Bhubaneswar: On the occasion of International Day of Peace, Society for Nature, Education and Health (SNEH) organized an event at Bhanja Kala Mandap here. Students from eight educational institutions participated in a skit competition on the theme of peace and harmony in the afternoon.
The best skit presented by MSW students of National Institute of Social Sciences (NISS) and the best performer Sasmita Samantray of Ekamra College, adjudged by a panel of jury, were awarded in a function following the competition.
MSME minister Prafulla Samal was the chief guest and distributed prizes among the winners.
Latika Pradhan, Chairperson, State Social Welfare Board, Manoranjan Panigrahi, Secretary Culture, Dr Bhagaban Prakash, Chief Advisor, Election Commission of India, New Delhi, and Sandhyabati Pradhan, Member State Child Rights Commission, attended as guests of honour and discussed the significance of the day. All the guests exhorted the young people to shun violence and embrace peace and nonviolence for a peaceful and just society.
In the aftermath of communal conflict in Kandhamal in 2008, SNEH reoriented its goal to focus on peace building, reconciliation and conflict management by establishing ‘SAMPRITI’-a center for peace and non-violence in Bhubaneswar on the occasion of International Day of Peace in 2009. Since then, SNEH has been conducting various training programs on peace building and conflict management among students, civil society members, social workers, women leaders and youth in Bhubaneswar and Kandhamal.
Subarna Ghosh, President, SNEH, Presided over the function. Subas Panda, Advisor, SNEH, delivered the welcome address and spoke about the peace building and conflict management activities carried on by the organization. Prasanta Kumar Pradhan a young social worker coordinated the programme.
In Phubani, hundreds of students, teachers and social activists attended a meeting organized by Campaign for Peace, Kandhamal, one of the civil society initiation working across the district towards the concept on building of peace, harmony, mutual understanding, justice and dignity among the various communities of society since last three years.
Speaking about the objective and importance of the day, the main speaker and secretary of the campaign Narendra Mohanty urged the students to question the causes that are creating barriers in building a peaceful society. If we will gather and utilize the human values in a consolidated way and can fight against such barriers, then we can achieve the peace and that is possible only by united efforts of students, youths and other important stake holders of human society, he added.
