Your Own Peace Prize

Now that you have reflected on the concept of peace and the contributions of several peacemakers, your task is to select two peacemakers of your own to honor.

  1. Select TWO (2)INDIVIDUALS OR ORGANIZATIONS that you will honor.
  • Write one complete paragraph FOR EACH honoreein which you explain why each individual or organization is worthy of your recognition.
  • OPTION: Write these paragraphs creatively. For example, you might write them as speeches given at an awards banquet.
  1. Select a creative way to honor the people or groups you have selected. You might do the following:
  • Write a letter to or from the honorees;
  • Draw a picture of the honorees’ achievements;
  • Write a poem or song lyrics about the honorees;
  • Write a dialogue with the honoreesin it or about the honorees;
  • Create a puzzle relating to the honorees;
  • Write a short story about those whom you are honoring;
  • Explain what would you most like to discuss if you could those you are acknowledging;
  • Imagine what would happen if a person your selected were the US president today;
  • Illustrate a cartoon strip about those you are honoring;
  • Design an award to celebrate your honorees’ achievements;
  • Write a speech as though you were the person or group you are recognizing;

ENRICHMENT:

Design / create prizes for those that you are honoring. You may use any means at your disposal to do this.

  • Write an inscription explaining each prize. “This prize will be awarded to an individual who….”
  • Write a response from your award winners. Imagine how your winners might react to your award.

Suggestions to get started are on the pages that follow.

Over, please 

KEEP IN MIND, these are only suggestions and you do not have to use the links that have been provided. You may select any winners that you want, as long as they have brought about peace in some way. Your winners do not necessarily have to be famous people or organizations. For example, your youth group orthird grade teacher might be excellent choices.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the pro-democracy opposition leader in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, who had been kept under detention for most of the past two decades.

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“One of the best known and most respected Zen [Buddhist] masters in the world today, poet, and peace and human rights activist, Thich Nhat Hanh (called Thây by his students) has led an extraordinary life.”

“Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working together in 98 countries and with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. We work directly with communities and we seek to influence the powerful to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them.

What we do: Find out how we work with others to end poverty and injustice, from campaigning to responding to emergencies.

Why we do it: We believe that respect for human rights will help lift people out of poverty.”

“Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910.”

“On a cold December night in 1983, 11-year-old Trevor Ferrell saw a TV newscast about people living on the streets. Those images stirred a compassion deep within Trevor and he pleaded with his parents to take him to downtown Philadelphia so he could give his blanket and pillow to the first homeless person he met. In ensuing weeks, with the help of family, classmates and neighbors, Trevor made nightly trips into Philadelphia to distribute food, clothing and blankets to the needy. Through hundreds of generous citizens and businesses, this little "campaign" soon grew into places to stay and an entire array of services.”

“Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigns to save Kenyan forests, died in hospital on Sunday after a long struggle with ovarian cancer. Maathai, 71, founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to plant trees to prevent environmental and social conditions deteriorating and hurting poor people, especially women, living in rural Kenya.”

“Jane Goodall arrived in Africa, full of dreams. Even as a child, she’d dreamed of living among wild animals and writing about them. Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle were her favorite books, and she knew she’d be a much better jungle companion for Tarzan than that other Jane. African wildlife adventures were an unlikely calling for a little girl in the 1930s and 1940s. But from the beginning, Jane’s mother, Vanne, was encouraging. ‘You can do whatever you set your mind to,’ she said.”

“Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971.

Today, MSF provides independent, impartial assistance in more than 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe….”

Malala Yousafzai, from Pakistan, was outspoken in her “Western thinking,” leading the Taliban to try to silence her. In October 2012, a Taliban thug stepped onto a school bus and shot her in the head.

After extensive surgery abroad, Malala was saved.

“If I look at it, it’s a miracle,” she said. “I can still talk. I can smile.”

Malala bravely stands for the right of all children to be granted a fair education. This right for girls is far too commonly neglected.

Read more:

Malala Yousafzai addresses students and faculty after receiving the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at HarvardUniversity in Cambridge, Mass., in September.

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“Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Laureate, is one of the greatest living moral icons of our time who was a key role player in the fight against apartheid in South Africa.”

“Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania, which is now part of Romania. He was fifteen years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister perished, his two older sisters survived.”

“Bono, the lead singer of U2, uses his celebrity to fight for social justice worldwide: to end hunger, poverty and disease, especially in Africa.”

“Kids as Peacemakers sponsored its fourth annual Peace in the Park event on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011 at the Bartlet Mall in Newburyport, MA….. We are a community based group of individuals and organizations dedicated to the reduction of violence and fostering development of child-friendly communities. We are best known for our Kids as Peacemakers Mural Program.