Greeting to all gathering at NEWC for the 2012 IIPE:

You no doubt have been informed that this year is a special one in the history of the International Institute on Peace Education, the thirtieth anniversary of its founding in New York. I hope you are also observing another landmark in our history, the twentieth anniversary of the first IIPE in Japan, held in Tokyo in 1992. That Institute was the first of many in which our valued colleague, Asakawa Sensei participated, later serving on the organizing committee of the second Japan hosted IIPE.  All of us here in the city of our 1982 beginning are so grateful to him for all that went into this year's program and gathering. 

Another important convergence of circumstances in this anniversary year is the organizing theme.  The first IIPE coincided with the Second UN Special Session on Disarmament. Our participants were among  those who took part in the largest anti-nuclear weapons demonstration ever, when a million members of international civil society marched in the streets of New York to encourage the Session to take steps toward that which we ardently advocate and struggle for today, the abolition of nuclear weapons and the dissipation of the nuclear shadows cast by Fukushima, Chernoble, Three Mile Island and other potential nuclear disasters. Let us strive toward making peace education an effective instrument toward this end.

I will be the only one of the New York team not fortunate enough to be with you at the actual venue. However, my thoughts, spirit and intention  allow me to share in what you who are at this year's gathering will bring to the on-going evolution of the learning that IIPE was created to develop and disseminate. So, too, I can feel some of the warmth of our ever expanding global peace education community . All of our extended IIPE family enjoy that warmth and the bright flame of this special community that we take with us from each Institute, keeping us ever in the light of what we hold in common and what we share in each gathering.

These words bring my greetings to all. Janet and Tony have been commissioned to deliver the hugs that I would have distributed. And you are all commissioned to deliver them to each other.

So, learn a lot from each other, learn to know each other, and most of all to enjoy each other and your time together.  May you write an exciting new chapter to our history. And may the glow of the 1992 IIPE candle illuminate areas of peace still in the shadows.

Have a great IIPE,

Betty Reardon,

Founding Director Emeritus, IIPE

August 2012

Sekine Mari

I've been seeking at junior and senior high school to  make more people who can think and take action to achieve PEACE in the world.

関根 真理（啓明学園中学高等学校）

平和を構築するために、一人一人ができることを考え、実践できる人が一人でも多く育つように中学高等学校で模索しています。