Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice
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Promoting Peace in Japan
Scouts in Japan are promoting peace by organising peace education activities for children, adolescents and adults. The young children and adolescents are taking part in interactive peace education activities on a urpose built website, and the adults are attending various peace training activities. DescriptionTo implement this programme, the Scouts have formed a taskforce and are making use of information and communication technologies to create a 'Virtual Community for Peace'. A Website has also been established to inform people of the progress of the project. The activities for adolescents are taken from the Scouts of the World Programme, which means that the Scouts will be required to participate in an 'adventure' on the theme of peace which will last several days. They are also completing service projects in their local communities, for example working to protect the environment and cleaning the streets. In addition to the above, the Japanese Scouts are raising awareness of the plight of refugees as part of their Gifts for Peace project. In May 2007, Scouts and Guides in Japan, together with the Japan Association for UNHCR issued a statement announcing joint support of the UNHCR Project for Refugees. The Scouts, Guides and Rotarians then held a first fundraising drive in June for the UNHCR Project for Refugees. Many Scout and Guides groups then continued to raise funds in cooperation to support this effort. As part of a new approach to tackling the issue, the Scouts and Gudies held Gifts for Peace workshops in Miyagi, Fukuoka and Kyoto Prefecture providing opportunities to many Scouts and leaders to learn about the problems facing refugees. A workshop will be held in Osaka on 10 February 2008. In addition, they are developing a leaflet to publicise their refugees project, to distribute at the fundraising drive on the World Refugee Day 2008. Finally, they are planning to hold Peace Forum at United Nations University Centre in Tokyo, on 23 March 2008, as one of the collaborated project of the three associations.
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