The Jammu & Kashmir Bureau of the Peace Gong, the global children’s newspaper has been conferred with “My World Volunteerism Award”. The Peace Gong is a Media and Information Literacy initiative of the Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Foundation, New Delhi and reaches out to children in about 12 states of the country.
Awards for outstanding My World partners and campaigners for their inspirational work worldwide were given in the following categories: Volunteerism, Innovation, Communications, Outstanding Partner and People’s Choice during the MY World Awards ceremony in New York on 25 September 2013 at UNICEF headquarters and coincided with the opening of the UN General Assembly. Five regional outreach awards were also given.
Dr Mazher Hussain, a trustee of the Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Foundation received the award on behalf of the Peace Gong from Mr Richard Dictus, UNV Executive Coordinator. The event was organised by The UN Millennium Campaign (UNMC), in cooperation with UNV and other partner organisations. “My World Volunteerism Award” was conferred to recognise the volunteer efforts of partners in fostering civic engagement as a core ingredient of the success of the MY World initiative.
Capturing the essence of volunteerism with which Peace Gong works, Dr. Hussain said, “It was significant how the voice of the people of Kashmir has reached globally”. Novel laureate Dr Mohammed Younus joined to collect the award saying it was an award for the entire people of South Asia.
Key global figures joined and spoke at the awards ceremony. They included Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus, Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation, UN Special Advisor on Post-2015 Amina J. Mohammed, UN Millennium Campaign Director Corinne Woods, UN Volunteers Executive Coordinator Richard Dictus, the UN’s Youth Envoy Ahmad Alhendawi and Unilever CEO Paul Polman. UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo opened the event. Zoleka Mandela who leads the Long Short Walk campaign hosted the ceremony.
The volunteers of the Peace Gong Jammu and Kashmir Bureau collected votes for the My World initiative, with the technical support from the United Nations Volunteers in the state reaching out to students, youth and young professionals including far-flung areas.
The survey was conducted through the offline survey method by 39 volunteers on the ground. The Bureau helped organize orientation programmes and discussions in collaboration with many organizations, schools and colleges in the state. The survey proved to be a great step to sensitize young minds to different social challenges and encourage them to volunteer for social change. Most importantly, for the first time, this also helped the unheard to be part of decision making at an international forum and have their say in the making of a better world.
Mr Javed Naqi, Chief Coordinator, Peace Gong Bureau Jammu & Kashmir and a national core group member of The Peace Gong, said, “We are very proud that we got the opportunity to participate and contribute to the My World Survey. We feel privileged that we could also reach out to people in remote areas who otherwise would not have had the chance to have their voice heard at the UN. UNV has connected us with this great initiative and transmitted the voices back into the system. We feel a great responsibility now to take good care of the ideas and advice we received from the people we engaged with. We feel connected to a common cause and realize now how much can be achieved through collective action”.
Further details of the Award can be seen from :
http://www.unv.org/en/news-resources/news/doc/unv-executive-coordinator-presents.html