One Billion Acts of Peace Rising

Kosmos is pleased to announce our partnership with PeaceJam and the One Billion Acts of Peace initiative, a five year effort promoted as potentially the largest global citizenship campaign to date. This initiative is supported by numerous groups, youth around the world, and many Nobel Laureates. You are invited to submit your Act of Peace and watch for updates periodically in the Kosmos Newsletter and on our Facebook page.

One Billion Acts of Peace is made up of tens of thousands of young people around the world, working together on projects. These projects are thought up, created and run by young people in schools, community centers, clubs, churches and other local groups.

Here is an excerpt from an article on the genesis of One Billion Acts of Peace  from the Huffington Post, written in conjunction with Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow at Google:

A punk rocker, an economist, a beautiful model and an engineer with a funny job title came to the United Nations one day to try to change the world. What could possibly go wrong?

What sounds like the prelude to a good joke is actually the beginning of a massive, global peace project involving 13 Nobel Peace Laureates and millions of people around the world. The punk rocker and the economist are Ivan Suvanjieff and Dawn Engle, founders of PeaceJam who have been nominated 7 times each for the Nobel Peace Prize for their amazing work in inspiring millions of young people around the world to lead 2 million projects of peace in service to their communities. The model is supermodel Jessica Stam, ..and the engineer is Chade-Meng Tan, the Jolly Good Fellow of Google, an international bestselling author whose inspiring job description at Google is to “Enlighten Minds, Open Hearts, Create World Peace”.

The four of us, Ivan, Dawn, Jessica and Meng, came to the Social Innovation Summit in May 2013 hosted at the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations to announce the genesis of a massive campaign: One Billion Acts of Peace. The dream: to inspire one billion high quality peace projects around the world by the year 2018. 13 Nobel Peace Laureates have already committed themselves to this campaign and millions of young people are already involved. We have also begun to recruit a team of brainy Googlers to create the infrastructure for this movement. All that is needed now are the talents and resources of some of the most progressive and innovative companies in the world, and the inspired actions of many millions of other citizens.

PeaceJam is focused on the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which identify the root causes of the problems that destroy families — violence, war, extreme poverty, and disease.

The driving force behind PeaceJam’s mission is a “let’s do it ourselves” attitude -the constant reminder that every single one of us matters, that every single one of us can make a difference, and that together, we are unstoppable.

This video explains how YOU can create an Act of Peace:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gVDPFP0e7Z4frameborder%3D0allowfullscreen

 

10 Key Issue Areas of Focus:

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Advancing Women and Children – It is essential to bring an end to the exploitation of children, and to defend the human rights of women and girls around the world. This includes the right to education, employment, and equal opportunities. The role of women and youth as leaders, and in developing creative solutions to problems in their communities, must be fostered and encouraged.

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Access to Water and Natural Resources – The lack of access to clean water and arable land is an increasing problem for many people around the world – and the struggle over these limited resources provides fuel for war and conflict. We must work to ensure access to at least the most basic of natural resources, safe drinking water, for everyone.

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Education & Community Development – When we ensure that basic human needs are met, provide quality education, and work to create jobs and adequate housing for all, we are creating a more secure world. The time has come to shift our energy and our resources from a focus on military security, to a long-term investment in true human security.

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Global Health and Wellness – One of the effects of globalization is the spread of disease. National boundaries no longer mean what they once did. We must address the challenge of ensuring global health and wellness together as one human family.

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Environmental Sustainability – Climate change is a reality. It is essential that we make a concentrated effort involving individual citizens, civil society, and our government leaders to address the many causes for the precarious situation we have created for ourselves, and for animals and other endangered species, here on earth.

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Conflict Resolution – One of the first things that we must do is to dismantle our own armed consciousness because we are children of a culture of violence, and our minds have been armed. What is required is a profound understanding of the new realities created by an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, and a strong belief in the path of nonviolence.

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Inclusivity and Cooperation – Racism and hatred based on differences as well as the growing divide between rich and poor are endemic, and it is a problem that affects all of us. We must work together to build acceptance and support within our human family.

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Human Rights – The lack of basic human rights and civil liberties, and the persistence of social injustice over long periods of time with no hope or plan for progress or change, always creates a backlash. We need to address the fundamental issues at the core of society and ensure that all people have the right to participate in government processes without fear of retribution, and can live freely in the pursuit of their own happiness.

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Alleviation of Extreme Poverty – Our world cannot be secure when so many billions of people are forced to exist on less than $1 per day, without access to even the most basic levels of shelter, sustenance, or education. Extreme poverty can be eliminated in our lifetimes, and poverty in general can also be significantly reduced. Establishing economically sustainable futures for all of humanity must remain a fundamental goal.

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Weapons Access and Proliferation – It is incomprehensible that the world still wastes nearly a trillion dollars each year on the weapons of war. We must end the ever increasing spiral of expenditures on arms, both nuclear and conventional, which only serves to increase the likelihood of armed conflict.