September 21st is going to be the first UWC Day. Events and initiatives are being held around the world by UWC students, alumni, volunteers and staff, to raise awareness of UWC and our mission to create a more peaceful and sustainable future. On this day, at the different Colleges, there will be a wide variety of events – anything from an alumni reunion, a community outreach project, a panel discussion or even a publicity stunt.

At RCN we see it as a fortunate coincidence that, as well as being UWC Day, the 21st September is also the date picked by ‘Peace One Day’ as a focus for a global initiative to institutionalize September 21st of every year as an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence.

Through detailed analysis conducted with the support of McKinsey & Company, the ‘Peace One Day 2012’ report found that, across the world, approximately 280 million people in 198 countries were aware of Peace Day 2012 – 4% of the world’s population. The report further estimates that approximately 2% of those people (5.6 million) behaved more peacefully as a result. Peace One Day expects to double those figures for 2013, creating a solid foundation for informing 3 billion people about Peace Day by 2016. In 2013, through our own initiatives and collaborations with various parties, Peace One Day will set out to encourage organisations and individuals take specific actions to reduce violence around the theme: Who Will You Make Peace With?

From Friday evening, and through the weekend, students and staff will be involved in a programme of activities which will include a Midnight Assembly, a procession to the Silent House, a letter-writing campaign, a special vegan brunch to be called, ‘Food without Agression’, a Peace Fair, games, meditation and what we are calling the ‘Artivist Project’. The idea of this part of the day is that every student and staff member, from all the UWC Colleges, will fill in a card with a message calling for ‘Peace One Day’. The other side of the card will be decorated with his/her artwork. We are requesting that cards from other the Colleges, and from friends and supporters who are willing to participate, will be sent here to RCN, where they will be collected and then relayed to Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

If you would like to participate, please send your cards to:

Marcin Jerzewski, UWC Red Cross Nordic, Flekke 6968, Norway.

Update on September 22nd: take a look at images from the day