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Peace Child's Story |
| Peace Child's name comes from a tradition in Papua New Guinea, where, to make peace, warring tribes would exchange a child. The children would grow up with the others' tribe and in the future, when conflict threatened again, the 'Peace Child' from each tribe was sent to negotiate. This legend represents the important role we believe young people can play in changing the world. |
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Founded in 1981, PCI began its journey in the Cold War era, working with young people to produce a musical based on their wish to end the nuclear stand-off between the USA and the USSR. Each production of the musical Peace Child was re-written and customised by its young casts and performed to sell-out crowds across the USA. The performances resulted in the first ever US-Soviet youth exchange in 1986, and its success allowed PCI to expand into a global network encompassing 1000 youth groups, schools and teachers in over 150 countries.
Having travelled, developed and grown into a fully fledged operational NGO, since 1993 Peace Child International has operated from its international headquarters in Buntingford, England. The organisation, focussing on empowering young people all over the world, is run by a small professional management team and supported by volunteer interns from around the world, who take responsaility for all aspects of the Peace Child projects. Although Peace Child still writes and stages musicals, PCI's scope has branched out into producing publications for young people, educational materials and offering training programmes and workshops on global issues, as well as awarding small grants to youth-led development projects around the world and running the annual World and European Youth Congresses.
Read on to learn more about Peace Child's interesting and action-packed history...
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Beginnings - The Founders: 1981
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Bernard Benson: Author, entrepreneur, artist, visionary, Bernard provided the story that became Peace Child. The idea of setting the story in the future and looking back to the past came from his landmark book, The Peace Book.
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David Gordon: Composer and lyricist, David's songs have been the lifeblood of Peace Child. David's oratorio Alpha Omega was an inspiration for the Peace Child musical.
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Michael and Eirwen Harbottle: Michael was an army Brigadier who became a UN Peace-keeping expert. Working with his wife Eirwen on the World Disarmament Campaign, they had the idea to put the Peace Book and Alpha Omega together and produce a “Celebration for Peace”.
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David Woollcombe and Rosey Simonds: David wrote and directed the UK and USA Peace Child premieres at the Royal Albert Hall and Kennedy Centre which Rosey co-produced. Together they have run Peace Child International for the past 28 years.
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UK and USA premieres & performances
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London: Peace Child premiered in October 1981 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Susannah York played the Story-teller and a chorus of children joined actors from the National Theatre, a team of dancers, the National Youth Orchestra, a rock group and the Choir of Coventry Cathedral to launch the show in spectacular fashion. Watched by two Nobel Peace Prize winners, the decision was made that Peace Child needed to be seen and experience more widely.
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Washington DC: Peace Child premiered in the USA at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center in December 1982. There was a chorus of children, local theatre and gospel stars and spectacular choreography from Washington’s School of Performing Arts. The children were the stars of the show and Susannah York, again, played the Story Teller.
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The Peace Child Study Guide: A Study Guide was published - complete with script, musical score, and with lesson plans which allowed groups to recreate the show for themselves. There were over 400 performances around the US between 1983 - 1989. Every time the show was similar, but never the same. Each cast of young people would rewrite it to reflect their own ideas and concerns.
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Peace Child helps to end the Cold War: 1985-1989. Back in 1983 people of all ages were worried about the threat of the cold war and the nuclear stand off. We wanted this show to be done not only in the USA but across the former Soviet Union. David Woollcombe visited Russia 27 times over five years to persuade them to work with us.
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Soviet-American Peace Child Tours
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The First: 1986. After a series of adventures and unbelievable luck, Peace Child brought the first Soviet youth to the USA to participate in a joint Soviet/American production of the Peace Child show. We toured 12 cities with a group of 50 - Soviet and American youngsters and a Russian rock band.
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1987 - 1994. This led to an annual series of Soviet/American youth exchanges using the musical as a vehicle for citizen diplomacy. Small towns all over the United States suddenly got to know about Russia and and established friendships with the Russians (and vice versa) as teenagers from all over the USA and USSR visited, rehearsed and performed together on over 60 tours.
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Musicals around the World
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From 1986. The original Peace Child musical has been re-written many times over by young people all over the world to reflect their own experiences of violence and conflict. The musical has been involved in conflict resolution efforts in Central America, Cyprus, Azerbaijan / Armenia, the former Yugoslavia, India, Northern Ireland and Israel.
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Publications
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From 1992. In 1992 Peace Child produced its first book - Children's State of the Planet Handbook. We took the book to the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and as a result were asked by the four UN Agencies to create a Children's Edition of Agenda 21 - written, illustrated and edited by young people. Not only children liked it: we sold half a million copies and it was translated into 23 languages. Since then were have produced over 20 books on the environment, sustainable development, human rights, and activists' handbooks. Learn more here.
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Peace Child Headquarters, Buntingford, UK
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Set up in 1995. Young people re-wrote the Peace Child play; young people write and design Peace Child publications. It made sense to set up an office where young people could administer Peace Child. Interns come from all over the world to live and work together. Over the years Peace Child has had almost 200 great interns - one of the first ones is now a Trustee!
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Work in Education
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Started in 1995. Since 1995, Peace Child has produced Teacher Guides, lesson plans and classroom games. From 2003-08, Peace Child ran a Sustainable Development education programme on global issues. We continue to run workshops and training programmes for schools and youh groups, and produce educational materials for young people. Get in touch!
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World Youth Congresses
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From 1999. Peace Child organises and licences the World Youth Congress series on youth and development. Four have been organised to date - and two more are planned: for Turkey in 2010 and Brazil in 2012. Learn more here.
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Be the Change! the Youth-led Development Programme |
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From 2000: Peace Child has pioneered the concept of Youth-led Development - community improvements designed and delivered by young people under 25. Starting at the Hawaii Congress, it has supported over 300 projects in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. They vary from installing pumps, setting up small businesses, HIV-AIDS awareness, informal education and health programmes etc. All are managed from the White House headquarters except those managed by Peace Child India set up by Jagan Deveraj, one of our first Be the Change managers. Learn more about "Be the Change" here.
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