I have been deeply moved many times in my life hearing Prem Rawat speak. But my experience watching the video he made for the Nordic Peace Conference was somehow unique. He created it for a group of people passionately committed to the cause of peace. Most of the audience members had never heard much about Prem Rawat before seeing the video.
I always find his message to be fresh and alive. But the clarity and universal human appeal of this presentation struck me as reaching a whole new level. The feeling inside of me as the impact of the message penetrated my heart was, “Every person should hear this!” I’ve felt that way before. But I was feeling something more—if ever a video was created that could realize that aim, this is it!
About 24 hours later I realized that I could not only briefly feel this urgent impulse to share the message, but could also actually do something about it. Today it’s quite possible to share a video with a great many people via the Internet, using tools like email, YouTube, and Facebook. As a student of online media, I was keenly aware of several notable recent examples of videos spreading with incredible speed. I felt that TPRF could realistically be the catalyst for such an avalanche. And as the manager of TPRF’s social media presence, it made sense for me to propose that TPRF undertake such an effort. So I did.
TPRF agreed, and the effort is now underway. Thousands of new views have been generated in just a few days. Let’s see how far we can take it. To me, it’s wonderful if even one person hears this message, but working as a global team of people interested in peace to share this video with as many people as possible and watching the YouTube view count grow—well, that’s my idea of a good time. I hope that it’s yours too, and that you will choose to be part of it.
Candice Wilmore is retired from her 9-5 job, but she stays active with her small booking company that hires musicians, many of them from the Jazz genre. Candice spent most of her working life in retail sales and management. She was often involved in areas related to promotion and public relations with for profit and non-profit entities, mainly as a writer. As an active member of TPRF’s Independent Fundraising Team, Candice works in a liaison and coordinating capacity to support individuals and groups that wish to integrate their efforts with the Foundation’s programs and goals and raise funds with independent events. In this post, Candice informs readers how individuals and groups can work to support the cause of world peace by participating in this year’s upcoming “Peace Day” celebration.
September 21 is celebrated as the UN International Day of Peace. In support of this annual event, The Prem Rawat Foundation’s Independent Fundraising Team is offering support to groups or individuals who wish to host awareness or fundraising events about TPRF. We are hoping to focus on the Peace Education Program (PEP). For more info on this program click here: PEP
Lansing Michigan City Hall 2006
Newly released PEP brochures and a short DVD will be among materials available to assist in your efforts. There will also be a special blog you can use to post information about your plans and to inspire others to participate. In addition, there will be a map to enable people to find and connect with events in their area. You can also find information and updates on TPRF’S Facebook Page.
If you haven’t already chosen an activity for Peace Day, please visit www.tprf.org for event ideas that may be of interest to you. Look under “How to Help.”
To date, we’ve heard about a display at a City Hall lobby in Michigan featuring an auction of an original painting; a two day celebration at the Echo Valley Farm in Wisconsin; plans for an event in Woodstock, New York; and several other activities around the world. We know many more will be added to this list before September 21!
Many organizations and individuals have announced their plans for Peace Day. You might consider networking with other celebrations on the topic of peace as an alternative to organizing your own event, while still presenting information about TPRF and PEP.
Your event will be an independent local initiative sponsored by you and your team, rather than TPRF. The TPRF Independent Fundraising Team will be available to support and offer guidelines to assist you. Your first step in getting that support will be to fill out the form at the link called Submit Event Information.
Again, whatever kind of event you choose to host, the information on this form will help us greatly in supporting your efforts and in getting your event listed on our map.
Stay tuned for email and video updates in the weeks leading up to September 21.
Roberta Ragonese, a student at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Palermo presented her doctoral thesis on May 25th to the faculty members of the university. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled ”Peace-Box/Tool for Peace: New Spaces for Social Integration,” is based on a project she created for a student competition held during the “Week of Peace” in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, in May 2011. Roberta is grateful to her thesis director, Professor Architect Giuseppe De Giovanni, who enthusiastically believed in her project.
