JEDDAH, 21 September 2006 — The British International School in Jeddah (Conti) is to celebrate the UN International Day of Peace today with a whole school event. Parents, children and staff will join in the celebration to mark the day officially recognized by the UN as a result of a joint British and Costa Rican initiative.
The vision of Peace Day extends far beyond the cessation of violent conflict and represents an opportunity for individuals to join in a moment of global unity.
Bruce Gamwell, director of the Conti school, said the event was for the whole school community but especially the students. “It is for the students to understand exactly both the implications worldwide and the terrible consequences of war,” he said. “Anything we can do to raise the awareness of that and the need for peace in the world is something we really want to be involved with.”
The Conti school is a large multi-ethnic and multi-cultural school. Gamwell said there were more than 60 different nationalities on the school rolls and that the day had a special value because of that diversity.
“The potential for conflict between the countries of those 60 nationalities exists,” Gamwell said, “but within the school our community coexists with mutual respect and with students from different ethnic and religious backgrounds working and interacting extremely well.”
He said that he wanted to show just how well that could work, pointing out the excellent relationships that exist between parents, staff and students.
British Ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles supported the celebrations. “This initiative is something that everybody can, and should, support,” he told Arab News. “I offer my congratulations to the British school and wholeheartedly commend their efforts.”
The main focus of the celebrations, starting at 10 a.m., will be learning and eventually performing a song — written especially for Peace Day — which will be videoed and shown as part of the school’s 29th birthday celebrations later in the year. Parents, teachers and students from the diverse backgrounds represented in the school have been invited to join in.
Music Director Simon Horsey, responsible for the massed choral presentation, said it would be a real challenge achieving musical harmony from the mix of cultural backgrounds and differing levels of talent.
“The real essence of the day though,” he said, “is to achieve this by getting students, parents and teachers all working together to a common goal.”
Peace Day is the result of a six-year effort by Jeremy Gilley, a British film-maker. He approached heads of state, Nobel Peace laureates, aid agencies, freedom fighters, media moguls, the innocent victims of war and, eventually, everyone who was anyone at the UN.
The Peace One Day (POD) project gained world recognition in September 2001. A United Nations General Assembly resolution (A/Res/55/282), put forward by the UK and Costa Rican governments, was unanimously adopted by all UN member states formally establishing an annual day of global ceasefire and nonviolence on the UN International Day of Peace, fixed in the global calendar on Sept. 21.
