It’s almost impossible to continue watching the slaughter of children in Gaza, isn’t it? I was horrified too at the invasion of the Ukraine and for the last 2 years I’ve witnessed some of the misery of that war with my new Ukrainian family, seeing their tears and their fears for family left at home in Kiev.
But what to do?
Debbie Deegan, founder of To Russia with Love, reached out to say she wanted to raise awareness of the need to talk about PEACE and to stop the desperate impact of war on children. I know – it sounds like an impossible task. But if world politicians continue to talk and take political measures that still have no actual impact on the ground – then maybe the silent majority need to find a way to demonstrate their horror at the slaughter of children, and use their power to promote PEACE.
Debbie brought Catrina Sheridan, another highly respected charity founder, to meet me and we sat at the kitchen table and chatted about how powerless we feel and yet we don’t want to just sit around talking about it. This was the basis of the team for the new campaign Knot On Stop War. Inspiration helped to devise the campaign and messaging, and we designed and built the website, as part of our CSR programme.
We were delighted when Mary Kennedy agreed to support the campaign too. Click on the image to hear her message.
Many other celebrities, including Davina Devine, are supporting the campaign too. Click on the image to listen.
How can you participate?
This Saturday, June 1st marks International Children’s Day in many parts of the world. It’s also UN Global Day of Parents. We are asking people to use gauze, which symbolises injury, and is white, the colour of peace, and to either wear it physically as a bracelet or knot it onto something – or use our virtual gauze bracelet – to peacefully demonstrate against war and for peace. Because war is KnotOn. Interestingly after we had decided this approach, we found out that the word Gauze actually means Gaza, as traditionally the area was known for its weavers. Learn more about how to KnotOn.
For the campaign, lots of people have done videos too, in a huge variety of languages and shared these across their own social media and on the campaign socials, including #KnotOnStopWar – you can join in and do that now too, see https://www.instagram.com/knoton.stopwar/ And check out our other socials.
Join Us?
Cathy