The dissertation earned Roberta a mark of 110 points out of a possible 110, and honorable mention from the faculty, as well as a Doctor of Architecture Degree.
During the 2011 “Week of Peace,” Roberta’s Peace Box project earned second prize in the First Prize for Peace competition sponsored by the city of Mazara Del Vallo and TPRF.
The Peace Box concept proposes open booths positioned along the streets of Mazara del Vallo at the borders of specific sites that are like “cultural borders” between the various ethnic groups residing in different parts of the City.
The Peace Boxes are designed to link different ethnic groups in the name of peace. Inside the boxes, people of diverse languages and ethnic groups work together to offer visitors a chance to “reflect on peace.” The boxes provide a place of contact to improve social relationships by promoting activities that bring people together to share ideas and resources to create a more peaceful world. The boxes also provide a distribution point for promotional items like shopping bags and T-shirts imprinted with themes of peace, in addition to brochures on the subject of peace.
Roberta’s doctoral thesis includes the preamble of the Constitution of UNESCO, quotes from Prem Rawat’s public speaking events, and beautiful pictures of the Week of Peace 2011.
The newly graduated student publicly thanked The Prem Rawat Foundation and the Mayor of Mazara del Vallo, Nicola Cristaldi, for having promoted the First Prize for Peace competition and for being a stimulus for the development of Prem Rawat’s work in Sicily. The mayor said he wants the Peace Box project to become a reality along the streets of Mazara del Vallo.
Professor Angelo Ditta, Consultant on Peace Matters for the City of Mazara del Vallo, interviewed Roberta after the ceremony. When asked about her thoughts on peace, she replied, ”Peace has to become a practical thing, not something that remains in the realm of abstract ideas. Peace has to unite different cultures.”
When asked about the Week of Peace 2011, Roberta answered, ”It was an important occasion for Mazara and its citizens to reflect on peace, but also it was an opportunity for the city to rediscover its connection to peace, one that has been there for centuries. TPRF deserves our gratitude because it inspired that process and the Foundation is also the bearer of a concrete message of peace.”
Professor Ditta’s last question to Roberta inquired about her future as an architect in relation to her commitment to peace. She answered,“Cities have to become a place where more of an emphasis is placed on human life through the design of living spaces that bring us closer to happiness rather than chaos. It is important to reevaluate the design of collective spaces in cities keeping this idea in mind.”
Editor’s Note: Giuseppe M. Buffa, TPRF’s “Reporter for Peace in Sicily,” promises to keep us up-to-date with the ongoing project in Mazara.
I can honestly say that writing and editing the TPRF blog for the past 18 months has been an exciting, enjoyable, and unpredictable journey.We began with a mandate to cover the developing story of the third Food for People facility planned for construction in the small village of Otinibi, outside of the metropolitan city of Accra in Ghana, West Africa. I had very little experience with social media, a slight familiarity with TPRF’s proprietary Food for People program, and no background information on the country or people of Ghana.
Somehow, these obvious drawbacks did not inhibit the expansion of the TPRF blog from a single story into an international forum reflecting stories of enormous hope through efficient and inspired humanitarian initiatives undertaken by TPRF and its partner organizations around the world.
Otinibi FFP Before Grand Opening
Our first posts covered the Ghana Food for People projectin detail beginning when the facility was an undeveloped piece of land awaiting governmental approval of the documents transferring title of ownership to the local charity set up to manage and run the FFP. We have literally watched the facility rise up out of the ground, culminating in a triumphant opening one year later. The FFP in Otinibi has materialized thanks to the dedication of mostly local volunteers, an expert construction team, funding from TPRF, and donations from individuals following the story on the Internet.
Five hundred children and adults will be fed nutritious meals every day in Otinibi. The same thing happens at two other Food for Peoplecenters which opened in 2006 and 2009.
The logistics and effort required to establish and keep the FFP facilities operating boggles the mind. Yet it is happening. It is a privilege and a joy to make these stories about people who benefit from the Food for People program and the individuals who volunteer to make these daily miracles occur available to our readers.
