Mural Arrives in U.S. from Indiana, Peru

The students from the Indiana School in Indiana, Peru, along the Amazon river, just recently completed and sent their mural to the U.S. for exchange. The mural will most likely be exchanged with the Communications High School in Wall, NJ in November.

The mural expresses the students concerns over environmental issues, violence, and abuse of Mother Earth. The positive side shows friendship, faith, respect, and harmony as the key aspects of creating a peaceful world.

El Saffa Mural arrives in U.S. from Egypt

The El Saffa Society for Special Needs Children recently exchanged their beautiful mural with the students at Conerly Road Elementary School in Somerset, NJ. Below is the resulting mural that came out of the visit Donna and Jeff Clapp, along with Jessica Walter, did in May 2007. Check out the Where Peace Lives Web site for more details on this extraordinary exchange.

First International Mural Exchange Egypt/USA

What would $5Million make possible toward peace?

STARTING JULY 3rd YOUR VOTE COULD IMPACT OVER 4 MILLION PEOPLE THROUGH A $5M AWARD FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS MEMBER'S PROJECT...

HAVE THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE MURAL PROGRAM REACH YOUR CHILDREN AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR LIFE!

Click the banner above to see our program on the American Express Member's Project site. "Kid's International Peace Mural Exchange"

Starting July 3rd, if we are selected as one of the top 50 SEMI-FINALISTS voting will begin and we need your important vote. Below are the specifics about the upcoming voting elimination rounds. It will take a village to make this dream a reality and we thank you for being a part of our global village!

Who is Eligible to Register and Participate: You must first register at The Members Project Website in order to participate. To be eligible to register in The Members Project you must be a legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia and at least 18 years of age and the holder in good standing of an American Express Card issued by American Express in the United States. This program is not open to individuals who have an American Express Card issued by a third party bank issuer. Click here for a list of eligible Cards. Employees of American Express Company and its subsidiaries and their immediate family members are not eligible to submit a Project Idea.

Register
How to register: To register, visit www.membersproject.com ("The Members Project Website") during The Members Project which starts on May 15, 2007 and ends on August 5, 2007 ("The Members Project Period"). American Express will donate $1 for each Cardmember that registers (up until 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time ("EST") on August 5, 2007), with a minimum of $1 million and a maximum of $5 million. You must have a valid American Express Cardmember online account and register at www.membersproject.com in order to participate in The Members Project. If you have an American Express Cardmember online account, you will be asked to log into your account prior to registering. If you do not have an American Express Cardmember online account, go to www.membersproject.com and follow the registration link to create an American Express online account. Register and make a difference!

Explore

How to Participate in The Members Project: As a registered Cardmember you can submit Project Ideas, rate other Cardmembers' Project Ideas and participate in message board discussions.

Message Boards: Discussions can be found at The Members Project Website and will be available during the The Members Project Period.

Vote

Advisory Panel Judging: Idea Submissions which are popular with Cardmembers based on interest and high Cardmember ratings, as determined by the Sponsor, will be reviewed by the Sponsor to determine if the Project Ideas are achievable. The Sponsor's decisions will be final. Project Ideas that are deemed achievable will then be rated by Advisory Panel Judges in each category based on the following equally weighted criteria:

(1) Innovative

(2) Achievable

(3) Broad, Positive Impact

Round One Voting Period: (12:00 AM EST on July 3, 2007 through 11:59 PM EST on July 15, 2007): Cardmembers can vote for their favorite Project Idea among the 50 semi-finalists. At the completion of the Round One Voting Period the top 25 Project Ideas with the highest Cardmember vote totals will advance to the next Round Two Voting Period.

Round Two Voting Period: (12:00 AM EST on July 17, 2007 through 11:59 PM EST on July 22, 2007): Cardmembers can vote for their favorite Project Idea among the 25 finalists. At the completion of the Round Two Voting Period the top 5 Project Ideas with the highest Cardmember vote totals will advance to the next Round Three Voting Period.

Third (and Final) Voting Round: (12:00 AM EST on July 24, 2007 through 11:59 PM EST on August 5, 2007): Cardmembers can vote for their favorite Project Idea among the 5 remaining Project Ideas. At the completion of the Round Three Voting Period the Project Idea with the highest Cardmember vote total will be selected as the Winning Idea.

