Report from the Mayors for Peace French Chapter, AFCDRP-Maires pour la Paix France
A number of member cities in France hosted various peace events during September ad October, especially on and around September 21, the International Day of Peace. Each of them promoted “Culture of Peace” in a unique way: through art, music, or sports.
From September 21 to October 14, Malakoff, a Mayors for Peace Vice-president and Lead City, will be organizing “Artists for Peace”, an exhibition of works from local artists who commit to promoting peace through art. This exhibition, which has taken place every year since the 1980s, is a major part of Malakoff’s Local Program of Actions for a Culture of Peace. This year, the Program also includes a training course on the Culture of Peace and an activity with the local library called “Read in Peace”.
>More information on Malakoff’s Local Program of Actions for a Culture of Peace (Malakoff website, in French)
>Training course “Peace Culture as a tool for human development at the local level”(AFCDRP-Mayors for Peace France website, in French)
>Facebook post on the opening of “Artists for Peace” Exhibition in Malakoff’s City Hall (in French)
Grigny, Executive City of Mayors for Peace and President of the French Chapter, launched its Local Program of Action for a Culture of Peace 2017 on the eve of International Peace Day with the “Peace Lanterns” event, which included the inauguration of a peace mosaic, the reciting of poems and songs by children from various schools of the city and the lighting of floating lanterns on Grigny’s canal. It was the first time such an event was organized in the city and it was a huge success.
Eight days later, on September 28, a running race for peace dedicated to children took place for the first time, involving several hundred children from primary and middle schools. Three days later, on October 1, Grigny organized its first “Race for Peace,” a 10km run in the city, which gathered a hundred participants.
>Facebook post on the “Peace Lanterns” event in Grigny (in French)
>Facebook post on the Children’s race for Peace (in French)
>Facebook post on the 10km for Peace (in French)
Allonnes became a member of Mayors for Peace in September. They decided to celebrate their new membership by organizing a Peace Concert during which Mrs. Miho Cibot-Shimma, Hiroshima Peace Ambassador, gave Mayor Gilles Leproust of Allonnes his Mayors for Peace Membership Certificate. Allonnes also decided to create the “Allonnes Culture of Peace Prize” to reward local associations and organizations for their promotion of peace. This year’s recipients were the students of Le Marin middle school for their project “Peace Mediators”.
>Facebook posts on the Event (in French):
https://www.facebook.com/afcdrp/posts/1945305625681236
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1456724827730254.1073741841.167944913274925&type=1&l=aabd43a824
From September 15 to September 30, Gentilly hosted a Mayors for Peace’s exhibition along with “Sadako and the Paper Crane” in its public library. Guided tours of the exhibitions were organized for students from local middle schools.
>More information about the Exhibition (Gentilly website, in French)
The small village of Lasséran, in the South-West of France, used peace to solve a very down to earth problem: their local bus stop kept on being degraded by graffiti so they decided to paint peace messages on it. Since then, the bus stop is no longer the target of unwelcomed graffiti. The Mayor, Michel Soriano, tells of how they came up with the idea and hopes it will inspire other cities facing the same kind of challenge on the French chapter website.
>More information (AFCDRP website, in French)
For this year’s IDP, Choisy-le-Roi decided to focus on the theme of rape as a weapon of war and the organizations support of victims. On September 21 they organized a screening of a documentary on Dr. Denis Mukwege, who helps women who were victims of war crimes in Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 150 people turned up for this event, a huge success for the city.
>More information (Choisy-le-Roi website, in French)
This year, for IDP, Châlette-sur-Loing, a Mayors for Peace member since 1997 and Vice-President of the French Chapter, hosted an exhibition focusing on the role of women, first victims of conflicts but also main actors of peace building in communities, “Women, Ambassador of Peace.”
The city also organized workshops during summer to learn how to fold paper cranes and taught children about Sadako Sasaki’s story. The 1000 cranes will soon be sent to Hiroshima.