Six months after our first post, we decided to open up the scope of the blog to other feature stories while still reporting on the progress of the project in Ghana. We covered the other two Food for Peoplefacilities located in the villages of Bantoli, India and Tasarpu, Nepal. I began to see the profound effect the program has on the people it touches.
Now, children go to school instead of doing manual labor (like crushing rocks to support their families.) The nutritious daily meals allow the children to grow and develop normally. Plus, they learn proper sanitation habits and enjoy watching educational television programs while eating.
With healthy bodies and the opportunity to learn in school, these children have a vastly improved chance to realize their dreams later in life. And something more.I have seen through these stories that Food for People is an oasis for these children, a place where they can flourish and enjoy their precious childhood.
The Food for People program is only one example of TPRF’s life-changing work. We regularly cover stories about TPRF’s Peace Education Program in prisons, independent fundraising efforts, disaster relief, clean drinking water initiatives, and other humanitarian efforts undertaken by TPRF’s carefully-selected partner organizations.
Relieving Drought in Ethiopia With Partner IRD
The voice of the TPRF blog that we searched for in the beginning has become the many voices of hope and positive change as stories continue to stream in from around the world.
As Prem Rawat’s message of peace continues to reach more people, we hope to keep pace by allowing more voices to tell their stories spontaneously in an even greater diversity.
The new blog will present stories from regular contributors, expressions from blog subscribers, people involved in the work of TPRF, and others involved in independent humanitarian efforts. In time, regular contributors and TPRF partners will be able to post directly to the new blog template as stories break.
TPRF Founder Prem Rawat made the keynote address at the “Peace and Well-being” conference hosted in Brussels by the European Parliament on November 28, 2011. TPRF guest-blogger Helen Caton attended the event and the following is an account of her experience at the conference.
I was honored to attend the Peace and Well-being event in Brussels earlier this week and volunteered to help out a bit, as many people do. I feel fortunate to be in a position to support TPRF’s humanitarian activities and I really like the motto, “Dignity, Peace and Prosperity.” It was also nice to meet people who had travelled from across Europe and as far afield as New York, Washington and even Australia, to help out and learn more.
Signing the Pledge to Peace
I see myself as a practical person; I coach leaders on building their businesses, so in the run-up to the event, I asked myself: What does a message of peace inspire? What difference will an event like this make?
During the pre-event reception, I had the chance to meet people from different countries and asked them what this event was inspiring them to do.
One of the founding signatories of the Pledge to Peace, Jeremy Gilley, is committed to making next year’s UN Peace Day (September 21) a global day of truce where no armies attack one another. Last year he managed to arrange for 1.4 million children in Afghanistan to receive polio vaccinations thanks to the day of peace. Jeremy travels tirelessly in pursuit of his mission, yet he was so willing to stop and chat with many people who came up to him after the event.
Another person from Russia was talking, through an interpreter, about a school he wants to establish with the topic of peace as part of the curriculum. The event chairperson, Dr. Anthony Seldon, the Master of Wellington College in England, has established something similar in his school. Education seemed to be a theme for many event participants. They expressed a desire for children to learn more than the foundational subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic. They were interested in offering them a chance to explore what happiness and peace could mean in their lives.
I met one of the young people who had travelled from Norway to ask keynote speaker Prem Rawat a question. This young man was so articulate in expressing the need for young people to explore the topic of peace more, and he was determined to invite Prem Rawat to come to Norway to talk to his fellow students in person.
Another person I met was Baroness Scotland: a British lawyer, Shadow (opposition) Attorney General, and Member of the House of Lords. Her inspiration has led her to be Patron for the Corporate Alliance against Domestic Violence, with the vision to eradicate domestic violence globally, by encouraging employers to instigate positive change in the workplace.
Mr. Seemanto Roy, another founding signatory, talked about the one million people his family’s business employs in India and his sense of how each one of those employees is like a member of his family.
I discovered that a message of peace inspires and encourages the reduction of conflict, one day at a time. It encourages better education so our children can find other ways to resolve their differences, and it supports reduced violence in the home, as well as better workplace relationships.
