Quote

"Keep working on a plan. Make no little plans. Make the biggest you can think of, and spend the rest of your life carrying it out." Harry S. Truman

Monday, February 18, 2008

The Peace Tree

On Saturday, we saw a lovely and important movie that has won numerous awards throughout the world : The Peace Tree, written and directed by Mitra Sen. It is the story of two friends, one Muslim, the other Christian, who dream of celebrating each other's festivals.

Here are the words I found on the film's website : "The Peace Tree shares the voices of our children who enlighten their parents to the importance of having an open mind and sharing and celebrating diversity together. Through their struggles and their dreams, the children create a unique symbol – The Peace Tree - a tree that highlights the symbols from all our vibrant cultures and faiths on one tree reflecting the beauty of diversity in unity."

After the screening, our kids went outside and decorated their own symbols of peace, before they hang them on a tree, creating their own Peace Tree.





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Mitra Sen, who is a teacher, as well as a filmmaker, adds: "It is our hope that the Peace Tree will be created in homes, schools and cities around the world in our effort to spread peace, hope, diversity and unity. [...] If our children grow up with an understanding and appreciation of all our vibrant cultures and faiths, we can one day hope for a world of peace and respect for all people."

Visit the website. It has lots of activities for children, information about different festivals around the world, and on how to participate in Peace Tree Day. Thank you, Preeya and Murali Nair, for organizing this screening and the Peace-Tree-making activity afterwards.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a nice thing to do after the movie. I wonder if I can rent that DVD around here.
Sue

Katia said...

Sue, I knew you'd like tha. And I don't see why you shouldn't be able to find the movie. It was shot in Canada, and has received many international awards. They have a Peace Tree Day on June 1st, now.

Anonymous said...

Hallo Katia it was just for a mistake (i believe a good mistake) in typing, that I met your weblog and decided to read some of it and then to write a post.
I doscovered that we have different thing in common. I'm a writer too (fiction, theatre, and children) a part from being a journalist and I'm also an intercultural mediator. I colloborate witjh different Ischools here in Italy (if you wish see my website www.valentinammaka.net).
As you can read on my site I've been in Africa for long time and within this year I'm intending to moove from Italy with my daughters for a new human and professional experience and one of my next goals is India. I would love to stay in India for a period and would like to confront with someone who does my same job and has a wide experience of the country also to value opportunities and possibilities of developing educational projects. I also run a non profit multicultural workshop called Soggetto Nomade.
If you wish to exchange some words my mail is info@valentinammaka.net.

Lovely the work done by the children about the Symbols of Peace!!! I run several workshops in Italian schools on the African Art of Tenture and we did The Carpet of Peace. A big piece of cotton pianted and decorated with images inspired by PEACE!

Hope to hear news from you.
Cheers Valentina