Join in celebrating Peace Day Sunday September 21st

We consider our support of social movements like 1 Billion Rising, #SpiritDay and Day of Pink part of our CSR business initiatives and we’re proud to be adding Peace Day thanks to Peace One Day to this list.

Peace One Day is the brainchild of filmmaker Jeremy Gilley who in the late “1990s became preoccupied with questions about the fundamental nature of humanity and the issue of peace.” In 1999, this interest in the idea of peace led him to found “Peace One Day, a non-profit organisation, and in 2001 Peace One Day’s efforts were rewarded when the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the first ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September – Peace Day. Peace One Day’s objective is to institutionalise Peace Day 21 September, making it a day that is self-sustaining, an annual day of global unity, a day of intercultural cooperation on a scale that humanity has never known.” Over time, Gilley’s efforts translated into real results as there was a “70% recorded reduction in violent incidents on Peace Day 2008 in Afghanistan (source: United Nations Department of Safety and Security).”

Gilley wanted to formally measure the impact of his project and enlisted the help of global consultancy firm McKinsey & Company to see the reach of the 2012 campaign. Through compiling this report, they found that “across the world, approximately 280 million people in 198 countries were aware of Peace Day 2012. For Peace Day 2013, due to activation on the day by every sector of society around the world, McKinsey & Company recorded a 68% increase in the number of those aware of the day – that’s 470 million people.” It’s clear that Peace Day is a growing movement with no sign of slowing down in 2014.

One reason why Peace Day is on pace to continue growing in 2014 is due to the support of the “Howard G. Buffett Foundation, [which] has [allowed them to] launch a 3-year project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes region of Africa for Peace Day, 21 September.” The hope is to see significant strives towards violence reduction by 2016.

The 2014 theme is “who will you make peace with?” which lends a personal feel to the project. Peace is a global concept, but as the old adage goes start local. There is a list of big-name sponsors for Peace Day including Dior, Lotus f1 Team, The Execution charitable trust, Skype, Coca-Cola and Google.

On Thursday 22nd May 2014 Peace One Day held a gala to help garner support for the DRC project. At this gala, Jessie J performed and Jude Law and HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco participated in the event. On September 21 “Akon will headline Peace One Day celebration at Goma International Airport on Peace Day.” Also performing are Mzee Mbukuli, Sango’a, Dety Darba and Lexxus Legal. On being apart of the concert Akon has said, “I’ve performed at some incredible venues around the world, but nothing like this. The symbolism of having this concert at Goma International Airport, as a gateway to the rest of the world, is so powerful. It’s an honour for me to be helping to share this message with the concert audience and with millions around the world via TV, radio and other platforms.”

You can find many ways to get involved on the Peace One Day website. So, this Sunday September 21st, who will you make peace with?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIdI_wU0i8I[/youtube]

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.