“Students who learned about peace

not only comply with regulation

but also improve their academic performance”

Afghanistan, a Middle Eastern country bordering Iran, is a country with many citizens who desperately want peace socially. There are people here who passionately work for peace and education with the global private peace organization Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of light  (HWPL, Chairman Man Hee Lee). Even though it is difficult to run schools due to the Taliban's suppression of women's education, educational figures are taking the lead in educating about peace.

The Taliban, an Islamic militant group in Afghanistan, regained power in August 2021 during the withdrawal of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops, including U.S. troops. After that, the Taliban renamed the country from 'Islamic Republic of Afghanistan' to 'Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan' and restricted women's education, based on Islamic law.

However, despite this situation, HWPL and educators who love peace showed dedication to growing children to educate peace. Peace education has changed children’s minds peacefully, and the teachers have been greatly rewarded by the changes in their students. The results of peace education activities have been shown.

◆Local principal actively introduces peace education

Through HWPL's peace education curriculum, students learned about peace, human values, the importance of family, and etiquette. Since then, they have seen significant improvements in classroom discipline as well as academic performance.

Mohammad Nadir Azedfana, principal of Mukhtar School in Afghanistan, explained the results of introducing HWPL peace education to his school.

Principal Mohammad Nadir Azedfana heard the news that peace had been realized through HWPL in Mindanao, Philippines, which was an area of conflict between Catholics and Muslims. Afterwards, he became actively involved in implementing peace education and attending HWPL events in the hope that such peace would be achieved in Afghanistan as well. He was appointed as a honorary ambassador of HWPL on August 22, 2022.

Principal Mohammad Nadir Azedfana, who is convinced that peace can come through HWPL peace education, gave a presentation at the 52nd side event of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council on March 31 last year under the theme of 'Afghanistan people's right to education'.

Principal Mohammad Nadir Azedfana said, “(Through HWPL peace education), students became more polite, more confident, and their grades were improved. We plan to continue and extend peace education classes.”

◆“Thank you for providing the opportunity for peace activities.”

On September 20, 2022, an offline event commemorating the Peace Summit was held at Mukhtar School. The Peace Summit was an event held by HWPL in Seoul, Korea in September 2014. It was a large-scale international conference attended by over 4,000 people of former and current presidents, Supreme Court justices, political and religious leaders, youth and women leaders, and over 200,000 general members from around the world.

At this event, current and former presidents, Supreme Court justices, and political leaders promised to make an international law for cessation of war, world peace and introduce it to the United Nations. Religious people pledged to unite religions and achieve peace with the most reliable scriptures. HWPL holds a commemorative ceremony every year, except the corona period.

HWPL holds a commemorative ceremony every year to ensure that the promises made at the first meeting do not remain mere formalities, and to specify what activities have been carried out so far and what will be done in the future to achieve peace through section meetings in each field, such as politics, religion, youth, women, and the media. Efforts are being made to achieve actual peace.

Mursal Sattari, a teacher who attended the commemorative ceremony of Peace Summit held at Mukhta School, said, “I am grateful to be able to provide students the opportunity, engaging in peace activities. I feel proud when I see students participating eagerly.” .

◆HWPL, MOU with local educational institutions

Peace education activities in Afghanistan were not limited to Mukhtar School. Since 2020, education to train peace teachers who will teach peace to children has been conducted steadily at Mukhtar School, New Alfalah High School 2, Mediothek Afghanistan, Asr-e-Fadidaha High School, and Faryab University. A total of 67 people participated in this program.

Teachers from Firoza Muradi American Lyceum International School also participated in the peace teacher training.

After watching a video to explain the textbook of HWPL Peace Education Lesson 12, ‘The Completion of the Peace that Humanity Longs for’, he said, “It was good to be able to learn about the finer details of the textbook. Students ask a lot about the topic during class. I was able to learn clearly enough to be able to answer.”.

Regarding peace education, he said, “It was also good to be able to interact with educators from all over Afghanistan.”

Avi, a student at Mukhtar School who took the class on lesson 12 peace education, said, “I learned that greed brings worry to people’s hearts. I also learned that greed brings conflict in society and becomes the source of sin.”.

HWPL signed peace education MOUs with a total of three educational institutions, including Mukhtar School, New Alfalah second Private High School, and Amazon English Academy, and is gradually expanding the conditions for teaching peace to students.

Since October 2021, a total of 47 peace education activities have been conducted at four schools, including New Alfalah High School 2, Mukhtar School, Amazon English Academy, and Asr-e-Fadidaha High School.

On August 13 last year, eco-plogging (jogging and picking up trash) was held at an offline pre-event in Afghanistan commemorating the 9th anniversary of the Peace Summit. Students who received HWPL peace education participated in this event and carried out activities to create a peaceful world by picking up trash and improving the environment.

Reference : https://bit.ly/4c3UK7C