The following peace messages were written by Peace Mask models about their impressions during and after taking part in workshops and/or exhibitions.
“Peace is always worth the struggle. No flag or ideology is worth even a single human life. Approach the beauty of the world with awe and wage peace in your daily life.”
David Krieger
President
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Santa Barbara, California, USA
“The Peace Mask Project is symbolic for me in this peacebuilding journey. It reminds us that we are all humans. We need symbolic processes and images to give us hope and to remember that fact that there are people working hard towards a just peace.
I hope that you will be able to come to Fiji one day to share this important and meaningful project with us.”
Koila Costello-Olsson
Gender and Peace Programme Co-ordinator
ECREA
Suva, Fiji
“A dream for peace to reign in our hearts –
for the young to listen to the wisdom of the elders,
for the elders to let the youth act on their dreams.For there to be a continual international culture of
nonviolence, solidarity, friendship, respect and justice.”Samira Gutoc
Peace Journalist
Makati City, Philippines
“There is a need for appreciating conflict as a drive for development and change. This appreciation will lead to continuous constructive conflict transformation. We must continue to work towards peaceful resolutions in order to foster the art of peacebuilding. I believe a society based on democratic values, where people can actively participate in political decision making, can provide an appropriate background for positive approaches to conflict and its resolutions.”
Denis Dressel
Country Director
German Development Cooperation
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
“Keep smiling! May we ALL have Peace.”
Anatoly Ionesov
Peace Museum Director
Samarkand, Uzbekistan
“Peace needs to be started within ourselves and then it can move forward to others.”
Doung Uirorth
Conflict Transformation Program Officer
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
“Peace is not the absence of war, but it is a vote of confidence in everybody’s efforts to restore their communities and to uphold the rights of war affected people.
We have to recognize their capacities to develop innovative, cost effective strategies to meet those needs.
It is our high commitment in supporting and strengthening this peace-building work through the development of regional, local and international networks that build their capacities as well as their influence as voices for peace.”
Nou Chanthea
Project Coordinator
Child Assistance for Mobilization and Participation
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
“I lost my eldest son Aaik by Hamas Palestinians on 7 July 1994.
Since then I have been working nights and days to establish RECONCILIATION and PEACE between the Israelis and Palestinians.
There is no difference between a bereaved Israeli parent or a bereaved Palestinian parent, both of them are suffering.
If we are intelligent, we will be ready to make a compromise with our dreams. We will be ready to pay the price for peace.
And the real price is: TO BE READY TO LOVE THE OTHER. Let us pray TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, TO WAKE UP FROM MESSIANIC DREAMS.”
Frankenthal Yitzhak
Founder
Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace,
Jerusalem, Israel
“I have lost four members of my family.
My mother was killed in 1990 by a tear-gas bomb,
and my brother, a college student, in 1982,
and my nephew, he was 17, I lost him in 1994,
he was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in front of our house,
and my fiancé, he died in an Israeli jail.
After all this suffering, I hope that there will be no more horrors,
no wars, no occupation and peace will be on earth.
Love to all human kind.”
Rihab Essain
General Director
Ministry of Social Affairs
Jerusalem, Palestine
“When going through the process of offering myself to have my Peace Mask made, I have to fully trust. And trust is the key to peace and good relationships. When having my Peace Mask created, I have to let go of fear. These are the things we need to learn in order to have peace within and in order to create peace in the world.”
Satish Kumar
Editor
Resurgence
Devon, U.K.
“The gift of life for all humankind was created by God in Peace. It is within Peace that all life will flourish in the future.”
Bruce L. Erickson
Strategist
Positive Change
Santa Barbara, California USA