Tag Archives: Peace

Heifer’s Legacy of Peace

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Through the support of our generous donors, Heifer International has put millions of families on the path to peaceful and sustainable futures. Here are just a few examples of how our gifts of livestock and training have made the world a more peaceful place.

 

After World War II, we sent heifers do devastated European communities to help them rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. Here a mother in Poland gives her daughters fresh milk.

Peace in post-WWII Poland.

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

In 1951, with the Korean War still raging, Heifer sent three planeloads of hatching eggs to Korea – Heifer’s first “Egglift.”

Peace during Korean War.

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

After more than two decades of genocide and civil war, Heifer is helping families in Cambodia by providing peaceful alternatives to lives of violence. Click photo for more Heifer Cambodia stories.

Peace in Cambodia.

Photo by Matt Bradley, courtesy of Heifer International.

Devastated by genocide, Rwanda has begun its long road to recovery thanks to the “cows of peace” that supporters like you have provided. Pass-ons between Hutus and Tutsis are now common and a shining example of how gifts to Heifer can lead to peace. Click image for more about peace in Rwanda.

Peace in Rwanda.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

Help Heifer continue its Legacy of Peace by ending hunger and poverty now.

 

Make Your Own Peace Pole

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Every Saturday we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. This past Friday was the International Day of Peace, so today’s activity is how to make your own Peace Pole.

What is a Peace Pole?

Peace Pole

Photo by found_drama

A Peace Pole is a post, usually made of wood, displaying the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” in four languages. If you’ve ever visited our Learning Centers Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas, or Overlook Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts, you’ve likely seen a Peace Pole. You can purchase a professionally made Peace Pole, or, by following the directions below, you can make your own.

Materials for Making a Peace Pole

  • One 4×4 or 6×6 post
  • Paint (exterior-type)
  • Paintbrush (for lettering)
  • Text translation templates (optional)
  • Deck treatment or other wood preservative
  • Posthole digger
  • Gravel
  • Cement mix
  • Fence post level

Making a Peace Pole

Choose which four languages you wish to display on your homemade Peace Pole. Find translations in many languages here. You can either do the lettering freehand, or you can use your computer to make a template of the phrase. If you make a template, outline the block letters with a pencil directly on the wood and paint the letters in.

If you are feeling particularly creative, decorate your Peace Pole with your own designs.

After the letters have dried, preserve the Peace Pole with something like deck treatment to prevent damage from the elements.

You can leave the top square, cut a pyramid shape in the top, or add something like a wooden ball on top.

Planting a Peace Pole

Find where you would like to plant your Peace Pole (you can always plant it in a pot if digging in the yard is not an option). Using a posthole digger, dig a hole two feet deep. Put gravel in the bottom of the hole and pack the dirt back in around it, using a fence post level to make sure the Peace Pole is straight. For a more permanent planting, pour cement in around it to set the pole, and cover the cement with some of the removed dirt.

To learn more about making your own or purchasing a Peace Pole, go to peace-pole.com.

International Day of Peace 2012: Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future

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International Day of PeaceToday is the International Day of Peace, when the United Nations calls on “combatants around the world to put down their weapons and try to find peaceful solutions to their conflicts.”

This year’s theme is “Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future.” From the UN’s website:

It highlights the fact that we cannot possibly think about building a sustainable future if there is no sustainable peace. Armed conflicts attack the very pillars of sustainable development, robbing people of the opportunity to develop, to create jobs, to safeguard the environment, to fight poverty, to reduce the risk from disasters, to advance social equity and to ensure that everyone has enough to eat.

I absolutely agree that armed conflicts make sustainable development efforts difficult, if not impossible.

But I think the reverse is also true: we cannot possibly have sustainable peace without sustainable development. How could peace possibly be sustained when 925 million people in the world are hungry?

Are you peaceful when you miss lunch by an hour? I know I’m certainly not. Imagine if you were starving, or watching your children, your elderly, your community starve.

Since I don’t have to fight to feed my own family, I work to help impoverished families around the world gain the ability to feed themselves and lift themselves out of poverty using methods that last. Deep down, I believe it’s the best way I can personally help bring peace to the world.

What do you do to promote peace? Tell me in the comments section below.

Building Peace in Cambodia

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One of the aspects of Heifer’s work around the world that doesn’t always get mentioned is peace building. Heifer was there after World War II delivering heifers to Japan and Germany. We even took chicks to Korea during their war in the 1950s. More recently we’ve helped war widows in Kosovo, and mended relations between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda.
We’ve also helped bring peace to Cambodia. I was there last year and nearly everyone I spoke to had an amazing story about how they survived the bloody regime of the Khmer Rouge. I say nearly everyone because I spoke with a few former Khmer Rouge soldiers, too.
Ly Ty and Seng Sam fought on opposite sides of the war. They now work together as part of a Heifer self-help group in Chrey Krem, a tiny village in western Cambodia. Sitting with these two men and former enemies was one experience I will never forget.
Listen to their story below or read the entire story here.
The two men really do love each other like brothers. And that’s the thing about Cambodia that has stayed with me in the year since I left: the feeling of peace and of a collective acceptance with the past was overwhelming. Never did I think that a country could forgive and forget such horrible wrongs. But, at least in Chrey Krem village, they have.

Heifer Project Brings Prosperity and Peace to Malawi

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While preparing to receive dairy cattle, Heifer project participants were made fun of by doubting neighbors. Two years later, these successful farmers foster peace and share knowledge with those who mocked them.