International Day of Peace Committee calls on President Ramkalawan |08 September 2021

Members of the committee in a souvenir photo with President Ramkalawan (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Members of the International Day of Peace Committee yesterday afternoon called on President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House for a short meeting in which they discussed the way forward for the committee.

The chairperson of the committee, Diana Benoit, noted that members of the committee presented the President with two coconut saplings, symbolic of the tree-planting activities the committee organises to commemorate each International Day of Peace and they have extended an invitation to President Ramkalawan to be a patron of the committee.

“Today, the aim of the visit to the President was to discuss our mandate as the committee which reviews activities for the International Day of Peace which is observed on September 21, so we wanted to discuss and share with him the activities that we do and our plans for the future which include expanding the committee so it can become a national platform. We want to bring individuals together, especially the youth to come and join us and come up with activities in which we can engage to promote peace and look into the different conflicts that can come up in our everyday life and how together we can work to address all these,” Ms Benoit said.

“The President was very happy to meet with us and the meeting was very fruitful in the sense that he has given us his support so we can work on our plans and find a way to integrate him into it. We suggested and invited him to be a patron of the committee if we can do it on a national scale and he expressed his support for the plans we have for the future,” Ms Benoit explained.

Considering the pandemic, activities organised annually such as the Peace March will not go ahead this month, although a tree-planting activity is scheduled for the day, in line with efforts to battle climate change and support the sustainable development goals.

“The committee is working together with Zanfan Losean EZ and the Mayor’s Office to find a spot in town where we can do the tree-planting. Additionally, since we will not be having grand-scale events as people are used to seeing on this day, we have come up with the initiative to make a donation to the Red Cross Society of Seychelles (RCSS) in the form of commodities, clothing items among others to help it in its efforts to assist others in need especially during the pandemic,” Ms Benoit added.

Additionally, the committee has invited the President to deliver a special address or message to the nation on September 21 to mark the important day, an invitation which he has accepted.

Within the local context, the committee is striving for solidarity among citizens despite the hardships and difficulties presented by life and to address the concerns through which conflict is created at all levels of society.

The committee brings together representatives of law enforcement agencies, youth, academic institutions, non-governmental organisations and many more all aimed at promoting peace and stability.

Laura Pillay