It’s easy to be cynical these days about fine words, but the Pledge to Peace has become one way to measure efforts towards peace annually. I look forward to hearing how this inspiration transforms into practical outcomes. Most importantly for me, it shows that my little effort in supporting a European-hosted event has wider implications around the world.
It also felt that my personal experience of peace was allowed to shine. I was able to see clearly how fortunate I am in my home and work life through my own experience of peace. Mr. Gianni Pittella, the 1st Vice-President of the European Union, came up to me at the end of the event and shook my hand. I managed to say “grazie” (thank you) to him for hosting such a landmark event.
To Prem Rawat I also say a sincere “Thank you” for being a source of inspiration.
Giustino Caposciutti’s unique “Participatory Art” form brought together artists and local residents to celebrate peace through painting during the Week of Peace and Solidarity in Mazarra del Vallo, Sicily.
This week’s post continues ”Weaving for Peace Part One” in which Giustino described the process of 100 people painting squares with a theme of peace. The individual paintings were then mounted onto long strips of paper and later woven into a huge peace mosaic. Before being woven together in a “Living Loom,” performers in costume paraded the strips through the town to the accompaniment of folk music.
Hundreds of people were touched either by the music, the live performance or by being a “painter of a small textile tile for a day.”
The parade moved along to reach the main town square. There, a young girl introduced and described the strips of paintings one by one in front of more than three hundred curious and attentive people.
Next, the time came to assemble the strips with the “Living Weaving Loom,” a group of people portraying the various components of a mechanical weaving loom. The actors moved at the direction of the master weaver who used colored sticks like an orchestra conductor to synchronize the operation of each part of the imaginary loom. A local folk group played music and danced to complete the performance.
After few minutes, the performers wove the one hundred paintings into a giant mosaic. In a climactic moment, they raised the “masterpiece” for all to see.
I sensed a deep, emotional response from the audience. The “Performance Art” and beautifully painted mosaic left the public speechless for a few moments. Slowly at first, the audience broke out with warm applause, which continued enthusiastically for a long time. All of the people in costume (figuranti) came to the front of the stage to allow the audience to snap pictures and record videos.
When the music began playing again, many people from the audience started dancing with the performers and the whole square was full of joy, peace, and celebration.
The next day, Prem Rawat came to inaugurate the Peace Monolith and to give the closing and most important address. His address completed an incredible Week of Peace and Solidarity in the city. The discourse touched all the citizens of Mazara del Vallo and all the many guests from Sicily, Italy and Europe.
I want to thank all the people who participated in this event, including the students and friends who helped me. And I want to especially thank TPRF for sponsoring a marvelous event that brought joy and many moments of deep reflection on peace to Sicily.
This week’s guest-blogger, Giustino Caposciutti, is an artist and teacher. Born in Arezzo, Tuscany (Italy) in 1946, he now lives in Turin.
Since 1969, Giustino has displayed his work in solo and group exhibitions, and his paintings are now part of public and private collections owned by individuals, museums, municipalities, and foundations.
In 1993, Giustino invented a unique art form he calls “Participatory Art.” The process involves a number of people working together to create a group expression based on a theme. The individual artwork is integrated into a giant mosaic in a public performance called “The Living Loom.”
This is Giustino’s account of how he adapted his “Participatory Art” form as part of the inaugural Week of Peace and Solidarity in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily.
I want to share with all of you my experience in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, during the Week of Peace and Solidarity organized by TPRF and the Municipality.
The Organizers asked me to create an event of Participatory Art, something I have done for many years as a well-known artist in Italy.
We named the event “Tessere per la Pace” which in Italian means “Weaving for Peace,” or “Tiles for Peace.” The purpose of the exhibition was to prompt people to reflect on the theme of peace, not as an absence of war but as an individual need, an inner necessity, as Prem Rawat simply explains and helps people to discover.
The goal is to create an enormous mosaic painted by one hundred people together in a public exhibition. We call this process a “Living Weaving Loom.”
To create the mosaic, I began by preparing twenty long “strips” made of cotton canvas. Each strip carries five paintings created by individual artists. In this sense, each “tile” of the mosaic is a unique painting.
