Organisation
Youth Organisation
The Peace Club
Projects
Founder
The Peace Club is a youth-led organisation that is run by young individuals who are passionate about promoting peace, love, and compassion in their communities. Our organisation is committed to creating a more harmonious and equitable world for all by inspiring and empowering young people to embrace these values through various initiatives and activities. We believe that youth have the power to create positive change and that by giving them the platform to do so, we can build a better future for ourselves and generations to come.
I am the founder and president of The Peace Club, which was established under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957 and is located in Dunedin. Our Club welcomes all individuals, irrespective of their ethnicity, religion, belief, gender, or age. Our primary goal is to inspire people to promote peace, loving-kindness, and compassion within society. We aim to encourage people to think about peace and create more activities surrounding this important issue.
The Peace Club has a team of 20 executive members, with 250 student members from the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic. Our Club operates from both institutions, and we invite everyone to join us in our mission towards inner peace. We believe that everyone who participates in our events will discover their inner peace and share it with others in society.
Our definition of peace goes beyond the absence of conflict; it encompasses justice, hope, opportunity, empowerment, and dignity. By ending poverty, combating climate change, fighting injustice and inequality, we can guarantee a better world for generations to come. Peace involves accepting our differences in opinion, culture, religion, ethnicity, and ideology and living in harmony within the same community.
Peace is how we treat one another in times of instability, terror, and challenges. It involves respecting human dignity, human life, neighbors, and strangers alike. Any threat to peace in one part of the world is a threat to peace everywhere. As global citizens, we must be united in our quest for peace, bringing hope to the hopeless, opportunity to the underserved, empowerment to the oppressed, and dignity to the disrespected. We recognize that the conditions that threaten peace are man-made, and it is the collective actions of global citizens that can reverse them.
The time has come to mobilize people worldwide to commit to creating peace. We must raise awareness, advocate for peaceful communities, and take action together. Let us work towards making peace a possibility.
Summary of Our Activities in 2021-2022
Over the past year, The Peace Club at the University of Otago has organized several events and initiatives aimed at promoting inner peace, compassion, and social harmony. These activities include:
- Otago Peace Day On February 26, 2021, The Peace Club hosted Otago Peace Day, an event open to everyone, regardless of religious or cultural background. The event involved an hour of meditation on the lawn in front of the Clocktower building at the University of Otago. The aim of the event was to help participants find inner peace and share it with others in society. 77 students participated in the event.
- Meditation Sessions for Children In addition to Otago Peace Day, The Peace Club members organized meditation classes for 30 children at a kindergarten in South Dunedin on the same day. The sessions were led by six volunteers from the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic. 36 children and the volunteers participated in the event.
- Weekly Meditation Classes During the first semester of the academic year, The Peace Club offered weekly meditation classes open to all students, faculty, and staff at the University of Otago. The sessions aimed to promote peace, love, and compassion among participants, regardless of their beliefs or backgrounds. About 6-10 students participated in the classes every week.
- Online English Courses for Young People From March to June 2021, The Peace Club members offered free online English language courses to young people from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. The 12-week course took place every Saturday and Sunday and aimed to improve participants’ reading, writing, and speaking skills while also teaching them about peace. The courses were led by student volunteers, and over 700 students joined the sessions via Zoom. The 60th Dhammachai Education Foundation of Australia and New Zealand and Dhammachai International Research Institute (DIRI) of New Zealand provided scholarships worth a total of 3,450 NZD, as well as one scholarship to study in New Zealand.
- “Peace is Possible” Documentary The Peace Club produced a documentary film about peace in society in Dunedin, New Zealand. The film features interviews with people of diverse backgrounds, including scholars, politicians, and community leaders. The film aims to highlight that peace is not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice, hope, and dignity. The project was funded by the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, New Zealand.
- Art for Peace Competition On September 21, 2021, The Peace Club hosted an art competition aimed at encouraging young people to create images of peace. The competition aimed to raise awareness of the importance of inner peace and provide a creative outlet for individuals to express their emotions. The competition was open to people of all genders, social standings, political affiliations, and religions.
- Volunteer Teaching and Meditation Retreat in Thailand The Peace Club organized a volunteer teaching and meditation retreat in a rural city in Thailand. The project aimed to provide English language instruction to secondary and high school students in collaboration with local teachers. Volunteers had the opportunity to work closely with children and contribute to the development of their education and future prospects.
