PeaceRoom

Project
Nadezhda Ivanova
School#5
Krasnoyarsk
 Quotes
“Countries also get cross and unhappy
because they need something they cannot
find in their own lands. Perhaps they want
coal, oil or gold, or more land on which to
grow crops to feed their people.” p. 77
“Then they try to take these things from
other nations and there is war and nothing
can be more wicked or senseless than
throwing bombs at each other and killing
little children and their mummies.”
 Quotes
Peace on earth and good will to all men.
“Have you ever thought how many millions of
people have repeated those words millions of
times during the last 20 centuries? And how far
they have brought us to eliminating (stopping)
war and violence? The message is sound, but
have our ears become immune to their meaning?
May practical suggestions succeed where
sentimental phrases have failed? Should not
sentiment develop into principles which, like
foundation stones, should be strong enough to
carry any weight placed upon them?” p. 107
A woman (Mrs Bidwell) had a
vision
to create a Peace Room

a place where her grand children could learn about

Peace
 The idea of the Peace
Room
was that the children would have meetings.
One child would be elected “chair person”
and
would preside over the meeting. The others
would
sit around the edge and would nominate
people
who they felt had “made a difference” to
the
world: those who had somehow made the
world a
better place. After discussion there would be
a
 This is 'Vrede', the House on
the Hill. The Outside View

'Vrede' means 'Peace' in Afrikaans.

 The view from the
Peace Room

The outside view of the

Peace Room as drawn in
the Peace Room minutes
Side view of Peace Room as it is
today
Peace Room plan
 Play Rooms
Mrs Bidwell decided on three rooms: a work
room, with a half sized cooker, a museum
for
displaying interesting items they collected,
and a
Peace Room. In the Peace Room there was
a
window seat curved around the bay
(залив)
window, a table and chair with a gavel
(молоток)
in the centre of the room, and on the far
wall, a
bookshelf. Although they were for children
The lady who made the Peace Room kept Minutes
(протоколы) of the meetings.
What happened in the Peace
Room?

• Children visited
• Someone acted as Chair person
• Visitors nominated people they thought
should be called “World Contributors” as
they had contributed to the world in some
way
• All present debated whether the nominee
was worthy
• If they agreed, the person was put in a
book on the bookshelf
 The Rainbow Bookshelves
By 1945 there were many books on the Peace
Room bookshelf. They contained “short accounts
of the lives of constructive workers in the world”
(“World Contributors”).
They painted a Rainbow above it.
“Traditionally the ends of a rainbow point to pots of
money. This rainbow pointed ‘not to gold or
material wealth but to things of spiritual and ethical
value’ .”
 World Contributors:
• Elizabeth Fry – prison reformer
• Grace Darling – first lifeboat rescue
• Thomas Edison – invented the electric
light
• Dr Simpson – helped develop chloroform
• Dr Barnardo – cared for homeless children
• James Mackenzie – heart specialist
• Akhenaton – Pharaoh – united lower and
upper Egypt
 World Citizens
Many of the nominees were true
“World
Citizens”, working across nations for
peace.

But nominees were not always

accepted.
 Who was refused
nomination?
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Adolf Hitler

• Why?
 Impact (influence)
continued
By 1946 news of the Peace Room had
reached adults working for Peace in
Philadelphia USA (Paul Fischer).
In 1952 someone present at the
International Peace Congress in Vienna
wrote a letter to the Peace Room
members
telling them about the conference.
Imagine bringing Peace to
your

• Home
• School
• Town
• Country
• Between Nations
“Enter Citizens of the World”
Motto:
“I will do my best to understand and
remove the cause of any trouble that
may arise in my home, my school,
my town or my country.” p.72

This will lead to “peace at home, in

school, town and country leading to
International understanding,
tolerance and peace.”
 Welcome to the E-Peace
Room
A place where you can nominate a person
who you think has made a positive
difference to the world, read about the
people who have “made a difference” to the
world have been nominated, vote for
nominations.
Enter here to find out more and join the
debate!
 Who would YOU
nominate?
• Someone famous?
• Someone you know?
• Someone who has had a real
influence?

Take a few minutes to think about who

you
want to put in the Peace Room.
• A real World Contributor?
 The Virtual Peace Room
The Peace Room has now been put on the
internet so that everyone can visit it.
http://
www.worldecitizens.net/wecitizens/peace_room
Lets have a look:
• We have made the people who have a place in
the Peace Room e-citizens – electronic global
citizens.
• And every person who has her/ his biography put
on the web page will receive “e-citizenship” too.
 What next?
• Think about who YOU want to
nominate.
• Someone who could be considered as
World e-citizens?
• What information would we need to
know?
• Do they have to be famous?
• Write a biography of the person YOU
think should have a place in the
Peace Room
 Your Nomination
• Write about your nomination. Who is
it? Tell us about their life. Important
dates and happenings in their life.
Make sure all the facts are correct!
• Tell us what they have done to
deserve e-citizenship? How have
they contributed to the world?
• You can put pictures in about them
(with their permission of course!)
 And then…
• Put your nomination into electronic format
(Word). You can include a picture if you want
with the person’s permission
• Go to the Peace Room website: http://
www.worldecitizens.net/wecitizens/peace_room
• Click on the table to submit a nomination
• Register, and copy and paste your nomination,
then click on “Submit”
• Click on the chair to vote.
• Read other people’s nominations.
• Vote for the one you think should have a place in
the Peace Room.