Winning Idea: American Express will provide a minimum of $1 million up to $5 million, which amount will be determined by the number of Cardmembers who registered with The Members Project, to whatever institution, business organization, corporation, or other entity that is best qualified to fulfill and implement the requirements of the Winning Idea (the "Fulfilling Organization"). American Express will, in good faith, take all Ready For Action Suggestions for fulfillment of a project idea into consideration. However, American Express reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to select the Fulfilling Organization. The Winning Idea and Fulfilling Organization, as well as the eligible Cardmember who submitted the Project Idea that was selected, will be announced on or about August 7, 2007 and posted on The Members Project Website.

Where Peace Lives Goes to Egypt

Where Peace Lives completes its first international mural with the students of the El Saffa Society for Special Needs Children in Suez, Egypt. Grreted by Madame Sayeda El Sherbeny, the school founder and the Governor of Suez, Where Peace Lives makes a huge impact on the vision and outlook for the school.

Where Peace Lives Works With Peacemakers

Where Peace Lives worked with the Conerly Road Peacemaker School in Somerset, NJ this year in creating an international mural that the students will be exchanging with a school in Suez, Egypt in August. The children brought and shared their mural at the United Nations on March 16 for the tenth anniversary of the Ghandi-King Season of Nonviolence Conference hosting hundreds of Tri-State area students.

Amazon Dental Project

Donna recently completed editing a 3 minute short on Dr. Jeannette Grauer's, DDS Amazon Dental Project. Take a look. For more info on Dr. Grauer's program please visit The Amazon Dental program Web Site for details and donation info.

Where Peace Lives - THE BOOK!

“Where Peace Lives”is a book of timeless wisdom for people of all ages. Both children and adults will delight in the adventure to free the angel Peace who has been locked in an unbreakable glass box and can’t get out. The only hope for the world; to find the three keys to set Peace free. Inspired by the universal teachings of Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Buddha, Jesus Christ, Moses and Mohammad, the story teller (who is never mentioned by name, gender or age, so each reader can make this journey their own) discovers that the “Three Keys to Peace” are not physical keys. To learn what they are, Robins invites you to read the book.

This book was written to inspire the world to study, learn and practice more peace. To encourage parents to become their children’s peace teachers and insist that our educational system include the study of peace. “Peace can be right after English, just before history and not on the days kids have science and math.” “Where Peace Lives” is a call to action to strengthen our peace ‘muscle’, and make it our most dominant, global trait. Written in the vein of “The Little Prince” and beautifully illustrated, “Where Peace Lives” is a classic in the making.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of “Where Peace Lives” will go to City Hearts, a non-profit dedicated to healing the effects of violence and discrimination through the inclusion of Art in the inner city classrooms (www.cityhearts.org), and Earth Rights Institute, working to ensure a global culture of peace and justice. (www.earthrights.net)

World Peace Organization

Our Vision: "Peace Begins with Me".

Our Mission Statement:
We hold that a lasting peace will not be found in the world, until it is developed in the hearts of humanity.
Our goal is to inspire the brothers and sisters of our human family with an achievable vision that is not bound by politics or religion or economics but an inevitable, triumphant victory of the heart.
We believe that our responsibility for peace begins within each of us. The peace we offer to ourselves, our families, our communities and finally to our world family is the harbinger of tomorrow's oneness-world of peace.
We believe there is a simple choice for each human being between war and peace, between laying blame and increasing anger and conflict, or opening our hearts and sharing peace and love within our global family.
We hold that violence and aggression will not create peace at home or in our schools or communities.
We envision an irresistible wave of peace, a critical mass that will not stop until the world is free.
We proclaim proudly "PEACE BEGINS WITH ME!"

Taking Steps For Peace- Peace Cereal

You can become a peacemaker without leaving your home! If you'd like to get started on the path to peace, here are some websites that will inspire you to take action. From participating in environmental projects to adding your voice in the struggle against domestic violence, peace is in everyone's hands.

At Peace Cereal our mission is to serve you by making deliciously natural and healthy cereal, as well as to serve the world community by utilizing responsible business practices and donating 10% of our profits to peace.

A Peaceful Vision is Born
Peace Cereal was introduced by Golden Temple in 1997 as a way to support a more loving planet. It was an instant success, and has grown from four delicious flavors to our current twelve varieties. More importantly, at Peace Cereal, we have an organically good idea to share. We believe peace begins at the grassroots level, one person at a time. If people can discover deep inner peace, then slowly, we can begin to create more peaceful working environments, homes and, finally, communities.

Golden Temple, our parent company, is privately owned by a nonprofit organization and was founded by Yogi Bhajan. Golden Temple started Peace Cereal with the wisdom of 30 years of creating quality natural cereals. As a result, we have always used organic oats and spices and made sure our products were certified Grown and Processed without genetic engineering. Our

125,000 square foot factory in Eugene Oregon is also fully certified by the FDA and the Department of Agriculture, with a superior rating for food hygiene, safety and quality control from the American Institute of Baking.

