The Peace Mask Project
Peace Messages
The following peace messages were written by the Peace Mask Models
upon completion of their peace mask or by those who attended the workshops or exhibitions.
"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
"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
"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 committment 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
"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
"I lost my eldest son Aaik by Hamas Palistinians on 7 July 1994.
Since then I have been working nights and days to establish
RECONCILIATION and PEACE
between the Israelis and Palistinians.
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 fiance, 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
"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
"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
"We are one of many, part of a whole, entwined, interdependent, comprising a world teeming with life. Let us embrace it! Let us support each other, all living beings. Let us not destroy for any reasons, but rather reason for the sake of conflict resolution and respect for us all!"
Barbara Perlman-Thyman
Psychologist
Santa Barbara, California, USA
"These days peace is a very rare commodity. How wonderful it would be to make peace affordable to all. Peace to all mankind. Peace all over the world. Peace for our Soul. Peace and happiness to all the children of the Universe."
Lilia Putney
M.A. Counseling
Incline Village, Nevada, USA
"Peace and Prosperity go hand in hand. We cannot have one without the other."
Issac Tufvesson
Art Student
Santa Barbara, California, USA
"Every week I walk in a peace walk.
Every day I pray for peace.
Today I work on the Peace Mask Project.
Tomorrow I wish peace for all my brothers and sisters all over the world."
Hazel
Artist
Santa Barbara, California, USA
"May we be the change we want to see in the world. Peace to all beings."
Nancy Rowan
Webspinner
Santa Barbara, California, USA
"Peace begins from within. Express your inner peace and you will begin to recognize peace amongst you."
Jessica Whyman
Student
Kentfield, California, USA