia, Counterpart will hold a distribution ceremony and deliver 45 wheelchairs in the Singhnaghi Region. Their partners UMCOR, IRD, ACTS and HeleniCare will all be invited and they will donate some humanitarian assistance to the wheelchair recipients as well.

Habitat for Humanity

Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Botswana, Malawi

On the 21st September 2009, Habitat for Humanity will be building and dedicating new houses for needy families in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Mongolia, Botswana and Malawi.

Mongolia

More than 100 families will start living in either a new house or a house that is renovated. It provides the setting for a home and a secure future and a place where the family thinks and grows to shape a better future for themselves and a their community.

War Child

Uganda

On Peace Day War Child will be working to help former child soldiers and other children whose lives have been torn apart by war to get access to education and rebuild their lives.

War Child will also be calling on the public to help raise awareness of the 300,000 child soldiers around the world by adding a photo of their salute to their Facebook gallery and joining thousands of others supporting the ‘I got Soul, but I'm not a soldier' campaign.

Oxfam

Oxfam welcomes the Afghan celebrations of Peace Day by civil society organisations working together with schools, local leaders and community members and reaching out to thousands of people will organise kite flying, music concerts, sport events and public hearings in Kabul and remote parts of Afghanistan, where insecurity is a day to day problem. On Peace Day Oxfam calls on all parties to the conflict to do more to protect civilians and the Afghan government and international community to support a nation wide network of peace building projects which is a long neglected but essential part of the process to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Saving Lives 2008

UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
World Health Organisation (WHO)

Afghanistan

Polio vaccinations were initiated on and around Peace Day in Afghanistan, resulting in 1.6 million children being vaccinated. An estimated total of 3 million children were vaccinated in Afghanistan on Peace Day 2007 and 2008.

Star Syringe

Star Syringe provided safe immunisation camps in 20 locations, up 11 from 2007, from India to Ethiopia to Indonesia, vaccinating children in rural and hard to reach areas, against measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and whooping cough. In St Francis Hospital, Uganda Star Syringe immunized close to 1,000 children for the BCG TB vaccine.

Saving Lives 2007

UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
World Health Organisation (WHO)

Afghanistan

Peace One Day helped to secure the conditions which enabled WHO, UNICEF and the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health to provide children with the monovalent P3 polio vaccine in southern Afghanistan and selected areas in eastern Afghanistan; discussions were led by the Governor of Kandahar. As a result, 1.4 million children were vaccinated against polio.

UNICEF and youth volunteers from the Afghan Red Crescent Society organised a Peace Walk through the streets of Herat, followed by a youth debate on what needs to be done in Afghanistan for peace to work. There were arms handover ceremonies, prayers for peace in mosques, schools painted white, education activities, and a large tract of land was handed over that had been cleared of mines ready for cultivation by the local community.

UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Democratic Republic of the Congo

UNICEF led an integrated immunisation campaign; and vitamin A, de-worming, measles and insecticide treated mosquito net distribution went ahead benefiting over 600,000 children in the conflict affected South Kivu province. Other agencies involved included DFID, PSI and USAID, Government of Japan, UN Foundation, WHO, AXxes, MOH + Drive Against Malaria.

Star Syringe

Star Syringe provided safe immunisations in 9 locations via the K1 syringe. Working in partnership with local hospitals, clinics, ministries of health, and distributors to uphold the basic human right to safe healthcare, Star Syringe vaccinated over 5,000 children against measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and whooping cough.

Saving Lives 2006

2006 marked the first ever life-saving activities specific to Peace Day

World Food Programme (WFP)

Sudan

WFP carried out a food drop in southern Sudan on Peace Day and sixty tons were delivered successfully.

Star Syringe

Peace One Day and Star Syringe collaborated to carry out safe immunisation campaigns in 14 countries.

International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The International Rescue Committee in DR Congo reunited a family torn apart by war. A young woman was forced to fight for rebels. The IRC found her and brought her home.