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TRI-CO Peace Week, March 29-April 6, Promotes Nonviolence in Communities and Schools

For Immediate Release:  March 22, 2007
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan     
610-328-8535      
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/


TRI-CO Peace Week Promotes
Nonviolence in Communities and Schools

TRI-CO Peace Week, a project dedicated to promoting nonviolence in communities and schools, will be held at Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr Colleges from Thursday, March 29, through Friday, April 6. Free events that are open to the public include speakers, displays, films, musical performances, and a tri-college Dance and 
A Capella Jamboree. Special free shuttles will run among the schools.

Peace Week is a project of SAVE R US (Students Against Violence Everywhere Are Us) http://www.saverusinternational.org/, an international student-run anti-violence organization, which was founded in 2001 by Brandon Lee Wolff, now a Swarthmore junior. TRI-CO Peace Week will be held in conjunction with the original Peace Week BUCKS COUNTY begun by Wolff, which involves numerous schools and community organizations throughout Bucks County.

Some of the week's highlights include:

  • Friday, March 30, 7 p.m. Kick-Off Event: "Peace Through Music." Tri-College Dance and Music Jamboree. More than a dozen a capella and dance groups from the three colleges will join in an unforgettable kick-off to TRI-CO Peace Week 2007. Tarble-in-Clothier All-Campus Space. Swarthmore.

  • Sunday, April 1, 2 p.m. "Peace Walk." Join in a short walk stopping at "action stations" sponsored by different organizations from the tri-co community. Merion Green. Bryn Mawr.

  • Monday, April 2, 4 p.m. "Torture and Democracy: What Americans learned and then forgot during the War on Terror."  The Charles Gilbert Lecture in Political Science by Darius Rejali, Swarthmore Class of '81, professor of political science at Reed College and author of the forthcoming books, Torture and Democracy and Approaches to Violence. Science Center, Room 101. Swarthmore.

  • Thursday, April 5, 7 p.m. Unity Café: The Philly Connection & Peace Mural! "Peace, Power and Progress: Transforming Our Cultural Cancer of Violence." Explore issues of urban violence in Philadelphia with Brother Rob Carter and then take part in painting a peace mural. Sponsored by SAVE R US. Kohlberg Coffee Bar, Kohlberg Hall. Swarthmore.

  • Friday, April 6, 7 p.m. Peace Week Finale! "Remembering Rwanda, Darfur Action, Music, Dance & Celebration!" 13th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. Rwandan Ambassador Kimonyo James will speak about the exceptional 13 years of reconstruction, justice and reconciliation that have followed the Rwandan Genocide. Next, we will shift focus to the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Suad Monsour and Fatima Hahoun from Darfur Peace and Development in Philadelphia will speak about what citizens can do to make the failed promise of "never again" a reality. After a brief intermission, the Vanga Inanga Cultural Troupe will perform Rwandan dances and songs which will illustrate how the common Rwandan culture has become an essential part of the reconciliation process. Finally, Tribe 1 will engage the audience in a lively music performance to celebrate the conclusion of TRI-CO Peace Week 2007! Lang Concert Hall. Swarthmore.


For a detailed schedule of events, please visit http://www.peaceweek.org/tri-co/index.php.

In addition to the annual Peace Week and the organization's signature "unity cafés," SAVE R US runs a "Peacemakers" program that sends trained college and high school students into elementary schools to conduct programs aimed at fostering diversity and working against bullying and violence especially among youth. SAVE R US has established programs in high schools across Bucks County, Philadelphia, and Chester, Pa.; and now in Toronto, Canada; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"Both on the college and high school campuses, the aim of Peace Week is to promote awareness about issues of bullying and violence," says Wolff. "Through the annual Peace Week and the hands-on Peacemakers program, we hope to educate the youth of today so that we will have a less violent society in the future."

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