Dear Peace in Post-Asian Youth Day Workshop

Asian Youth Day (AYD) delegates from Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines had the chance to discuss CFA’s peace communication experience when they joined the Post-AYD Interreligious Workshop held at the Focolare Center in Manila from November 27-30, 2009. The workshop aimed to train the participants on ways to behave and act in an interreligious gathering; to conduct peace-making in a multi-cultural and multi-religious context and to promote harmony and dialogue through leadership and networking. The Communication Foundation for Asia presented its documentary video “Dear Peace” on its second day of the workshop, to share how media can be used to communicate peace.

The half-day session facilitated by CFA Training Head Ms. Bob Lopez started with a creative workshop where 19 participants drew peace symbols on each other’s paper to produce collaborative posters on peace. During the process analysis, the participants revealed that the activity widened their perspective on the need for unity, harmony and individual participation in peace-building. This was followed by the video showing and discussion of the documentary Dear Peace about the first Peace Camp project organized by CFA in May 2006.

Participants were moved by the impact of the project on the Camp participants and on the school, and were encouraged to make their own efforts in forging peace in their own communities. The workshop ended with the showing of the video on CFA’s second Peace Camp, held in April 2009.

CFA has been an active partner in the work for interreligious dialogue with the Episcopal Commission on Interreligious Dialogue, Focolare, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the Asian Conference on Religions for Peace.