Life-Saving
Life-Saving Activity Archive
In 2006, Peace One Day worked alongside the World Food Program, Star Syringe and the International Rescue Committee to initiate the first ever life-saving activities specific to Peace Day. Since then, support has been growing every year, with more and more inspirational humanitarian activities taking place on Peace Day.
These activities cover various areas of need and contribute towards peace-building and lives being saved: immunisation campaigns, water and sanitation programmes, the building of homes, gun amnesties, distribution of humanitarian aid, sports activities focused on reconciliation, workshops on human–wildlife conflicts and peace and security issues.
The United Nations in Afghanistan
"Peace is necessary to access all children and vaccinate them against polio."
—Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan
For three consecutive years, Peace Day has been observed in Afghanistan on a national scale and over 4 million children have benefited from polio immunisations.
Since 2007, Peace Day agreements by all parties to conflict in Afghanistan have resulted in the immunisation against polio of over 4 million children in areas hitherto unreachable or hard to reach due to conflict. This polio drive has been a joint effort by the Afghan health authorities, World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and it was also supported by actors including the International Committee of the Red Cross as well as health NGOs.
 UN Mission in Afghanistan UNAMA
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UN Children's Fund UNICEF |
World Health Organisation WHO |
On Peace Day 2008 in Afghanistan the United Nations Department for Safety and Security, which monitors security related incidents, recorded a 70 per cent reduction in violent incidents on the day itself.
For three consecutive years, there have been hundreds of different activities taking place across the warn-torn country involving the government, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society.
Find out more about the success of Peace Day in Afghanistan.
Star Syringe
"2009 brings the 10th anniversary of Peace Day. But so what! Many will not know this, nor the immense efforts put in, day in day out, by Jeremy Gilley and his team to bring a day of peace and ceasefire to them. For these people the day will still be lived on one dollar, slept on floors, eat the most meager of meals and with no purpose other than to hope to make it to the following day. So thank goodness people like Jeremy care enough to dedicate their life to changing their situation and working towards a better condition on Earth. That is why it is an honour to also play our part at Star Syringe and celebrate this global effort to make conditions improve. The safe injections we deliver on Peace Day 2009 will be a small percentage of all those given that day, but each year we give more and one day we will reach a tipping point for safe injections, and one day the Earth will also experience Peace. How long will this take no one knows but that is not the point at this time, more importantly is that there are millions DOING something about it. And if we keep doing and keep growing then one day conditions will improve enough that we will be very proud to have played our part."
—Marc Koska, Founder of Star Syringe
For four consecutive years, Star Syringe has marked Peace Day in over 20 locations across the globe where over 20,000 people benefited from Star Syringe auto-disable syringe vaccinations.
2006
Star Syringe, in collaboration with Peace One Day, carried out safe immunisation campaigns in 14 countries. Star Syringe’s K1 syringe was marked with the Peace One Day logo and 21 September.
2007
Star Syringe provided safe immunisations in 9 locations via the K1 syringe. Working in partnership with local hospitals, clinics, ministries of health, and distributors to uphold the basic human right to safe healthcare, Star Syringe vaccinated over 5,000 children against measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and whooping cough.
2008
Star Syringe provided safe immunisation camps in 20 locations, up 11 from 2007, from India to Ethiopia to Indonesia, vaccinating children in rural and hard to reach areas against measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and whooping cough. In St Francis Hospital, Uganda Star Syringe immunised close to 1,000 children with the BCG TB vaccine.
2009
Star Syringe carried out immunisations and curatives in over 15 locations across 7 countries.
Over 15,000 people were vaccinated in China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria.
In India, Injection Safety Workshops were held involving various organisations and hospitals. On 21 September, Safe Point volunteers organised a drawing competition with the students of DESU Middle School, in New Delhi, on the concept of ‘Peace One Day’. This workshop was repeated in different communities across the city.
See also: Marc Koska’s Questions & Answers
UNICEF in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Insecticide treated mosquito net distribution benefited over 600,000 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For Peace Day 2007, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNICEF led an integrated immunisation campaign for Vitamin A deficiency, de-worming and measles treatment. Insecticide treated mosquito net distribution also went ahead benefiting over 600,000 children in the conflict-affected South Kivu province. Other agencies involved included DFID, PSI and USAID, Government of Japan, UN Foundation, WHO, AXxes, MOH + Drive Against Malaria.
World Food Program (WFP) in Sudan
60 tons of food were delivered in Southern Sudan.
In 2006, WFP carried out a food drop in southern Sudan on Peace Day and sixty tons were delivered successfully. Peace One Day was there to document this commitment.
Watch the video
The International Rescue Committee
A former child soldier was reunited with her family.
In 2006, the International Rescue Committee in Congo reunited a family torn apart by war. A girl had been taken by rebels and forced to fight. After several years, she was let go. The IRC found her, gave her needed assistance, traced her family and brought her home on Peace Day.
Pump Aid
"Pump Aid is proud to bring the principles of Peace One Day alive on the 21 September, in a country that knows only too well the value of peace and the damage of war; Liberia. Pump Aid currently runs a programme training ex-child-soldiers in Pump and toilet building as a way of both providing vital resources and also to re-building trust amongst communities. Peace One Day gives us hope that we will never again have generations of children so deeply compromised and abused and that projects like ours in Liberia will not be needed again."
