Webinar by NEISSR &Peace Channel examines ‘Meaning & Purpose of Life in Building Leadership for Peace’
Dimapur, August 23 (MExN): How does one bring about ‘change’ and build leadership for peace?
This, among others, was one of the primary concerns examined during a webinar titled, ‘Meaning & Purpose of Life in Building Leadership for Peace’ hosted by Peace Channel and North East Institute of Social Science and Research (NEISSR), Dimapur on August 22,
The webinar was aimed at reaching out to the young people to “listen and understand the change needed in the world starting with themselves first,” informed a statement issued by the organisers after the event.
In her introduction, the moderator Vitono Haralu, a Trainer and Consultant of Peace Channel, stressed on the need to amplify the voices of young people in the right direction.
The webinar is an attempt to introduce a space to be more self-aware and define the kind of leadership role that is required during the current pandemic and find solutions within for many other social human problems around us, she said.
NEISSR’s Principal and Director of Peace Channel Fr Dr CP Anto in his opening remarks, dwelt on the purpose of life, especially building leaders for peace. He said that to achieve this, one needs to “move from this micro identity to macro identity that is the identity of humanity”
He further said that the most important problem facing the world today is ‘lack of love’ and opined that “bringing peace with love will bring peace with ourselves, peace with the family and peace within the communities provided that we keep moving beyond our tribal identity and religious identity to grow towards humanity as people.”
Give something else first for peace
Speaking at the event, a Peace Activist with decades of experience working with different organisations around the world, Niketu Iralu noted how “Peace is a most sensitive thing and we all want it, we all shout for it.”
“We easily think that it will become available if we want it and demand it by going for processions, hold ing conferences for it and proclaiming 'Give Peace a Chance,' 'Down with War' and so on,” he said.
However, we forget that it requires us to give something else first, he said.
“It starts in my family at home. Do those who surround trust me, or are they cynical about me because I say all the nice things and I want the right things, great things, ideal things, but the way I live creates bitterness, suspiciousness, anger, resentment, cynicism?”
That is where we need to understand what peace really means, he added.
The Peace Activist further maintained that “the purpose of life, what you and I are called for, each one is extremely important. Because, if we are not clear, then we are not at peace.”
Changing the world, in essence, is to understand the battle between good and evil, he noted and underscored the need to “stand for what is right and take a stand against what is wrong, what is dishonest and what is not right.”
“That is most important and needs to start from each one of us. Otherwise whatever we say remain a theory level. A wonderful theory but nothing is coming out of it,” he added.
Keys for change
Mohamed Ghabris, a humanitarian worker based in Beirut, Lebanon, sharing his experiences noted that he was not satisfied with the vision of his own personal life. He has years of experience in responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, personal and community development with Initiatives of Change and many other organisations.
The biggest reality that Initiatives of Change introduced was the first key to change, he conveyed while quoting Mahatma Gandhi, “If I want to see change in the World, I have to be the change in the world.”
“That was most difficult reality and the difficult truth that I had to learn,” Ghabris admitted, and said that by following the maxim, it created a space “to introspect to spend time in silence and look deep down inside.”
The next step he said was finding the purpose and vision so as to “make peace with myself.”
“And that difficult step translated into findings that I am not happy at all and not satisfied with my own self. With the aim of fixing it, with the aim of putting things right in my life,” he noted.
“The third keys to know purpose in my life were in trusting oneself, making peace with myself and believing in the decision my heart would take.”
“Because I am prepared, my heart is clean. It is ready to see the sense of direction in life,” he added.
Wangyal Damko, a full time Initiatives of Change volunteer with Masters in Social Work, in his sharing, narrated how he “often waited for my enemy to do wrong so that the true Tibetan in me wakes up.”
Damko, who was born in Tibet and came to India at the age of 6, noted that he “depended a lot on the behavior of others to show my patriotism and sense of belonging to my people and nation.”
“What happens when things are right? This made me think how I respond with love and care towards my country and how I look at the Chinese people. I see things differently today,” he said.
Accordingly, he said that when one is willing to put things right no matter how difficult it is, “the universe opens more opportunity for you that is right for you.”
“I was able to be more aware and look into how I speak and act. Today, I can see what is right and wrong rather than who is right and wrong. And this has really helped me look at myself and the way of life I live each day.”
The webinar session ended with a Questions and Answers session with 98 participants.
