Peace One Day just got bigger and better at BIS.
The Events Committee, containing a mixture of Prefect and Sixth Form members, runs a number of whole school events throughout the year. After the success of last year’s event celebrating Peace One Day, the committee wanted to make it bigger and better…and they did!
Monday 21st September was Peace One Day and a week of events organised by the committee began with a whole school assembly. Below is a revised extract from their script:
“Some of you may have forgotten the significance of Peace One Day. Some of you may think it’s just a mufti day as far as BIS is concerned. Others might wonder if Peace One Day is even possible. In the next few days, we hope to change all of that."
Peace One Day calls for a ceasefire, encouraging all conflicts occurring around the world to stop for one day. During this day, people who are aware of it consciously carry out their daily activities on a more peaceful note. This is particularly important in areas of conflict, as it allows humanitarian efforts to reach these areas in order to preserve lives. An example of the impact of Peace One Day is from Kabul, where a campaign for the vaccination of 8 million children against polio was launched during the day of ceasefire in 2010.
Peace One Day has placed its main focus on raising awareness, to good effect. As each Peace One Day is celebrated, more and more people are becoming exposed to messages of peace, which subsequently leads them to live more peacefully.
2012: 280 million aware, 5.8 million became more peaceful
2013: 470 million aware, up to 8 million became more peaceful.
2014: 610 million aware, 10 million became more peaceful.”
This year, BIS also raised awareness of the United Nations commitment to 17 new Global Goals for sustainable development by taking part in the World’s Largest Lesson. This made 2015’s Peace One Day extra-special as Goal 16 relates to Peace and Justice and aims to achieve widespread reduction in violence.
Throughout the week, the theme of peace was incorporated into lessons in a range of subjects, and Form Classes researched a number of past and present world conflicts to produce conflict fact files. The week culminated in a themed mufti day, wearing white for peace, and the information gathered was used to create a lunch time quiz on the Geography mega map. Groups of students spent their break finding out the answers to a range of questions.
The final message from the Events Committee came from the Chair, Sean Neo;
“Peace One Day is a global event, and although many of you may get the impression that it involves making peace between countries, it is also about making peace on an interpersonal level. For us, the day should be about making peace between ourselves, between our friends, and between our teachers and family members." On a final note, we would like to pose the question to all of you:
"Who will you make peace with today?”
Sean Neo / 12/13D