Peacebuilding in Orissa

The first photo is of me and the Orissa Minister of School and Mass Education flagging off the peace march. The second is of the march being led by a police officer, the third is of street children from the SNEH shelter-home performing a peacebuilding drama. The last is of a university student performing a traditional dance.


The Society for Nature, Education, and Health (SNEH), an MCC partner organization, inaugurated their Centre for Peace and Non-violence on World Peace Day, August 21, 2009. Thomas Harris, an MCC India project officer, and I took the overnight train to Bhubaneswar, Orissa to represent MCC at this significant milestone in our peacebuilding programming in Orissa.

Along with their other rural development and health programs, SNEH has been providing peacebuilding and conflict mediation skills to students in several high schools in Bhubaneswar. They also have a shelter-home and study center for street children in Saliasahi, a huge slum in Bhubaneswar. The newly inaugurated Centre for Peace and Non-violence is their response to the recent interfaith violence between Christians and Hindus in Orissa.

The World Peace Day inaugural program began with a three-kilometer peace march, guided by Gandhians, which included more than 300 students from various universities in the city. The peace march was followed by the inauguration ceremony at the newly constructed SNEH office building that will also house the Centre for Peace and Nonviolence.

Various local politicians and academic leaders spoke at the event which was covered by local television and newspapers. I gave a brief address on behalf of MCC India. The children from the SNEH shelter-home performed a drama on interfaith conflict that was resolved through dialogue and organizing a community peace committee. This was followed by a cultural dance and a linguistic drama, representing diversity and unity in India, performed by university students.

The Centre for Peace and Non-violence will be a place for study and research as well as peacebuilding activities and non-violent community action. A network of civil society organizations working for communal harmony is being formed. Upcoming activities in Kandhamal District, where interfaith violence erupted last year, include two conflict mediation trainings, a peace rally, and a peacebuilding competition for students.