PeaceJam

One of our speakers this morning at the IPREX conference I'm attending in Houston told us about PeaceJam.  It's been around for ten years, but by their own admission, it's not very well known.  After hearing about it, it's difficult to believe they have stayed under the radar.

PeaceJam is ready to come out from behind the curtain with a big conference in Denver this coming September.  What is it?  Well let me just give you a few names from their Board of Directors.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu; The Dalai Lama; President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica; Jody Williams; Bishop Carlos Belo; and, Aung San Suu Kyi.  You may recognize some of the names or maybe all of them.  They and the rest of the 12 members of the Board have one very important thing in common:  They are all Nobel Peace Prize winners.  And they will all be in Denver this September for the PeaceJam 10th anniversary Conference - the "Global Call to Action."

It is an international education program built around these Nobel Prize Laureates who work personally with youth to pass on the spirit, skills and wisdom they embody.  The goal of PeaceJam is to inspire a new generation of peacemakers who then can work to transform themselves, their local communities and the world.

Since it was launched in 1996, more than 200,000 teenagers worldwide have been through the program.  There have been 105 conferences around the globe in the span of time.  Each student has had an average of 45 hours of contact with their teacher, mentor, community leader or PeaceJam staff member to help them identify and implement the 240,000 community service projects that have been completed in ten years.  New programs are about to launch for the college and the elementary school levels as well.

One interesting fact we learned today:  Nearly half the world's population is under the age of 20 and there are 2 billion teenagers in the world today.

We need more programs like PeaceJam.

Comments

[Jack Yan]

Mike, if you like I can always issue press releases to non-US media closer to September, and help promote this for IPREX (as I’m sure you’ll have domestic media covered).

[Mike Swenson]

Thanks Jack. I think we are going to take them on so I will keep you posted as to how you can help.