Teens from schools, people from the Arab community, local artists, and many others showed up to freely take part. Many brought their own brushes! Everyone tried to express, in a unique way, their feeling about the theme of the week in Mazara del Vallo: Peace and Solidarity.
Each artist found his or her own way to be part of the grand mosaic. Somebody painted a beautiful sunrise, someone else a bird or a fish, while others painted flowers or trees. An entire classroom from the local art high school, which won an award in the Contest for Peace held during the week, came to help people paint their tiles.
Costumed performers paraded the strips with the paintings affixed through the streets of the city for the townspeople to see, accompanied by a group of traditional Sicilian musicians and dancers.
People came out from their homes and shops to watch, interrupting their normal activities, and many of them joined joyfully in the parade.
Helen Caton travelled from her home in the United Kingdom to join the celebration of the Week of Peace and Solidarity (May 23 to 28) in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. This is Helen’s story.
We arrived in the City of Mazara del Vallo on a calm evening, with the sunset reflecting off of a still sea and the moon climbing into the clear heavens. Walking down the shoreline to one of the many welcoming restaurants felt so relaxing. The local eateries specialize in seafood, pizza, strong Sicilian wines, and the best coffee in the world—all delivered with crisp white linen and old-fashioned courtesy.
This pleasant setting belied the tragedy that occurred just a few miles offshore not long before Prem Rawat’s arrival. Around 240 lives were lost as desperate refugees overfilled a boat taking them away from the conflicts in Northern Africa. This tragedy colored the Round Table debate at the Town Hall on Wednesday night, attended by Linda Pascotto, President of TPRF. We heard eminent academics and politicians discussing the many causes of conflict as well as political, social, and educational solutions. We also heard how welcoming the people of Mazara have been to those refugees lucky enough to reach the city’s safe harbor. I was moved by the simplicity of Linda’s response to the discussion—how the very feeling of personal peace is, in itself, a solution. Hearing her explaining Prem Rawat’s message of peace in the context of the recent conflict was powerful by contrast.
On Friday morning, we met again in the Town Hall. Prem Rawat attended the gathering to present prizes to the winners of an essay competition. Prem Rawat’s public addresses delivered to audiences around the world inspired the competition’s theme of peace. I was deeply touched by each of the winning entries. The first group to be honored, from a local school, donated their third-place prize of a computer to a local charity, another example of that generous Mazara spirit shining through. The first-place winner proposed a multimedia presentation for messages of peace.
Despite the celebration among these winners, the mood of the gathering was tempered once again by the political speeches, especially one by a member of parliament who told us how hard it was for her to even speak about peace. Her face had the look of someone driven by the suffering of others and a hunger for peace. As Prem Rawat spoke, it seemed that he too had been touched by her words. He made peace seem very near, very possible, even in the midst of the conflict and suffering.
Our next stop that morning was to attend the unveiling of a “stile”—a beautiful piece of rose-colored marble taller than me, inscribed with a quote from Prem Rawat, “Peace begins in the heart of all human beings,” in Italian, French, English, and Esperanto. The unveiling occurred in a town square near the remains of a medieval castle that once looked out over the harbor and across the sea. The event attracted the press, a police motorcade, and an enthusiastic crowd.
Late that afternoon, we enjoyed the treat of watching the final event in the Week of Peace and Solidarity: music, dancing, and speeches in the main square in front of the newly unveiled stile. Young and old turned out to watch and listen. There were people looking down from their balconies and children playing in the park. Prem Rawat’s talk started with a story and a joke, yet I felt like he was issuing me a challenge: to make peace a reality in my own life, to see the humanity in everyone—everyone—to use my brain, and to live with integrity.
His words made peace feel so possible, despite the conflict just 80 miles away across the sea. I hope I always remember his encouraging words: “If you want to be rich, be generous. The quickest way to be powerful? Be gentle. The quickest way of finding peace? Look within.”
