Messages of peace
From youth program participants
Peace,
Like a river running
through a barren land
Like rain falling over a desert
Like a flower watered
with Love and Equality
Is Life
It is reconciliation in time of dispute
Like fresh air in the midst of pollution
Peace is the Rose of Human Rights
- Ruba Rafat Al-Qedra, Grade 9
Qarara Preparatory School for Girls
A United Nations Relief & Works Agency
School, Gaza, State of Palestine
Phot0: Steffi R. Photography
University Park World Peace Rose Garden, Stockton, CA.
an outlet to share their own creative
expressions of peace and hopes for a
better future…and to shine as a bright
light in the world!”
The programs are not only con-
necting our youth from around the
world, but also influencing and chang-
ing lives. As one winning student
from China wrote upon her return
home from attending the ceremony in
Atlanta, “On the way back to China, I
read “I Have a Dream” again, but with
an entire different feeling - respon-
sibility. I know what has been done
so far is not enough. As a member of
young generation, the torch of peace is
waiting to be carried onward – by us.
And I am willing to devote my life to
conveying the message of peace to the
people around me.”
IWPRG is always exploring new
garden sites, and the readers are
invited to join the effort to dot the
world with rose gardens for peace by
making your city a Major, Sister, or
Affiliated World Peace Rose Garden.
Click here to learn more.
In closing, TJ and Sylvia would
like to leave you with this thought:
“We believe there is a spark within
each one of us that unites us all
together as brothers and sisters of
the world. If we harm one another
through thoughts, words or actions,
then we are directly or indirectly
harming ourselves. Let us become
peacemakers by living our theme,
‘World Peace Begins With Me’.”
For more information about International
World Peace Rose Gardens, please visit:
www.WorldPeaceRoseGardens.org
or Facebook at: www.Facebook.com/
WorldPeaceRoseGardens
THE DIVINE ROSE
To flourish is extraordinary,
For our blossom is dripping in the venom
Of discord and prejudice.
Yet with the simple allowance of peace,
The blossom would be cleansed
By love and acceptance.
For when hate is released,
All the petals form the divine rose.
- Sophia Grace Genovese, Grade 9
Georgia Cyber Academy. Atlanta, Georgia
Student unveils her plaque at the annual anni-
versary celebration in may 2014 at the Martin
Luther King, Jr. World Peace Rose Garden in
Atlanta, GA