World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of happiness, freedom, and peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Apart from that, conflict resolution is a way for two or more parties to find a peaceful solution to a disagreement among them. In today’s world, peace, conflict, and development are intertwined. When we deeply go into this, Peace and Conflict Resolution is a field of study that explores how democracy, human rights, gender, poverty, and governance intersect to form how violence and conflict are viewed and addressed and how peacebuilding is to be developed.

Simply, we can say that there will be war outside ourselves if there is war within us. We may initially interpret it as a war, but if we look deep enough, we can find peace within ourselves. 

Project “Heal the World” is a novel initiative by the International Service Avenue of the Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura, with the aim of going hand-in-hand with everyone to spread the joy of peace and eliminate conflicts among the global population and to create a better atmosphere to live all humans in peace and harmony. 

With the wider objective of creating a safe space for all living beings, we took the responsibility to address the world’s future generation to educate them on the value of aspects such as conflict resolution, peace education, and peacebuilding.

So, we conducted our project collaborating with the International Rotaract clubs under three phases.

To strengthen both local and global peace, wordings were published by using videos and photographs under the themes of “Ruin the world” and “Heal the world” in the first phase of the project. Rotaractors from different countries such as India, Mexico, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Russia, and Tunisia joined with us to compose new relationships to heal the world. More than 25 International Rotaract clubs actively took part in the PR campaign for eliminating hate, violence, and war.

Each year the International Day of Peace is celebrated around the world on the 21st of September for remembering to love all people and all creatures. The International Day of Peace has been declared as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and people. To commemorate this day, a creative video was published showing the importance of peace with international Rotaractors and local Rotaractors. International Rotaractors from Mexico, India, Bangladesh, and Nigeria joined with us to create this amazing video with the aim of giving their perspectives of living in peace baring conflicts in a society.

Children and youngsters are the most valuable investment of the future. Giving the general idea of living in peace baring conflicts in a society is very significant for building peace and developing the community for a better tomorrow. Young individuals suffer the most because of global peace issues. They are the most important factor in establishing peace and resolving conflicts. To address these issues, several training sessions were held as the second phase of the project.

Rotaractors of seven International Rotaract clubs facing issues of conflicts and war in their surroundings such as India and Pakistan conducted training sessions focusing on topics of peace such as Leadership and conflict management, Youth for peacebuilding, and community development.

This was a very important international service for children and youngsters in several countries who are experiencing these instances regularly and do not have the chance to educate themselves on peace and conflict management, rather than being raised in an environment filled with hatred and rage, topics related to peace and conflict resolution were crucial as it is the first step towards enlarging global peace.

Training sessions played a huge role in spreading peace around the world with the great support of the International Rotaractors who collaborated with RACUSJ for the second phase. 

As the third phase of the project, we conducted an insightful virtual discussion about “World Peace and Harmony”. The informative session was conducted via zoom platform for both local and international audiences on the 26^th of October. Our Facilitator for the webinar was a well-known peace activist and peace advocator, Mr. Janith Perera who has great knowledge for promoting world peace.

Peace has a profound effect on education. Peace can help achieve the right to basic quality education. That is why peace education is very important in the world. Peace education activities promote conflict resolution that promotes peace and values such as respect for human rights, freedom, and confidence. So, we all have a responsibility to fill the world with peace. 

We are happy and delighted to say that we could conduct this project successfully on a global level collaborating with International Rotaract clubs with the participation of more than 220 Rotaractors all over the world to spread the word of peace.

Written by Rtr. Nethmi Ranaweera and Rtr. Bhagya Samarakoon