To amplify its cause for peace in solidarity with the global campaign, EAI-PH celebrated the International Day of Peace by joining the #PeaceDayChallenge of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) for a week until the run up to the world celebration on September 21.
Various stakeholders, alumni, staff and partners expressed their peace commitments on peace placards and shared photos of their peace actions that they have done or are currently doing.
These peace commitments made its way through USIP’s mosaic with other entries from all over the world. Among them was OURmindaNOW Tech Camp Batch 2 alumnus Jamie Salva’s peace entry where he reached out to children of the IDP community and bridged benefactors for future endeavors with them.
“Majority of these children and youth are illiterate, marginalized, and discriminated by society. So we conducted discussions on countering negative perceptions. First, instilling hope in their hearts despite the cruel reality of their current situation; and preventing negative perceptions between cultural and religious difference in spite of the ugly reality of discrimination on them,” he captioned in his photo.
Other peace partners from different institutions also submitted their peace commitments.
“My #PeaceDayChallenge is to offer my time for pep talk and once needed, offer counselling services. I also freely give out therapeutic hugs!” wrote Ms. Christine V. Yambao, the Campus Administrator and Student Action Force (SAF) Adviser of Western Mindanao State University-Malangas Campus.
The #PeaceDayChallenge is a global campaign of the USIP in celebration of the International Day of Peace. It exists to raise the profile of the international celebration and to affirm peace as a real alternative to the violence we see every day in the news.
Part of the campaign was the sharing of different simple acts of peace and kindness. Among them were: learning about a peacebuilder, speaking up against intolerance, helping resolve a disagreement, sharing a meal with someone new, and volunteering to help someone in need.
In 1968, the United Nations declared September 21 as the official day of the celebration to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace.
Indeed, peace is possible. It takes action. It takes all of us.
