“The world is now too small for anything but brotherhood.” - Arthur Powell.
With this shared vision, the United Religions Initiative was founded nineteen years ago. The true essence of peace lies only in togetherness and kinship. In order to establish world peace, it is imperative to ensure that it transcends across religions, cultures, languages, and borders. Following such ideals, we, at URI North India and Afghanistan, have celebrated peace in diversified ways and with people from different walks of life.
World Interfaith Harmony Week
Observed worldwide each year in the first week of February to promote interfaith dialogue between members of different religions and faiths. The UN has urged nations to social inclusivity amongst people of diverse cultures. Keeping this in mind, URI in association with S.T.E.P.S. (Standing Together to Enable Peace Trust) conducted an informative and successful workshop with members to ascertain the legitimacy of news sources. The advent of technology and the rise of social media users have made it more convenient to create and spread religiously motivated violence and hate speech news by those who are influential. Hence the idea was to increase awareness with regards to rising communalism and regional differences among those who get influenced after consuming such content.
During this week Abhigyane Foundation organised events based on the theme ‘building bridges across boundaries’ at Amity University with the support of the Afghan embassy which included music, dance and instrumental performances by several well-known artists. Our partners, Dwarka Peace Society, CEEO India, and Bundelkhand CC, celebrated by teaching children about peace and donating clothes to the underprivileged. Youth for Peace International CC took a group of Rohingya boys to an educational tour in New Delhi. CEEO India celebrated this by conducting week-long painting competitions and heritage walks. Dwarka peace society also conducted some fun peace-building games in their school time table for kids to understand the importance of the day
Some other Initiatives also were:
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To promote peace and harmony, Abhigyane Foundation conducted a radio-show in Afghanistan and an interfaith discussion in Sri Bangla Sahib Gurudwara to promote inter-religion dialogue.
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Choti Si Khushi spread love among kids in Don Bosco orphanage. In solidarity, young girls from Kasturba Balika Vidyalaya paid tribute to the martyred souls of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and recent Pulwama attacks. A tribute to Gandhi was also paid by them on Martyrs’ Day.
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Moreover, in the wake of recent attacks on innocents in Christchurch and Sri Lanka, a symposium-cum-iftar-dinner was held on the theme “We Are One” with SDS and BIMTECH to spread the message of unity. Sarvadharma Samwaad, India Dialogue Foundation, Brotherhood of Humanity CC and My Perch CC were one of the many attendees of this event.
