Zakir Hussain
Dimapur | December 23
World War I, World War II, Cold War, Vietnam War, Gulf War…, these are what we have read and seen in the TV. The pages of history are filled with stories of how people betrayed each other and killed their brethrens for the sake of Power. Even today, not a single nation is free from bloodshed. Many countries have developed nuclear and biological weapons to use them against mankind. And to stop this barbarism, many Peace Organisations were formed but most of them instead of remaining neutral, support one group or the other. Before it is too late, these organisations should maintain neutrality and try to bring about Peace in the world.
But still there are few organisations in some countries who commit themselves to work for peace at the grass-root level and to spread the message of love, peace and joy to each and everyone in the society. Peace Channel is one of those organisation that tries to reach the youth in schools, towns and villages, to motivate them to work towards building of peace by forming units of peace channel and the functional strength will be the network of the units to nurture a ‘culture of peace and justice’ to eradicate the ‘culture of conflict’ through a multidimensional approach.
Formation of peace loving people and a peace filled universe, with this vision, Peace Channel was officially formed on September 21, 2005 at Sacred Heart College, Tirupatur, Chennai. In Nagaland, Peace Channel was formed by Rev. Fr. CP Anto, MSW on October 10, 1997 at Kiphire. He is also the director of the channel.
According to Rev. Fr. Anto, Peace Channel is a youth movement that strives to develop the human resources by reaching out to all, especially to the youth to build peace in the society through the formation of peace channel clubs in the educational and other organisations.
He said that Peace Channel has two wings, Peace Clubs for youth and children while Peoples Forum for Peace for everyone irrespective of religion, caste, creed, colour and sex.
Sister Annie, headmistress of St Clare school, Dimapur said the channel was inaugurated on October 6, 2006 in our school and 7 teachers and 90 students are the members of this movement. The movement has come to Nagaland at an apt time. The students come together on every Friday and plan the activities that they can do during the coming week, she said.
“Peace is a priceless gift. The introduction of the new movement ‘Peace Channel’ in schools is a giant step towards cultivating peace in the hearts and minds of the children. Within a few months of its existence in my school, I have noticed discernible changes in the attitudes and demeanor of my students who are members of the peace channel club,” said John Cruz, Assisi school, Dimapur.
He confessed that the students have become more co-operative, friendly, communicative, well disciplined in character, growing with sympathy for the less privileged children, trained in self control, patience and above all concerned with the welfare of others. According to Akum of Carmel HS school, “Peace channel has taught me how to co-operate. Whenever there are competitions or programmes I take active part in them and it has trained me to handle my problems.”
Vilaseli, Helen and friends from St. Clare school informed that “We come together on every Friday after the class, we distribute cloths to poor people, raise funds to help the poor student friends, conduct seminars.” From Peace Channel, I have learned the value of charity and now I try my best to help the orphans by collecting money along with other members, said Roseline, Kilangla and friends of St. Paul HS school.
Bovi of Assisi school, said peace units are doing lots of activities like saplings plantation, we maintain discipline and peaceful atmosphere in the class room and in the school premises, we help the poor and needy people with service and kind, we visit sick and orphans, we take tuitions for poor and weak students of our locality and come together twice in a month. Rev. Fr. Anto said that the channel has organised inter-religious dialogues, hold seminars on purposeful living, peace seminar, youth and women empowerment programmes, entrepreneurial skill development, soft skill and personality development, cultural exchange programmes, teachers training programme on peace, seminars of conflict transformation, RTI, HIV/AIDS etc. “We have peace cultural troupe that perform traditional and folk dances and present drama and music,” he said. To spread the message of peace in the State, he said that the organization has organised 17 seminars for youth and formed 86 peace clubs in various districts of Nagaland.
He also conducted a survey among 300 students in the State on the role of youth in building peace in Nagaland. He said that Peace Channel is only formed in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur but we are trying to form the channel in other states too, therefore we have trained 60 representatives from all the NE states at Guwahati so that they can form the club and spread the message of peace in their respective states. “Each state has its own problem, Tripura has land issue problem, Assam has immigration problem and Nagaland has corruption and unemployment problems,” Rev. Fr. Anto said.
He said that youth can play a big role to bring about peace and continued that youth has to get organized to build peace in the family, society, and the state; however they need guidance and motivation through seminars. “Youth has to be the channels of peace, love and hope,” he added. Disclosing the vision of Peace Channel for 2008, he said that “We are targeting to set up peace clubs in six districts including Dimapur, Kohima, Peren, Phek, Tuensang and Kiphire and the rest of the districts by 2009.”
Advising the youth of Nagaland, Rev. Fr. CP Anto said “The birth of baby Jesus who is the Prince of Peace warm our hearts with His love, peace and joy and let us be channels of peace to our families, society and to the world at large. Let us heal the wounds of division and hatred by sowing the seeds of love and forgiveness. Wish you all a peace filled Christmas and New Year.”
