Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

FROM THE FIELD

Kids for Peace recognised for peacebuilding work in Kosovo
05 Oct 2009 04:34:22 GMT
 Source: World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe/ Central Asia office
wvmeero logo
Fatmire Feka speaks at a Youth Empowered event in Canada about her experience of starting the Kids for Peace club movement. File photo by Henry VanderSpek.
Previous | Next
Fatmire Feka speaks at a Youth Empowered event in Canada about her experience of starting the Kids for Peace club movement. File photo by Henry VanderSpek.
World Vision MEERO, http://meero.worldvision.org

Background

•  Kosovo future

•  Children

•  Kosovo future

MORE >>
World Vision Kosovo's Kids for Peace project has received the first annual Peacebuilding Award by World Vision International for the unique provision of opportunities for multiethnic interaction among children and youth to help overcome decades of ethnic tension.

International Day of Peace prize award ceremonies held by World Vision around the world also recognised World Vision Rwanda with the same award while the Peacemaking award was given to Mary Ann Arnado of the Philippines.

Children representing 'Kids for Peace' clubs, government and non-government organisation representatives, religious leaders and other stakeholders and guests also marked the 10th anniversary of World Vision's work in Kosovo, where ethnic divisions still inhibit the integration of the Serb minority community into the wider society.

'This year World Vision is marking the 10th anniversary of commitment to changing the lives of children in post- war Kosovo. We were amongst the few agencies that responded in the early stages of the conflict in 1998 to resume in 1999 with the massive return of refugees in war-ravaged Kosovo', shared Rusudan Kharabadze, World Vision Kosovo National Director.

During the peacebuilding award ceremony children shared their messages of peace through singing, recitations dances and short sketches. One of these showed children playing together and a girl living with HIV asking to join them – only to be told that she is not allowed to play because she might infect them. One of their friends joins the conversation and explains to the group that the virus is not transmitted through games and that as friends they should help her to cope with the disease.

Children were in turn rewarded with enthusiastic applause and the endorsement of Sue Williams, the Director of the Summer Peacebuilding Institute of Eastern Mennonite University and the wife of deceased Steve Williams (1951-2007), after whom the Peace Prize is established.

'It is my great honour and privilege to be with you today to recognise a creative and important contribution to Peace in Kosovo', said Sue Williams, opening the World Vision International Peace Prize ceremony.

'Many excellent organisations were nominated, and all of them surely deserve a peace prize for doing what they can to build peace in difficult places. The panel chose this project from among them because we recognised the authentic involvement of young people in Kids for Peace, and the organisational commitment of World Vision Kosovo to the integrated peace and development of this society'.

Describing the life and work of her late husband, who was instrumental in forming PaxNet, World Vision's global peacebuilding network, Wiliams went on to tell the youth:

'All of us here, and around the world, recognise your excellent programme, your commitment to peace, and your capacity to change the world. May you continue to commit yourselves to building peace in Kosovo and in the world, and may you continue to enjoy it'.

Representatives from Kids for Peace received a trophy and an award of US$5,000 from Sue Williams and Charles Dokmo, Vice President for World Vision in the Middle East & Eastern Europe Region.

The Vice President likened Fatmire Feka, who as a young teenager founded Kids for Peace, with a tiny mustard seed, which grows to be among the tallest of trees in a garden. Dokmo used the symbol of the mustard seed to show the way an idea is planted and the kind of impact it can have over time with the right kind of nurture.

'It is important for children to understand that this is a symbol of their future and to make this a success they need to be strong and courageous, work as a team, keep their relationships strong, listen more than they talk and pass the idea on and share it....pass the seed and the plant, as symbolically children now are passing on this plant standing strongly beside one another and little by little we all become changed people'.

-Ends-


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Children

MORE >>

Emergencies

•  Kosovo future

MORE >>

Members

•  World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe/ Central Asia office

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Kids for Peace recognised for peacebuilding work in Kosovo
World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe/ Central Asia

•  EVERY ONE Campaign Launches: Millions of children's lives could be saved for half the amount spent on bottled water each year
Save the Children - International Alliance

•  Save the Children Helps Families in Philippines
Save the Children - International Alliance

•  Powerful Earthquake Rocks Indonesia
Save the Children - International Alliance

•  Remote mountain villages devastated in Vietnam, as full extent of Typhoon Ketsana destruction is revealed, s
Save the Children - International Alliance

MORE >>

Latest news

•  Some schools reopen in quake-hit Indonesia city

•  New antibodies may fight child cancer, study shows

•  INDONESIA: Aid slow to arrive after quake

•  YEMEN: Children in north suffer severe malnutrition

•  Vote offers Balkans EU hope despite new problems

MORE >>

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Background information

Briefings
Kosovo future - [Who works where]

Topics
Children
Facts & figures
Rwanda Kosovo
Statistics graphs
Refugees residing here (2008)
Chart for Refugees residing here
View more stats

Related articles

Breaking stories
 Some schools reopen in quake-hit Indonesia city (1 minute ago)

New antibodies may fight child cancer, study shows (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 World leaders must commit to free health care - aid groups (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 Kids for Peace recognised for peacebuilding work in Kosovo (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Children in countries hit by war have their say (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Global projected land use changes, 1700-2050 (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-05T040832Z_01_PAD902_RTRIDSP_2_INDONESIA-DISASTER_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PAD902.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-05T040212Z_01_PAD901_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE-INDONESIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PAD901.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-04T105047Z_01_JAK09_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE-INDONESIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/JAK09.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-04T104510Z_01_JAK08_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE-INDONESIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/JAK08.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-03T070930Z_01_RVR05_RTRIDSP_2_ASIA-TYPHOON_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/RVR05.htm

An Indonesian teacher rolls up part of a UNICEF tent as students study at their school after it reopened for classes following an earthquake Padang, West Sumatra province October 5, 2009. ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Mon Oct 5 05:25:12 2009