On August 16 Prem Rawat joined community leaders in San José, Costa Rica to celebrate the expansion of the Peace Education Program in Latin America.
With over 600,000 participants across the world, the Peace Education Program helps people discover inner resources such as choice, hope and dignity. Prem Rawat’s charitable foundation, The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF), has made the course available free of charge in 45 languages and more than 80 countries. The event in San José was marked by Prem Rawat’s signing of agreements with three non-government organizations (NGOs ) to bring the program to more communities in Central and South America: Fundación Liquidámbar in Honduras, Unbound in Costa Rica and La Asociación Una Posibilidad in Colombia.
Stay tuned to the TPRF newsletter for information on how to watch a video from the event in San José.
As the event’s emcee, Costa Rican journalist Marcelo Castro described these agreements as “a key component that will cement and enhance the ongoing efforts of the growth of peace in Latin America.”
“The experience at the event today was wonderful. Signing the agreement was an honor—to be there with Prem and all the work that he has done in the entire world. This is just a drop of water in the ocean, but we are happy to be contributing in our own way,” said Pamela Ayuso, president and founder of Fundación Liquidámbar.
Prem Rawat has addressed hundreds of millions of people in over 100 countries and the event was his first time speaking in Costa Rica. Videos of his international addresses and speeches are at the heart of the Peace Education Program, and at the event he covered similar themes, emphasizing the importance of fostering self-awareness, personal peace and joy.
“What every human being has to live with is how they feel inside,” Prem Rawat said in Costa Rica. “Joy is not the same as happiness. Joy is felt within and is about being content within yourself. Happiness is dependent on other people. Joy is not dependent on your circumstances or expectations. Joy is dependent on you. Be in joy.”
The agreements signed on August 16 mark TPRF’s commitment to support the three organizations’ implementation of the Peace Education Program, including providing access to the program materials, facilitator training and ongoing support.
La Fundación Liquidámbar is an NGO located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras that aims to support holistic development projects related to education, culture, the environment and other activities serving the common good. La Fundación Liquidámbar implements the Peace Education Program both internally with all staff to promote a peace and respect-based culture, as well as externally in prisons through a signed agreement with the National Penitentiary Institute. This agreement ensures incarcerated people have the opportunity to be trained to become facilitators, multiplying the program’s impact in the correctional system.
“Thank you to all the organizations who have supported this dream, because it’s really not about anything else. The dream is about seeing peace in Honduras, and also to see peace in the world,” says Liquidámbar President Ayuso.
The second organization, Unbound, is located in Heredia, Costa Rica.
It serves youth, the elderly and families from marginalized backgrounds, with the goal of helping vulnerable communities live in dignity. The Peace Education Program has already been conducted for the entire staff at Unbound to promote peace and non-violent conflict resolution. The goal is to offer the program across all of the vulnerable communities it serves.
“Today we had the opportunity to sign an agreement with The Prem Rawat Foundation, which was very exciting,” says Unbound Coordinator Carolina Cordero. “We work with a lot of different populations—youth, older populations, mothers, heads of households, young students—and our goal is to reach all of these populations, and after that, continue conducting this workshop with all the families who are part of our program.”
Finally, the third organization that signed an agreement with TPRF was La Asociación Una Posibilidad, a nonprofit based in Medellin, Colombia that was created with the distinct purpose of supporting TPRF programs. In 2024, Una Posibilidad started a pilot initiative to conduct the Peace Education Program within the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC). To date, this cooperation has resulted in more than 1,000 program participants, including incarcerated people and members of INPEC’s Custody and Surveillance Corps. Now Una Posibilidad intends to sign an official agreement in Colombia with INPEC, enabling the Peace Education Program to be implemented in the 125 prisons.
INPEC Acting Director General Daniel Fernando Gutierrez Rojas wrote in a letter of appreciation to Prem Rawat that the program, already implemented in 23 correctional facilities since March 2024, has supported “humanizing the population deprived of liberty through values-based training, self-reflection and self-awareness, fostering coexistence and peace within correctional facilities.”
During the signing ceremony Costa Rican artist Juan Carlos Chavarria honored Prem Rawat with artwork that incorporated recycled weapon materials. The piece depicts a lit candle, which Chavarría described as “a symbol of peace.”
Prem Rawat’s work with TPRF encompasses a variety of other humanitarian initiatives beyond the Peace Education Program, including Food for People, which has provided over 7.5 million nutritious meals and educational opportunities to disadvantaged children in India, Ghana, Nepal and South Africa. Beyond that, he provides a wealth of other resources to help people live life to the fullest, including bestselling books, video broadcasts, podcasts and other courses for personal peace.
