Momentum for this year’s International Day of Peace is building as indicated by the activity on the CPI events calendar.  Make sure your Peace Day activity gets posted on the event calendar no matter how big or small it may be.  This year, CPI participants can upload photos and video of Peace Day events that we hope to inspire future participants!
internationaldayofpeace.org/participate/events_calendar.html

Please Support the Culture of Peace Initiative

CPI is making a positive global impact. Your financial support will help to expand CPI’s efforts to create a culture of peace in our world.  We need your help in covering the costs of developing and maintaining the CPI and IDP web sites.  Click here to donate!

Media Outreach

If you are planning a Peace Day Event it is important to inform your local radio, television and print media. A generic press release will be forwarded shortly so that you can adapt it for your local media outreach!

Here are a few exciting Peace Day initiatives!

Global Minute of Silence at Noon: Since its inception, the minute of silence has been the universal observance that allows all of humanity to participate on this special day. View the United Nations Secretary General invitation to a global minute of silence on the Pathways To Peace web site under “Peace Day Videos”:  pathwaystopeace.org

An inspirational musical slideshow is also available that will help inspire the global community. See:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RElBR1zil4
Please invite your community to the minute of silence.

Peace Concert in Cuba: Colombian superstar Juanes will bring the “Peace Without Borders” concert to Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion, joined by Spanish singer-songwriter Miguel Bose and Puerto Rican merengue artist Olga Tañon!  Cubans such as singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez and salsa stars Los Van Van also are scheduled to perform.

Odyssey Networks / “Million Minutes for Peace” Campaign / Online and on Hallmark Channel

Odyssey Networks, the nation’s largest interfaith coalition of groups dedicated to building bridges of understanding through media, has created a multimedia campaign in support of the International Day of Peace, Sept 21.

The centerpiece of the campaign — “A Million Minutes for Peace” — is an online invitation to pause for one minute at noon on September 21 and pray for peace.  Odyssey intends to collect a million pledges and to present a list of the signatories to the UN.  Please take the pledge and inform people and organizations on your email list about the campaign. Encourage them to take the pledge at (www.odysseynetworks.org)—it requires only a few minutes. If your organization would like to be a partner in this campaign, which includes the presence of your logo on Odyssey’s website, please contact Vivian Alonso (valonso@odysseynetworks.org).

Odyssey Networks will support the prayer pledge campaign on the Internet and on national television via the Hallmark Channel. Each week, beginning August 30 and continuing through September 20, “Odyssey Networks Presents” will feature a different one-hour documentary film about peace-building. The program airs on Sundays at 7 a.m. ET/PT. The documentaries will be accompanied by public service announcements about the peace-building work of the United Nations. Additional videos, many of them produced by the UN, will be available for viewing at Odyssey’s Video Peace Festival (www.odysseynetworks.org), along with blogs, discussion forums and original webisodes.

Please share the newsletter with your friends. We intend to keep you updated weekly with pertinent information until Peace Day.

Thank you, CPI Participants, for your dedication to building a culture of Peace for future generations on Peace Day and every day.

CPI Coordinator Michael Johnson, CPI Outreach Intern - Michael Kwan
Pathways To Peace is the International Secretariat for the Culture of Peace Initiative

This year the worldwide observances of the International Day of Peace will be more widespread and universal than ever.  There will be thousands of Peacebuilding events and activities in all nations and on all levels of society: from religious organizations, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations (human rights, environmental, cultural, civic, etc.), to governments & their agencies, businesses & professionals and the media - as well as numerous smaller observances organized by private citizens, friends, families and villages.  Hundreds of millions of people are expected to participate in these observances this year.  This is due in part because, beginning this year, the International Day of Peace is listed on hundreds of millions of calendars all over the world!

This is your opportunity to literally ’seize the day’, and create or conduct a meaningful Peacebuilding event.  It is also an opportunity to promote your particular aspect of Peacebuilding - whether it is disarmament, children’s advocacy, humanitarian relief, volunteer work or other such worthwhile cause.  Please post your events onto the Culture of Peace Initiative (CPI) web site:  www.cultureofpeace.org .  Note, all events posted on the CPI website, also show up on the companion International Day of Peace web site:  www.internationaldayofpeace.org .  Millions of people visit these sites, especially in September, and use them to learn about the various paths of Peacebuilding, and also to locate events all over the world.  By promoting your event and Peacebuilding projects you are helping to build a year round Culture of Peace for all of humanity.

Join the CPI community at Peacebuilding.ning.com

We encourage you to join CPI’s newly created online community space at peacebuilding.ning.com.  It is a place for Culture of Peace Initiative Participants all over the world to connect with each other - and easily share peace event pictures, videos, and blog posts!  Please document your Peace events throughout the year and see what peacebuilders around the world are doing!  Paul Coleman (Ambassador ofCPI) and his partner Konomi, have invited the Celebration Earth network to the site and are helping to administer our new CPI community.

During a Peace Day planning meeting at the United Nations an official suggested that we ask the CPI Participants who are on Twitter to follow the UN’s WMD We Must Disarm campaign.  This effort focuses on Peacebuilding through disarmament.  Here is the link:  http://twitter.com/wemustdisarm

For those who use Facebook, there is a group of thousands of supporters at:  www.facebook.com/peaceday .  There are daily posts featuring Peace Day events, videos and inspirational news.  We encourage you to share your own events, ideas,  and links by posting on our wall!

Canada recognizes the International Day of Peace

CPI participant Jean Trudell reported that the government of Canada has officially declared September 21 of each year the International Day of Peace.  His organization, Cercle de Paix, just launched a very creative way to promote the International Day of Peace.  View it on this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiSA1xHr5Ag

Burkina Faso Concert

The BARKA Foundation is planning a major event in Burkina Faso Africa in observance of the Peace Day.  Their goal is to raise funds and drill wells that will provide fresh water to villages there.  www.thebarkafoundation.org/current-projects/peacedayconcert

There are many more events, news features and ideas on our web sitewww.cultureofpeace.org.   Our goal is to make the CPI web site a valuable tool and resource for all Participants.  Plus, because the events listed there also show up on the International Day of Peace website, this site is also a resource for all of humanity to participate in this worldwide observance of Peace.

Thank you, CPI Participants, for your dedication to building a culture of Peace for future generations on Peace Day and every day.

CPI Coordinator Michael Johnson, CPI Outreach Intern - Michael Kwan
Pathways To Peace is the International Secretariat for the Culture of Peace Initiative