Community – Light a Candle for Peace the World Over this Christmas Eve 2024, and spread the word!

Putney Rotary - Light a Candle for Peace This Christmas Eve 2024

Putney Rotary has purchased 2000 tea light candles to donate to our local community, asking everyone to Light a Candle for Peace this Christmas Eve.

On the 30th November 2024, Putney Rotary is handing out tealights and flyers at the Positively Putney Ice Sculpture day with us, local businesses and Riverside Radio.

"Today, over 70 million people are displaced as a result of conflict, violence, persecution, and human rights violations. Half of them are children." - Rotary International

Rotary International Peace Conference in Turkey 2025

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE ISTANBUL, TURKEY | 20th - 22nd February 2025

Peace in a polarized world
Technology, media, and peacebuilding
Environmental issues in peacebuilding
Making peace last

The Challenge

The world is full of turmoil right now, and we the people, all want peace. To show our support for stopping the wars around the world, we need to come together in peace.

The promotion of positive Peace and Understanding among all peoples of the world is one of Rotary International's seven areas of focus.

Mother Theresa said,

“I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.”

Putney Rotary Club would like to invite all the residents in our Wandsworth borough and beyond to spread the word and go on A PEACE PATH.

What is the definition of Peace?

Using many different dictionary definitions, essentially peace is the absence of war, harmonious relations, an agreement or pact to end hostilities between people and or governments.

We can all contribute to peace in the world - peace starts within ourselves, peace in our homes with our families, peace amongst our friends, peace in our schools and in our communities, peace in our countries...and peace throughout the world.

Rotary International goes further to talk about POSITIVE PEACE.

"Negative peace is usually defined as the absence of violence: homicides, terrorism, war. Positive peace defines peace differently.

It represents the attitudes, institutions, and structures that statistically correlate to peaceful societies — the things that permit peace to last once violence ceases and that can prevent violence from erupting in the first place. In the field of peace studies, most research is focused on negative peace. There hasn’t been a lot of research around positive peace. This is something that sets the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) apart.

People might not know how to have an impact on the level of homicides in their community, for instance, but projects and initiatives that promote positive peace are completely within the capacity of community members — of Rotarians."

The Rotary Positive Peace Academy is a FREE online course, made up of 5 modules, quizzes, a Facebook group and post-completion opportunities. ENROLL FREE OF CHARGE NOW!

The Solution

Putney Rotary member, Bill, came to the club with the idea after a lovely lady, Grace, chatted to him in the Trinity Hospice shop in Putney HighStreet where he volunteers, and gave him some candles, sharing her idea with him. Our Club thought it was a fab idea, and led by Bill, we got stuck into organising candles and flyers, and spreading the word.

We are giving out 2,000 tealight candles until they run out, and encouraging Rotary Clubs, schools, churches, and our communities to spread the word.

Let's all go on a PEACE PATH, to live in harmony and with compassion, respecting our environment and natural resources, for the good of ALL humanity.

The late Michael Jackson's song, Heal the World, is as significant now, as it was when he brought it out in 1992.

Heal the world

Make it a better place

For you and for me

And the entire human race

There are people dying

If you care enough for the living

Make it a better place

For you and for me

With special thanks to:

Putney Rotarian, Lu, for coordinating the project.
Volunteer friend Agnes and her sister Jos for baking 2 wonderful cakes and delivering them.
Volunteer friend,
Our team of Rotarians for helping to hand them out on the 30th November and drop them off within the community.

Read about our own charity, the Rotary Foundation which reinvests our donations and enables clubs like ours to leverage funding for our projects, both locally and abroad, and please donate if you can.

Our Santa collections every December (2024 dates are: 4th, 6th, 10th & 12th Dec) help us fund initiatives like this, so THANK YOU for you for supporting your local community. We couldn't do it without you.