In 2002, we added three cereals specially formulated to make "Heart Sense." This year we were pleased to increase the organic percentage of our cereals: 7 are now 95% or more organic and the remaining 5 exceed 70%. In addition to our concern with your good health, we are also concerned with others. Golden Temple hosts the annual Socially Responsible Business Awards breakfast, honoring socially responsible businesses in the natural foods industry.

Kids Peace

Kids in crisis... they're everywhere. Faced with physical and emotional abuse, drugs, peer pressure and the like, many kids today just don't have the resources or support to handle the pressure. That's why KidsPeace offers a wide range of residential and community services, including a free-standing psychiatric children's hospital, juvenile justice programs and specialized foster care. And for those who share our passion for helping kids, we offer a variety of continuing education seminars, as well as volunteering and donating opportunities, to help fulfill the KidsPeace mission: To give hope, help and healing to children facing crisis.

Visit the web site for more information.

Teach Kids Peace

Teach Kids Peace™ is a project of Honest Reporting dedicated to highlighting the culture of hatred that is being taught to children in certain parts of the world. TKP encourages the promotion of peace education for children in conflict zones, through raising public awareness and calling on world leaders to take necessary action to prevent this form of child abuse.

As terrorism stands at the center of world challenges for the 21st century, Teach Kids Peace maintains that reforming education is the most important and often most ignored key to eliminating terror. Terrorists are not born, they're taught. September 11 and other attacks were only possible through years of indoctrination in schools, media, and mosques. Hateful teachings produce hateful actions. Stopping incitement is the only way to stop terror.

The world media often ignore this subject, which is why Teach Kids Peace monitors and documents instances where children are being used for militaristic purposes. We work with college campuses around the globe to generate public awareness of this problem.

Teach Kids Peace is a project of HonestReporting/Middle East Media Watch, a section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit educational organization.

Education is the primary source for influencing and shaping society. We need to ensure that we are harnessing the full potential ofour education system, to educate today's youth toward a culture of peace. The programs and activism generated by Teach Kids Peace will encourage leaders of today along with the future leaders of tomorrow to value the dignity and rights of every human life, recognize injustice, and respond to conflict with methods other than violence.

True peace can only be achieved when children are taught to love peace.

Help us in our campaign to create a better world.

For the sake of the children... for the sake of our future.

Season of Nonviolence Event 2007 at the United Nations

Here are quotes from students who have completed their global peace murals and what they wanted to share with you...

From the Ghandi-King Season of Non-violence Conference, March 16, 2007 at the United Nations, New York, NY

Jon "Deveraux" Laing and Claire Mastellar of Communications High School in Wall, New Jersey share their experience of working on the peace mural with hundreds of students attending the United Nations on March 16th, 2007 for the 10th Anniversary of the Ghandi-King Season of Nonviolence Youth Conference recognized by the United Nations. A Season for Nonviolence is a national 64-day educational, media, and grassroots campaign dedicated to demonstrating that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform, and empower our lives and our communities. It was inspired by the 50th and 30th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. It was organized by The Permanent Mission of The Philippines to the United Nations in cooperation with The Temple of Understanding, The Association for Global New Thought The Interfaith Center of New York, The M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence The International Mahavir Jain Mission, and The World Peace Prayer Society.


" Since the day I was born", says Jon, "my parents always told me 'Our generation screwed up this world, and your generation is going to fix it.' I've heard it about a million times since then and after hearing it so many times I became desensitized to the idea. I became very accustomed to the thinking that my generation was no different. We're just as greedy, selfish, ignorant, and pugnacious as all the countless generations before us. What could we possibly change? What's so great about us?

Then I started working on this mural. During the brainstorming process I had the privilege of hearing what my peers had to say concerning the state of the world, and how they thought the world should be. Hearing the relentless optimism of my fellow students gave me a new perspective. Sure, making a difference isn't going to be easy, but hey, why not? There's nothing stopping us.



The two canvases of our mural depict the world as we see it, and the world as we feel it should be — the problem and the rectified scenario. However, this mural is unfinished; do you see it? Right there, between the two. That's where the solution goes. It's not finished because it's a project that we as humanity are continuously working to paint. As the future scientists, educators, architects, artists, and politicians, we the youth add a little more to that canvas everyday. It's a daunting task, but it's not beyond the realm of possibilities.

