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Friday March 29, 2024

Sixth Indo-Pak peace calendar launched

By our correspondents
January 28, 2018

LAHORE: Aaghaz-e-Dosti, a friendship initiative between the people of India and Pakistan, launched its sixth peace calendar at SAFMA. The calendar was launched along with a discussion titled “Sharing of hopes for a peaceful co-existence”. The event also focused on the important work of Raza Khan, Aaghaz-e-Dosti Pakistan Convener and a peace educator, who has been missing since Dec 2, 2017.

The event began with a note of thanks to the audience and an introduction to the Aaghaz-e-Dosti initiative that is a collaborative effort between Hum Sab Aik Hain, an NGO based in Lahore, and Mission Bhartiyam of India.

During the introduction, the voluntary work that Aaghaz-e-Dosti engages in to enhance people-to-people relations was highlighted. Aaghaz-e-Dosti connects Indian and Pakistani schoolchildren through video conferencing, conducts letter exchange and greeting card exchange programmes and workshops. The Indo-Pak Peace Calendar is one of the major activities. The peace calendar includes paintings of school students from both countries and messages of renowned personalities who have contributed significantly to peace building.

In the event, five friendship letters were also read out by schoolchildren on the occasion. Pakistan-convener Raza Khan and his contribution to peace building and its importance were also highlighted.

For this, about 100 moving paintings by students from Pakistan were displayed. While the majority of paintings discussed Pakistan-India peace, children's recent paintings depicted Raza Khan's love for peace, his enthusiastic work with children and an appeal to the state for his safe return. A short video on Aaghaz-e-Dosti and Raza’s peace education work was also screened at the event.

The event was moderated and hosted by, Ajmal Jami, who also highlighted the importance of this friendship initiative and praised Raza’s endeavours for peace education in Pakistan. Prominent activists, educationists and journalists, including Ms. Salima Hashmi, Ms. Nighat Said Khan, Ms. Saeeda Diep and Mr. Imtiaz Alam also spoke on the occasion and expressed support for Aaghaz-e-Dosti’s efforts.

They also appealed to the state to recover Raza promptly, allow freedom of speech and ensure protection for citizens from all harm.

Singer Ali Aftab Saeed performed his new song on the occasion. A prominent Urdu poet, Babar Najmi, also recited a poem. Salman Rashid, an eminent travel writer and geographer and author of Time of Madness, also commented on the need for peace between India and Pakistan through people-to-people contact and to carry on with it in the same spirit as Raza did and envisioned. Ms Samina Rehman, an educator and director of Lahore Grammar School network, shared how children from her schools excitedly share their paintings with Aaghaz-e-Dosti and their experience with this peace initiative.

The event ended with a note by Mr. I.A. Rehman where he spoke on the shared aspirations for peace of the peoples from India and Pakistan complimented and encouraged the Aaghaz-e-Dosti team to continue peace education even in trying times of their convener’s disappearance, and hoped for Raza’s safe return.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, all the children who contributed paintings for the calendar were credited and awarded with certificates. The new calendar was also presented to the speakers along with other souvenirs.

The Aaghaz-e-Dosti team thanked the audience for their participation. A similar calendar launch event has already been held in New Delhi earlier this month which was positively received by the people there. The Aaghaz-e-Dosti team also plans to launch the calendar in other cities of Pakistan to raise awareness about its vision for regional peace.