Being the “centre of world friendship”, it is only fitting that there will be a packed schedule for this year’s World Peace Day on Tuesday, September 19.
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The celebrations begin with the World Peace Day Youth Forum from 10.30am till 2.30pm, with 60 local school students expected to attend.
The Forum will be facilitated by representatives from the United Nations Youth (UN Youth) and will include workshops such as “Refugees and Asylum Seekers” and “Advocacy for Young People”.
There will also be a ceremony at 12 noon for participants to symbolically ring the Peace Bell, with this year marking its 25th anniversary.
The special guest for this year’s World Peace Day events, Mr Phil Glendenning AM, President of the Refugee Council of Australia, will also address the students before giving a talk at the 2017 Rotary World Peace Day Dinner on Tuesday evening at the Cowra Bowling Club.
It will be a full house at the annual Peace Day Dinner with tickets completely sold out.
Chairperson, Australian Chapter of the World Peace Bell Association, Mr Ian Brown, said it will be a great opportunity to not only celebrate peace but learn ways in which it can be better promoted on a local and international level.
“We also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Australian World Peace Bell in Cowra and almost 75 years of peace in our land,” he said.
“We cannot say the same for many parts of the world, nor can we say there is peace and freedom for millions of homeless people and refugees.
“We live in a world of flux, where displacement of whole communities is becoming commonplace, brought about by political, economic and climatic factors.”
He said because of these reasons, Mr Glendenning makes the perfect guest speaker for this year’s dinner.
“To this end, I have invited the President of the Refugee Council of Australia, Mr Phil Glendenning AM to address us… he is primarily involved in human rights advocacy and education, peace and reconciliation work and raising awareness of the impact of climate change on marginalised peoples.”
The evening will also feature the Cowra Youth Peace Award and the Rotary Club of Cowra Senior Peace Award, which has given community members another opportunity to recognise hard-working volunteers in our town.
The very worthy nominees for the Cowra Youth Peace Award are:
- Jemma Pokoney
- India Johnson
- Lily Wright
- Hayley Amos
- Samuel Long
- Noah Ryan
The theme for this year’s World Peace Day 2017 is “Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All”.