My parents told me that my generation was going to fix the world. Before this I didn't believe it, but I think I can call myself an optimist again, and can safely say that I'm looking with great anticipation toward the future that my peers and I are going to create."

Claire Masteller's shares with hundreds of students at the United Nations, March 16th, 2007 for the Ghandi-King Season of Non-violence Youth Conference

"It is often said a picture is worth a thousand words", says Claire Masteller. "A picture is something universal that everyone around the world can understand. It has the ability to bridge the gaps between different races, religions, languages, and cultures. The Where Peace Lives Mural Exchange utilizes art as a medium to communicate peace. In a world full of so much turmoil and unrest, the discussion of peace is always open for new views and ideas. For years we have spoken of peace, but this project allows us to express ourselves in a new way that people all over the world can relate to. By taking our visions of peace and transforming them into concrete images we are able to communicate with others through the universal language of art.

Coming from Communications High School we have been taught to communicate through not only words but also images. So, when I first heard about the project I thought what better message to communicate than that of peace? This project was a great way to put all of our schooling to use in order to truly make an impact and create a positive change in the world by opening the eyes of many others to important world issues. This project will truly help the youth of the world to build bridges to universal peace.

As we worked to complete this project it became more than just a mural. With each hour devoted to it, and with each brushstroke we each put a part of ourselves into the mural. It was not just an image on a canvas anymore, it was so much more. It was a possibility, it was a future. The mural helped open our eyes to the world and to what the world could be.
We made the mural to make an impact, and in turn, it made an impact on us. It showed us that we were what the world needed to change. It showed us that peace truly lives inside us."
Communications High School, Wall, NJ

"Painting the mural showed all of us how peace is achieved. Even though we didn't always agree, we learned to compromise and in turn, we created peace between each other. " — Alexa Squillaro

"Sometimes, I still like to close my eyes and pretend that we had never finished painting the mural —For that, my friends, is an experience that I will not soon forget. " — Skippy Smith

"Aside from having a great time and getting in touch with an artistic side of myself that I rarely get to see, what I really feel that I am taking away from the mural project is a true idea of progress. We often worry so much about the details in life that it becomes difficult to keep the big icture in mind, but in this mural, every little detail, every little stroke of the paintrbush, was a step in the right direction. " — Shina Alads

"Working on this mural taught all of us that people with different ideas can come together and move toward peace. " — Samantha Jasanovsky

Conerly Road "Peacemaker" School, Somerset, NJ


"Working on the mural was a big thing for me because it made me feel happy and it explains what peace is." — Jasmine Blades, Grade 3

"Working on the mural made me feel joyful seeing big and small working together, it made me feel peace." — Shannon Lauder, Grade 3

"When I was working on the mural it felt like I was helping someone so I feel happy for when were giving our mural to someone else so they know what peace is to us." — Kyra Erel, Grade 3

"I think the mural helped bring out the peace in everyone." — David Earley, Grade 4

"Working on the mural made me feel happy because I got to be part of something big, and it was like seeing what peace means." — Michael Velez, Grade 4

"Working on the mural project made me feel very peaceful and happy. It made me happy and peaceful because I got to be with my friends and I got to learn how to make a mural." — Alayna Fuller, Grade 4

"Working on the mural made me feel happy because I was part of a very big thing with peace and love." — Emily Riha, Grade 3

"Working on the mural made me happy. I liked doing it because it was fun and everyone was able to do it."— Juliana Kosty, Grade 3

Peace from the Quantum Level

A diffferent view point on getting to peace. It is always important to be informed and open to points of view and choose for one's self.

Give Peace A Chance - John Lennon

What can the voice of one do? Well, just ask those who try....it takes a stand to make a difference in the world. It takes an ordinary person willing to be extraordinary to make a difference in the world.

Welcome to the PeaceBlog from Where Peace Lives

We are building a world of peace. We are creating a conversation for a future that invents a whole new world—a world where peace is alive and real for all humanity. We see that future arising through young people. Our organization is committed that the world of the children and young adults we work with will never be the same. We choose to make our personal business peace for all humanity. When we stand there everyone jumps in.

The concept is to create a lasting non-profit organization that sheds light and focuses on people, events, and organizations around the world that are forwarding the conversation for peace. To take the conversation of peace and have it be one at the forefront of society rather than in the background. To bring a reality and tangibleness for people to the possibility of peace now rather than some day.

We will be sharing about the schools and students we will be working with here so check back often for updates, videos, new photos and exciting stories about children all over the world creating peace for humanity. Thanks for joining us.

Peace,
Jeff Clapp
Program Director, Where Peace Lives