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A group of children and teens with special needs from RIA Institute Bahrain recently joined Sarah Clarke, the author of the adorable chocolate Labrador Baloo book series, in staging a poetry exhibition to celebrate this coming Friday’s International Day of Peace.
People around the world honour September 21 as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and communities and, this year, the theme is ‘The Right to Peace - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70’.
The declaration was a milestone moment in the history of human rights adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in Paris in 1948. “It is time all nations and all people live up to the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognises the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human race”, said UN secretary-general, António Guterres.
“This year marks the 70th anniversary of that landmark document. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security.”
Moved by the theme and annual event, Sarah wanted to help highlight and promote the peaceful ideologies as well as raise awareness about inclusion by hosting a Poetry for Peace Exhibition at Harbour Gate within the Bahrain Financial Harbour.
“Peace requires us to include everybody and what better way to demonstrate that than by having children from RIA sharing their thoughts on peace with businessmen and women roaming the halls of Harbour Gate?” explained Sarah, who volunteers at RIA in Adliya.
“If we don’t include everyone then we can’t have peace. The RIA centre celebrates this day every year by either drawing a tree or making doves with peace words. This year, I suggested why not have one wall where people can share their poetry for peace and write their thoughts on it too.
“The message we want to get across is that words are powerful, artwork is powerful and we have to be much more careful with the words that we use and how we express ourselves, particularly as it flies around the world in a second on social media.
“We can destroy peace with a few words but we can also build it with a few words.”
Children aged five to 22 have participated in the exhibition with some students colouring and cutting out doves and others handing them out to visitors.
Students with special needs from the Children’s Academy also shared their poetry highlighting war horse and other writers penned their thoughts including Bahrain’s Writer’s Circle member Vaijayantee Bhattacharya and poet Sarah Womer with a haiku, a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Sarah also had written a haiku of her own.
Sarah said: “We had a lot of fun. People were coming up asking us what we were doing and simply interacting with us. It was wonderful to see the children having fun colouring and for people wanting to learn more.”
As children coloured in doves, four students from the RIA Adult Centre (RAC) also lent a helping hand alongside Peter Dunne, the director of adult services and community liaison officer. Teachers from RIA were also supporting the cause.
The RAC, which is based at RIA, works as a college semester system that centres on supporting adults by further developing their skills through work experience. The students included Rhea D’Mello who is a trainee teaching assistant at RIA Institute and Othmann Al Attar, the son of institute co-founders Christine Gordon and Dr Emad Al Attar.
Peter added: “This was a RIA work experience day. Rhea supported the children working on their art and the others set up the boards, putting all the bits and pieces together as well as supporting the group.
“It was a really good event; very positive! We have had a couple of people who have come and wanted to offer their services. One guy who said he has a fishing boat said he can take the kids out on trips and show them how to fish. Another lady who has a tailoring centre said she would love for the lads to come down and see how uniforms are made from start to finish.”
The exhibition will run until Saturday and visitors can still add their poetry to the board, their thoughts of peace or even pin a dove.
