Peace Pole Planted – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
March 8, 2014
The peace activities commenced with the initiation of the caring & sharing club at a local school. With the children of the school, there were different activities undertaken which included:
- Balloons for Joy where by seed money was provided to the students to buy balloons- the students used to sell the balloons and from the proceeds they would replenish their stock of balloons while with the rest they would buy toys for children being treated for Cancer.
- Poles for peace whereby 100 small wooden poles were to be distributed among those who had played a role for bringing about peace in the region or those who need to do so and to plant Peace poles in prominent places with the peace prayer in different languages.
The activities came to a halt after attacks on human-rights defenders and schools by the non-state actors- The school management and the parents were worried that these activities would make the school and the children a target and hence the caring & sharing club came to an end but before that a number of poles were distributed to individuals as per the criteria and Peace poles were planted on the Pak Afghan Border at Torkham, the historic Michni Post overlooking the Torkham crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. All these activities were given a lot of coverage by the print and electronic media both local and international.
After almost 8 years we were able to plant a peace pole on the international women day at the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in collaboration with the EVAW/G (Ending Violence against Women & Girls) alliance KP/FATA and members of the parliament. The ceremony was attended by the alliance members, parliamentarians, members of the civil society and delegates from United Nations and International humanitarian agencies. It is important that this pole was among the peace poles that we had received from Japan thanks to the Goi Peace Foundation
We are exploring the possibility of more peace poles in collaboration with the civil society organizations
Peace Group-Peshawar
May Peace Prevail on Earth- Ameen