Peace Essay 2020

This was the theme that Rotary Wyndham Harbour put to upper primary school children (Grades 5 and 6) in the Wyndham region for the Club’s first Peace Essay competition. The areas of peace they were asked to consider were defining peace, what is the opposite of peace, internal and external peace, what disturbs peace and how peace can be created. They were encouraged to think of these in terms of themselves (internal), their families, community, school and the world. The idea was to sow the seeds of thinking in young minds about what peace is all about, why it is desirable and some of the issues that can affect it.

The competition successfully concluded at the end of 2020 with 45 students participating from local schools. Some excellent essays were submitted and there were four prize winners. Here are some thoughtful and creative quotes from them:

“Peace is the desire of every beating heart”
“(Peace is) a door that opens our heart to let friendship and happiness inside us”
“Why only rest in peace, why not live in peace?”
“To be peaceful, a person has to first find the calmness, harmony and true freedom from within”
“When I’m sewing, the sound of the machine unpicks the word ‘stressed’ on my brain and sews on ‘peace’ ”
“External peace spreads by learning about differences in the world and inner peace starts by being kind to yourself”
“Anything that costs you peace is too expensive”
“People who are at peace aren’t always happy, they just understand that keeping a positive attitude will help them reach their goals in life”
“A world of peace would have no discrimination against gender, skin colour, race or beliefs”
“To find your internal peace you have to accept everything you have around you”
“Many countries have war because others aren’t like them and they think that everyone should be like them”
“Peace doesn’t mean everyone likes each other and no one fights or anything, it means being accepting or being a good person”
“Peace will always find its way if you help it”

The Rotary Club of Wyndham Harbour plans to continue and expand on this competition this year and welcomes collaboration with other Rotary clubs in the District, especially in this exciting Centenary Year of Rotary Australia and New Zealand. If you are interested, please contact: Dr Swati Baindur at one of the following addresses:
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Comments and enquiries from Rotary clubs in other districts and around the world are also welcome!