Take up the Baton of Peace

Hasmukh Dawda
February 27, 2011
Chair, UPF-Kenya
Address at the UPF Summit for Peace in Africa
Serena Hotel. Nairobi, Kenya

We are here because peace has been missing. So much suffering continues not because we are at war but because the peace that is much needed for development has gone missing.

My joy today is to see how seriously you take issues of peace. The world has to change through preaching peace and actively practicing it.

The absence of peace brings hatred and division, and Kenya knows much about it. As we celebrate the will for more ambassadors to take up the baton of peace, I urge Kenyans to reach out to each other and extend the powerful hand of forgiveness without waiting for anyone to call upon them. Forgiving and reaching out is one way of preaching peace.

Needless to say, we all know that preaching peace to hungry people is not practical. Children get their peace through the provision of basic needs; therefore, education, health services, food, and security are tantamount to peace. To tell a child to stop crying when he or she is hungry is absurd. Giving a plate of food to that child is a miracle we can call peace. So peace comes with the provision of the very basics of life, and that is what the world needs now, this very minute.

As leaders and ambassadors of good will, let's preach peace sustainable peace that comes with more action and less talk. I urge interfaith leaders, government representatives, NGO leaders, and the private sector to join the peace army that speaks through actions to unite people, especially children. Let's nurture children through investing in what molds children into peaceful future leaders.

Sustainable peace is practical peace. If governments invest in children, the outcome in a few years will be enterprising youths who will build and develop the country. That is the true meaning of peace, when everyone is involved in making lives better and coexisting in harmony.

Peace be upon all of you.