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Peace & Love International, working with community's and their members who know them best, establishes self-sustaining and empowering initiatives aimed at social development and growth through education in parts of the world where the need for such sharing of efforts and energy is greatest. Below are some of our most comprehensive empowerment initiatives globally. We are constantly seeking new partners to collaborate with and empowering projects to foster. Doing so, we will continue to strive towards making the most beneficial impact we can for our fellow brothers and sisters within our global community.
Ecuador
// Woven with Love
Combing efforts with Camp Hope Ecuador, Peace & Love International developed an empowerment initiative which drew in the efforts of the the home-school which nurturers the growth of children who suffer from various physical and mental difficulties. Drawing in the energy and effort of these gifted and special children, and with the selfless work of two Peace & Love Agents of Change who flew themselves to Ecuador in order to to develop and implement the initiative, the children were given access to weaving material and knowledge as to empower them to share their stories and abilities with the global community. This manifested itself in over a hundred pieces of handicraft art being woven by the children, all accompanied by a few words by the child for the world to read, and hopefully empathize with. Their work is exhibited to raise awareness about their plight and funds to address their crucial needs for growth. Our energy is focused on supporting our young sisters and brothers at Camp Hope through assisting with dire medical needs, as well as through educational initiatives, in order to perpetuate the growth of the community.
South Africa
// Peace & Love Growth Centre
The Peace & Love Growth Centreis the sustainable, empowering, and self sufficient version of what is commonly know as an “orphanage”. The PLGC will have world class technology facilities to allow the children to keep up with the rapid rate of technological growth internationally. The children will have a home filled with love,giving them emotional and psychological support to ensure their healthy growth. The PLGC will be staffed with fully qualified staff, such aseducators, nurses, activity leaders, and social workers to ensure the children get all the support they needto excel as global citizens. The children at the PLGC will be provided with a nutritious, healthy diet. The PLGC will give children the opportunityto participate in athletic, team building, and artistic programsto foster well roundedness.The PLGC will be self-sustainable, ethical in all of its practices,and will thus aim to serve as a model for similar institutionsinternationally. The PLGC will take in some of the most vulnerable and marginalized children in the world and foster them to become contributing, strong, intelligent, and selfless Agents of Change in their local and global community.
// Contrasting Narratives
The month of June in 2010 saw the world turn its attention to the opulent stadiums in South Africa, and in the same month Peace & Love International turned its attention towards individuals and communities who were far from the excitement shown around the world. By establishing a unique empowerment initiative called Contrasting Narratives, Peace & Love International seeks to raise awareness about the ordinary, day-to-day experience of millions of extraordinary South African youth entrenched by poverty and left to suffer. The exhibit was centred on a youth who had recently turned 20, living in shack constructed of thick cardboard and roofed by a sheet of metal, and his passion for growth and education. This individual, who’s name is not of importance for his story is shared by millions of sisters and brothers underprivileged like him, without a single computer class or training of any type, had assembled a fully functioning computer with spare parts he had found and gathered. It was not awe-inspiring enough that he had made speakers out of headphones; he mixed deep-South African house music on it. All of this was achieved through passion and an unwavering desire to learn. However, due to the entrenchments of poverty, classes or education of any sort is for all practical and realistic purposes inaccessible by him and those like him living in severe poverty. Tuition can’t be afforded, student loans are not granted, funds can’t be borrowed from poor family members for transportation to university even, not to mention that one cannot learn on an empty stomach even if they were at school, and with the nature of poverty being what it is, daily meals are far from guaranteed.
Due to such realities, youth are provided with few opportunities for growth and empowerment; however, this type of entrenched poverty Peace & Love International seeks to address at its root. Through photographic exhibitions of this reality and the support of generous individuals, awareness and funds were raised to establish a unique, holistic vocational scholarship which provides the ways and means to overcome the barriers to growth. The scholarship will assist with the complete cost of educational needs, transportation access, and complete nutrition to make learning possible. Simultaneously, our scholars establish community teaching groups where they can share their newly gained knowledge with others in the impoverished communities as to bring about the greatest benefit for as many individuals as possible and to make the project self-sustainably owned by the community. Upon graduation, our scholars are provided with access to Peace & Love partners within relevant fields who posses’ intellectual capital and valuable connections, while also assisting them in finding careers they are passionate about which contribute the growth of their communities.
// Smile Education
Many children in South Africa live in such devastating poverty that basic necessities such as oral hygiene and education are completely beyond conception, and even further out of reach. In the impoverished squatter communities, painful aches which we have all experienced as children are regularly exterminated by permanently pulling the sore teeth, leaving the child permanently toothless. Those of us with more privilege possess the knowledge and means to address similar temporary issues in considerably healthier, and in relatively painless ways. However, with practically a total lack of access to oral care, and unable to afford transportation costs (not to mention the cost of treatment), the most common remedy for aching teeth is killing them at the root. Most commonly, these are the vital front teeth.
