UN International Day of Peace - 21st September 2008
Soroptimist International has Category 1 status at United Nations, and so, we recognise and celebrate several of the UN’s special days during the year. We particularly draw attention to those that will benefit women and girls.
Our club celebrated UN International Day of Peace on September 21st 2008 in a BIG WAY with a Peace Vigil. We brought the issue of peace as a basic human right, to the attention of people in our locality.
We firmly believe that peace isn’t just the absence of war - it’s about living without fear, being cared for and being educated so that life can be good!
At noon, we held a quiet session of readings at the Salvation Army Training Centre in Hadleigh, near Southend, and then we walked to Hadleigh Castle for our Peace Vigil. Everyone, even the Mayor of Castle Point wore white tee-shirts or tops!
At Hadleigh Castle, we released a cloud of 35 white doves, sponsored by organisations and individuals, symbolising our Soroptimist aim for a peaceful world.
Everyone was given a peace scroll - like those given at the Glasgow Convention. The whole event was extremely moving and worthwhile.
Earlier in the year the whole club had been involved in addressing the invitations and making peace scrolls - as you can see, we got quite a production line going and all really enjoyed ourselves!
The event was a local success and we shall hold another Peace Vigil on 25th September 2010.
At Southend, we’ve always supported UN International Day of Peace - we urged all our local schools to contribute to our UKPAC Peace Book in 2006 and several of us walked for the ‘Women for Women’ project.
And … Living together in harmony is something we practice at this club!
This is a long distance shot of our doves circling around the castle - you can save this image to your own computer and enlarge it - give a right click over the image!