—Kathryn Llewellyn, International Director, Pump Aid
Pump Aid’s ‘Elephant Pumps’ have, to date, provided over 1 million people in rural Africa with access to clean water.
For Peace Day 2009, Pump Aid worked with the Initiative for the Development of Former Child Soldiers (IDFCS) to involve former child-soldiers and local communities in Liberia in building and setting the foundations for their ‘Elephant Pump’. These pumps have, to date, provided over 1 million people in rural Africa with access to clean water.
Other activities on the day also included a football match, in keeping with the One Day One Goal initiative, bringing together communities to build the Elephant Pump and inscribe it. A workshop was held with the theme of the day, ‘peace’. Working together with the community, providing a new water point for the village of Johnsonville and teaching individuals the skills which they will be able to use in their daily lives were just some of the objectives for the Day.
Counterpart International
"The mission of Counterpart International is to empower vulnerable people to implement innovative, holistic and enduring solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges.
No matter their race, ethnicity, or religion; every person wants to exist in a safe, clean, and healthy community. Unfortunately, the tolls of war, famine, disease, and economic instability across the globe often prevent people from realizing these goals. With 350 staff currently operating in 25 countries, Counterpart's programs encompass humanitarian aid and relief assistance, health care, democracy and governance, natural resource management and feeding the impoverished. Our dedicated and talented staff works to make peace every day.
In specific observance of Peace Day, 2009, our staff across the globe will play football (soccer), screen and discuss The Day After Peace and distribute much needed humanitarian aid."
—Jennifer Leigh Grizzard Ekzarkhov , Director of Communications, Counterpart International
Humanitarian assistance benefited hundreds of people in Georgia, Tajikistan and Vietnam.
For Peace Day 2009, Counterpart staff across the globe held screenings of The Day After Peace and distributed much needed humanitarian aid.
In Georgia, Counterpart’s Community & Humanitarian Assistance Programs (CHAP) office worked together with the Sighnaghi Town Municipality to arrange a joint charity event in support of disabled people of the Sighnaghi Region. The distribution provided 45 disabled residents with new wheelchairs.
Counterpart’s Tajikistan office arranged a distribution of humanitarian assistance to a Gissar District Republican Boarding School. The school is one of the largest boarding schools in Tajikistan.
Counterpart, with the support of its long term partner, NGO Munis, distributed clothing, footwear, walkers and food. The 260 students, ranging in age from 7 to 16 years old, are among the most vulnerable children in Tajikistan.
As part of the One Day One Goal initiative, football matches were played in Tajikistan and Vietnam, where different organisations took part: Germany’s GTZ, KfW (German Development Bank), Landmine Survivors Network, MAG (Mine Advisory Group), Plan International, Greater Mekong Sub region (an ADB-funded project) and the Provincial Department of Foreign Affairs.
In Vietnam, 56 of Counterpart’s microfinance clients received loans for their farm and countryside enterprises in honour of Peace Day.
Camps International Trust
A Human Wildlife Peace Day project benefited whole communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Borneo.
Human Wildlife Peace Day 2009
Camps International created the Human Wildlife Peace Day 2009 programme, to bring together communities and wildlife that are essentially at conflict with each other. The sustainability of this approach will be explored through Camps International’s long-term commitment to reducing human–wildlife conflict and, equally important, to explore the possibilities of a global paradigm shift from ‘Human–Wildlife Conflict’ to ‘Human–Wildlife Cooperation’.
In Rukinga and Camp Tsavo, Kenya, 30 gappers (gap year students) joined about 52 staff for a week of activities with 600 school children and 400 parents and local inhabitants. Workshops were conducted with the local population on elephant-friendly projects like growing mushrooms and making paper from elephant dung, planting and learning about aloe vera, etc. On the weekend of Peace Day, there was a local concert at the school, games and a drama presentation. The main focus was to bring out a sense of Human–Wildlife Cooperation and an end to conflict.
Similar events to the ones in Kenya also took place in Tanzania and Borneo.
Oxfam
A coalition of 13 local and national Afghan NGOs organised activities in 16 provinces across the country.
OXFAM International’s Afghanistan teams supported a coalition of 13 local and national NGOs to celebrate the day in 16 provinces around the country. NGOs with various expertise (communication, community peace building and conflict resolution and campaigning) came together to push for a national peace building strategy, in conjunction with the UN. Oxfam publicly endorsed this national campaign internationally, through their websites and media contacts. They focused on the importance of giving voice to Afghans and putting their needs and interests to the forefront of the discussions.
Find out more about the success of Peace Day in Afghanistan.
Habitat for Humanity
More than 100 families benefited from new houses or house improvements in Mongolia.
Habitat for Humanity built and dedicated new houses for needy families in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Mongolia, Botswana and Malawi. In Mongolia alone, more than 100 families started living in either a new house or a house that was renovated. This provided them with the setting for a home, a secure future and a place where the family can grow to shape a better future for themselves and for their community.
War Child
War Child’s statement for Peace Day 2009:
“On Peace Day War Child will be working to help former child soldiers and other children whose lives have been torn apart by war to get access to education and rebuild their lives. War Child will also be calling on the public to help raise awareness of the 300,000 child soldiers around the world by adding a photo of their salute to their Facebook gallery and joining thousands of others supporting the ‘I got Soul, but I'm not a soldier' campaign.”
“In time, everyone should watch The Day After Peace.” Nick Fraser, Commissioning Editor, Factuals, BBC