Being forced into such a reality has many negative consequences, ranging from social stigma to the more dire issue of poor nutritional intake. Children and adults alike are unable to digest food properly if they lack the proper teeth, barring them from digesting pivotal vitamins and nutrients, greatly increasing how prone they become to disease and illness. Furthermore, lacking nutritional intake stifles the physical growth of not only the body, but also the brain, especially children in their crucial developmental years.
As such, Peace & Love International designed Smile Education: a holistic approach to oral education and care to address these issues at their root. Partnering with oral hygiene professionals with a passion to share their privilege, Peace & Love International provides children from the most marginalized communities with complete dental care, lending assistance before in the most important years before it’s too late. We bring children and their families to world class dental offices and, in a bid to foster sustained learning at home, provide the entire family with access to knowledge about proper brushing habits, dental care tools, and information about inexpensive home remedies to sustain their efforts in the face of their impoverished environment. All children are also mentored in passing on their newly acquired knowledge to other youth in their communities, explaining the benefits of maintaining a healthy oral hygiene, and habits to avoid in the process, all in a bid to maintain tomorrow’s smiles.
// Sister's Aid
Reacting to the attacks which the densely-populated homeless community in Gorachoqua Mountain was put under in September 2010, Peace & Love International quickly disbursed emergency first-aid equipment to sister's living in the mountain-ghetto who stayed behind time of conflict to take care of the young, old, and injured. The first assault in the heavily impoverished community left many casualties, with some individuals being shot in the eyes, while another was shot in in the genitals. Tear gas, stun-grenades, and rubber bullets rained upon the community, touching countless individuals. All demographics present in the community that morning we're injured, with the suffering of those hit heightened due to access to first-aid and medical personnel being highly inaccessible and often practically ineffective given the nature of conflict. As such, Peace & Love shared first-aid supplies with sisters in the community who take care of the injured both for the sake of recovery, and for planned protection in case of future attacks.
Palestine
// Art for Hope
Peace & Love International partnered with Hope Flowers School inBethlehem, Palestine to create a unique and empowering art project.Hope Flowers caught Peace & Love International’s attention dueto their unshakable commitment to peace, understanding, cooperation,and equality. The school, who’s students range from kindergarten tograde 6, createdover 20 drawings depicting how the children feel about their lives. Each drawing was accompanied with a photograph of the child and an explanation by the child of whatshe or he drew. Theart work was then professionally framed by Peace & Love volunteers and put on exhibit both in Canada and US. The exhibits did a great jobof bringing attention to the plight of the children and also raised thousands of dollars which were sent back to the school to send childrenwhose families could not afford to pay their tuition to school. You can read more about Hope Flowers on the BBC.
Philippines
// Pictures of Perseverance
Philippines: As of November, 2009, Peace & Love International will be working on a development project in the Philippines. Triggered by the terrible typhoons which devastated the Southeast Asian Country, Peace & Love International quickly began planning to dispatch an Agent of Change to fly to the disaster struck nation to experience the hardships first hand in order to plan a sustainable and empowering development project with some of the most impoverished people of the country under the guidance of the locals. The project, called Pictures of Perseverance, will be a unique photography project which will involve Filipino children, from the impoverished slum of Navatos, capturing photographs which show how poverty affects the lives of themselves, their families, and their community. The photographs will be made available online and exhibited internationally outside of the Philippines starting in December 2009 in order to raise funds for the children's educational endeavors which have been made difficult due to the myriad of socio-economic problem. Peace & Love hopes that by raising awareness for these children's hardships, the international community will react by aiding them to overcome their stifled growth and well-being. Peace & Love will be aiding the children's education by building them a much needed computer centre in the Bagong Silang Squatter Area to be used for academic purposes by students in the community.
Haiti
// Snap Disaster Re-Action Effort
Within an hour of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake striking the Caribbean nation of Haiti on January 12th, 2010, Peace & Love International launched a comprehensive appeal to raise funds to aid the desperately needed emergency efforts on the ground. In an effort to maximize funds raised, Peace & Love International partnered with a private partner who committed to matching all funds raised by Peace & Love International over the next 3 days for its Humanitarian Crisis Response for Haiti. At the same time, the Canadian government committed to matching all donations made to any charitable Canadian organization operating in Haiti. In 3 days, Peace & Love International managed to raise $2900, which was matched by our generous partner to $5800, which was once more doubled by the Canadian Government to a total of $11,600! Peace & Love International transfered the $11,600 funds raised to support the humanitarian efforts of the The Canadian Red Cross in Haiti. This was followed by a second push days later where the total was raised to just under $20,000.
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Peace & Love International is constantly doing unique and exciting new things, and over here you can keep up with all of it!
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At the Growth Centre, you can read about Peace & Love's newest initiatives as well as learn how YOU can get involved!
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