Illene Pevec – January 2007
The Alliance for a New Humanity invited A Child’s Garden of Peace to attend their conference, The Human Forum: Faces of Courage in San Juan, Puerto Rico December 7 to 10, 2006. This organization, started by Deepak Chopra, exists to bring together people committed to social, spiritual, economic and environmental solutions to the inequities and problems that face the world today. Organizations as large as Care International and as small as us came together with people from many different countries and walks of life to share experiences and resources and the incredible natural beauty of our surroundings while we learned from one another.
Myra and I participated in a session on the integration of inner spiritual life and community action with people like the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala and Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College and the editor of Resurgence Magazine; a session on Participatory Design with Monica Sharma from the UN in charge of AIDS and child and maternal health in the least developed nations; and led a workshop on how to involve children in participatory planning.