Uganda and Colombia: International day of peace

On the 21st of September we celebrated the International Day of Peace (IDP) to strengthen the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. Every year, we introduce a theme to our clubs under which they can celebrate this wonderful day. For the 2018 edition we choice ACT! which means Artists Create Together! In pairs, our 46 clubs (23 pairs) co-created amazing events. In these post-IDP stories we will share their work. This story is about two countries that have been facing some backlashes during their IDP-programming, but have managed to overcome them together: Uganda and Colombia (Calí).

100 days of Peace

For Jaq Deweyi, our Club Leader in Uganda, the International day of Peace already started 100 days ago. On that day, she started broadcasting Peace messages from famous Ugandan personalities in which they quote parts of the Universal Deceleration of Humans Rights. This was an ode to both the International Day of Peace 2018 as the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Humans Rights. During these 100 days, Jaq started planning a great IDP event, but due to political sets backs in the country she was recently forced to cancel some of those plans.

Resilience for Peace

But, these setbacks did not stop Jaq. Together with her IDP partner Luisa Maria Colonia Zúñiga, our Club Leader in Colombia Calí, they came up with the idea to use Spoken Word as a creative channel to express their willingness to fight for Peace. In both Colombia as Uganda setbacks are part of the deal, but by using creativity and a lot of willpower Luisa and Jaq always find a way to empower and inspire others to be resilient.

Next to this, Luisa organized an event in which victims of armed conflict were taught to express their feelings of resilience via painting. After the paint workshop they were asked to share their story: Why were they inspired to draw this drawing? How do they feel about the future? What does resilience mean to them? These art pieces were used by MasterPeace Calí on the 21st of September in an exhibition, during which they also broadcasted the Spoken Word message of Jaq – an inspiration for all peoples to keep fighting for your rights.