*Photos Courtesy of Helen Caton
Concluding Events of the Week of Peace and Solidarity
Today is Friday, May 27, the high point of the Week of Peace in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. As the day began, a beautiful breeze blew gently in from the Sicilian Canal of the Mediterranean Sea and a warm sun shone upon the blue bay.
Over the centuries, history has been made along these coasts, an area that was also the birthplace of great philosophers and scientists like Empedocles and Archimedes. But, as I see it, history will be also be written today in the hearts of the people who listen to one of the greatest Ambassadors of Peace ever known.
Morning. In the Town Hall, students and guests gather for the awarding of the prizes for the winner and runners up of the Contest of Peace for which high school and university students of the area submitted essays on making peace a reality.
The enthusiasm and passion for peace reflected in the students’ questions after Prem Rawat’s talk was very touching. The profoundness of Mr. Rawat’s words moved many inside this beautiful old building. Mayor Nicolò Cristaldi and several other guests, including Mrs. Souad Sbai, a member of the Italian parliament, were captivated by his freshness and humor. Everyone was amazed by the simplicity and intelligence of Mr. Rawat’s answers to the very deep questions the students posed about peace.
After the awards ceremony, everyone walked to Piazza Mokarta, a large town square overlooking the sea. The occasion was the unveiling of a huge pink marble stone that had been hand carved by a Mazara sculptor with a simple thought by Prem Rawat: “Peace begins in the hearts of all human beings.” The sentence is carved in four languages, including Esperanto, with Arabic to be added later on.
All these events and experiences built up to the main event that evening where over 1200 people gathered to hear Prem Rawat speak. (See the news article covering the event on the home page of the TPRF website.)
I do not know why, but speaking about peace and working for peace during this whole week has multiplied the feeling of peace and joy inside of me. But I was not the only one. The people I had lunch with that day had also been moved by the morning program. We all shared the same feeling. Only a few people were here for the Week of Peace compared to the world population but, as both Mayor Cristaldi and Mr. Rawat expressed in their talks, the biggest transformations start from small things, like the tiny seeds from which a forest may arise. Being there, I felt that I was witnessing something historic in the making.
Here is guest-blogger Giuseppe Buffa’s follow up report on the Week of Peace celebration in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. His first report, “Witnessing Wonders,” appears below this one.
Thirty languages are spoken in Mazara. Thirty distinct cultural communities live within the city due to its geographical location and its history of integration, which Mayor Cristaldi explained goes back to the eighth century. The Arabic community is the largest of these cultures. We wanted to make sure that representatives of the Arabic community attended the Week of Peace. So late on a sunny morning during the Week of Peace, we decided to walk through the Kasbah, which is in the Arab quarter of the city. Kasbah means “hearth” or “center of a city” in Arabic.
A friend who speaks Arabic and I took a supply of leaflets to use as invitations to the most special event of the Week of Peace: Prem Rawat’s public address on the 27th of May. First, we went into an Arabic food shop, where five people listened to our invitation to the peace conference. Then we moved on along the narrow lanes of the Kasbah. They are narrow to keep the hot sun away and allow fresh air to breeze through to cool your face.
Soon we chanced upon another group of young people. They were amazed that we came to invite them to a conference on peace, or salaam, as it is called in Arabic. Lastly, we went to a small restaurant where we invited the owner and his whole family to come. Again, they were very happy and appreciated so much our enthusiasm and joy to have them with us at the Friday conference.
The day after the conference on peace, we went on a tour of the Kasbah with Mayor Cristaldi, and to our surprise, we saw three of our leaflets that somebody had put up on a shop door as a means of advertising the conference. More than thirty Arabs came to hear Prem Rawat speak on Friday.
About 24 hours later I realized that I could not only briefly feel this urgent impulse to share the message, but could also actually do something about it. Today it’s quite possible to share a video with a great many people via the Internet, using tools like email, YouTube, and Facebook. As a student of online media, I was keenly aware of several notable recent examples of videos spreading with incredible speed. I felt that TPRF could realistically be the catalyst for such an avalanche. And as the manager of TPRF’s social media presence, it made sense for me to propose that TPRF undertake such an effort. So I did.
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