Hi!

We’re international students, from the United World College of the Pacific (Pearson College) in Canada. We hope to bring to you a Youth Peace Initiative we call the UWC Middle East Peace Initiative where we aim to collect signatures supporting non-violent conflict resolution.

On December 10 (which marks one year of our petition, Human Rights Day and Nobel Peace Prize Presentation), we will be sending all the signatures collected to the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. We hope to reach to as many people as possible and add signatures to our growing list of 11,000 so far from a 113 different countries. We can be contacted by email and all relevant information can be obtained from our website:

 http://www.uwc.ca/middleast/middleast.HTM

Here is some information about where we come from and what our initiative is all about.

Our United World College is Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific. United World Colleges are a group of 10 international schools across the globe that share some common ideals about international understanding and attaining an all-rounded education to become leaders of a changing world. (For more information please visit  http://www.uwc.ca)

At our UWC of the Pacific, we have begun a petition for Peace in the Middle East and beyond, where we're aiming to collect signatures from a diverse and large group of people. With each signature collected, we're hoping to educate and create awareness about non-violent conflict resolution in the Middle East and beyond. Our petition can be signed online at www.uwc.ca or petitions can be easily downloaded, signed and sent back to us. When all the signatures are sent to the UN, we hope it will show a strong international voice of people who are educated on this matter and are concerned.

Our website,  http://www.uwc.ca/middleast/middleast.HTM, is an excellent source of information on our petition and we hope you would take time to read our rationale (also attached below) and either sign online or download some petitions and pass it to friends, family and other interested members of the community. We, the youth of the UWC of the Pacific, hope to provide a means for people to take action and let their voices and concerns be heard. We truly hope that this petition will serve to be that strong international voice.

We hope for your support in this worthy cause and look forward to any questions/comments/ signed petitions you might have.
Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,
Uma Selvanathan
 ananova_@hotmail.com

Anna Thingnaes
 anna84@inbox.as

Fiona Alexander
 fi_alex@hotmail.com

Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific
650 Pearson College Drive
Victoria, B.C. V9C 4H7
Canada
www.uwc.ca

Response/Rationale from our website.

To whom it may concern,


We are students at the United World College of the Pacific who come from around the world to study and live together. We are bound by a belief in peace and a rejection of violence. In response to the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine members of the college community have gathered to discuss what can be done to ameliorate the situation. Our response is this package. Included you will find our statement and call to action on the current crisis occurring in the Middle East, as well as a petition that will be sent to the United Nations and other governmental organizations.

We believe that violence is not a means to the end of this conflict. We wish to emphasize the United World College ideals of peace, justice, understanding and cooperation and the role they play in conflict resolution. We encourage you to join us in our mission by signing this petition, or campaigning for it in your community, then sending it back to the Pearson address so they can be compiled and sent to the UN together. Working for peace by any means possible to create awareness, understanding, and action in your community can also have a huge impact. We believe we can make a difference. Join us.



Sincerely,

Pearson College of the Pacific UWC



Contact us at:

Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific
650 Pearson College Drive
Victoria, British Columbia
V9C 4H7
 rtyner@pearson-college.uwc.ca





Picture by Bassam (Pearson College student, Year 27)