The Rotary Club of Bangalore launched an ‘International peace programme’ for students at the Rotary House of Friendship, Lavelle Road on Wednesday.
The programme invites students of classes 7 to 12 to post their idea of peace in the form of audio or video clips of up to 120 seconds, as a “talk, small skit, flash mob, a poetry recitation or story.” It is on till October 2, 5 pm. Members of Rotary clubs from around the world joined the event virtually, observed to mark the Peace Day. Sukhen Padmanabha, director of International Services, said, their hope is to find young pioneers of peace like how Greta Thunberg has been advocating for the environment.
Rotarian Kavita Muthappa ideated the programme to spread the message of peace among youngsters through art. At the event, artists G Subra and Shirley Mathew painted their idea of peace on a 40-feet canvas and fusion band ‘Akhandha’ performed peace anthems.
A canvas with peace messages will be on display at the Club for a week and turned into memorabilia tote bags for sale later.
Nobel laureate Mahiti Bharatesh and veteran diplomat N Parthasarathi were among the guest speakers. Joining virtually, Mahiti, who currently works for the United Nations World Food Program, said, “In a world of plenty we have enough to feed everyone yet millions sleep hungry. There is a direct link between hunger and peace. 60% of people in conflict hit areas don’t have food security.”
The Club president Sanjay Udani said they would like to organise the programme annually.