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March 2025

World Citizen Peace

Seek peace within yourself and others • Reach out in service • Protect the environment • Respect diversity • Be a responsible citizen of the world

PEACE QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“A man settles where he finds peace. Not beauty, not money, not status, but peace.” (Anonymous)

WORLD CITIZEN PEACE NEWS

VIRTUAL LEARNING COHORT OPPORTUNITY

PeaceLearning Cohort

Calling all elementary educators, leaders, pre-service teachers and homeschoolers! 

Join a PeaceLearning cohort to begin your implementation of Empowering Peace & Justice Education. This guidebook offers hope-filled and actionable strategies to embed peace education in your life, classroom and school culture. Your facilitators, authors and peace ambassadors Julie Lillie and Carey Seeley Dzierzak have over 40 years combined experience in education!

Featuring research, philosophy and over 100 lessons and practices, the book emphasizes literacy integration, culturally relevant pedagogy, trauma informed care and co-creating brave, democratic spaces for a more just and peaceful world. The book framework centers World Citizen Peace’s Five Peace Actions! 

Monday – April 7, 21, May 5, 19 
@ 7:00-8:30pm ET | 6:00-7:30pm CT | 5:00-6:30pm MT | 4:00-5:30pm PT

  • Info Flyer
  • Register / Purchase — Zoom link/calendar and more details will be emailed after your registration is received.  
  • BONUS! The first 4 registrants receive a free 1-1 virtual coaching session with Julie or Carey!
  • You need to purchase the ebook on your own.

Julie and Carey understand these dates and time may not work for all who are interested in this cohort (including international folks). Stay tuned for future cohorts options, along with access to monthly free peace education content by subscribing to The Peace Pad’s [Seeking Peace] newsletter if you don’t already receive it!

JANE ADDAMS PEACE BOOK ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERS

World Citizen Peace is happy to announce that the selection committee for the Jane Addams Peace Association has chosen winners in their Children’s Book Award. Awards will be presented to the winning and honored authors and illustrators in person on April 24, 2025, at 5:30 PM CST at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

You can find details about the award event by contacting the Jane Addams Peace Association at infor@janeaddamspeace.org.

PEACE AMBASSADOR SPOTLIGHT

Peace Ambassador Mame Saphir Ndiaye — Senegal

Peace posters

These few pictures are illustrations of our actions to promote peace entitled “Live Peace” through awareness campaigns and social mobilizations, exhibitions, workshops, festivals, forums, walks, and marathon runs for peace between peoples and the preservation of the planet.

Live Peace, launched since May 2013 by the non-profit organization Co-operation, Development and Action for Africa (CODEVA Africa) to build a “bridge” between the world cultures and development and link Humans, so it’s indeed a movement of social solidarity, educational, humanitarian, civic and climate action, an international platform for building a culture of peace, dialogue of cultures, diversity of creative expressions, peaceful, just and inclusive society, resurgence of universal values and environmental sustainability.

Group gathering for Live Peace

BECOME A PEACE AMBASSADOR TODAY!

Feeling inspired by the great actions of our Peace Ambassadors? Want to join World Citizen Peace community and create a just and peaceful world?

You can do that by becoming a Peace Ambassador! It is easy to do and is always free. Go to our website and register today to become a Peace Ambassador.

PEACEMAKERS

In this newsletter we feature an essay from Olha,* a Peacemaker who lives in the Ukraine. As an occasional feature going forward we will feature such essays from Peace Ambassadors living in areas marked by turmoil or danger.

SEEK PEACE WITHIN YOURSELF AND OTHERS

Since childhood, I knew that part of my destiny was to help people. And I could not understand before how people can purposefully hurt others because of greed, ego, envy, discrimination and other things. It was hard for me to understand why people spend their only life in anger and hatred. In 2014, my country learnt what annexation and war are. At that time, I was already a student of bachelor’s degree in social work. And for the first time I saw people from my country fleeing the war. It was hard for me to realise that at one point people lost everything and were left with nothing, and children had forgotten what candy looked like. People were learning to live again despite everything.

In 2022, it was already a full-scale invasion of the country, where the entire territory of the country began to be attacked. The number of internally displaced persons and refugees increased significantly. And there was even an understanding that it was difficult for people to regain their peace of mind after experiencing such things. I remember stories about people going into debt to help others, joining in to help others in any way possible.

And now, returning to the topic of peace, I realized that enemies of peace are pride, envy, greed, hatred, and lack of unity with oneself. All people are one, and everyone goes through their own experience, but the world would look different if people helped each other instead of doing everything possible to destroy each other. And not only each other, but also nature, the animal world.

Finger painting with palms

* Olha asked that we not use her real name since she fears being targeted in the warfare there.

DID YOU KNOW?

WILPF Logo Women's Peace MovementThe Women’s Peace Movement emerged during World War I, with women advocating for peace and disarmament. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was founded in 1915 and continues its work today.

The WILP started following a meeting of 1,136 suffragists from 12 countries. They met in The Hague during World War I to discuss the root causes of conflict and to end the war.

In the 1930s, the WILPF collected six million signatures on a petition demanding global disarmament, which was delivered to the 1933 World Disarmament Conference in Geneva.

Today, WILPF is a representative and truly global movement, with member Sections and Groups in over 40 countries worldwide. With a focus on environmental justice, demilitarization and the advancement of human rights for all, they are working hard for a future of sustainable peace.

WORLD CITIZEN PEACE THROUGH TIME

As one part of World Citizen Peace’s ongoing actions to empower other to create a just and peaceful world we created and sponsor Peace Sites. What are Peace Sites? A Peace Site is a clear and tangible statement that an organization, school, home, or community supports and practices our mission has made the decision to live out the Five Peace Actions.

Peace Sites have been around for over four decades and were created as an alternative to the term “military sites.” A Peace Site is a physical and highly visible statement that a place is committed to peace. It shows everyone who sees it that the Five Peace Actions are supported and lived in that location.

Currently, there are 552 Peace Sites throughout the world. The oldest Peace Site is Normandale Hills Elementary School and was created on May 13, 2011. The newest Peace Site was founded by Cori Connors in January of 2025 and is in Utah.

The majority of our Peace Sites are in the United States and located in schools.

Do you want your home, workplace, school, or neighborhood to become a Peace Site and show everyone your commitment to peace? Then go here to register today!

Why Peace Sites in The New York Times

DONATE TODAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Did the stories by Olha in the Ukraine and Mame Saphir of Senegal make a difference to you? Did you learn more about peace, peacemakers, and peace movements through our newsletter today?

If so, then we ask that you help us to empower others to create a more just and peaceful world. Please consider making a donation today. The donation will directly fund World Citizen Peace and its many peace projects, such as the Walter Enloe Peace Education Grant for K-8 teachers.

Thank you!