Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation

Young people have always been at the forefront of peace movements – consider their role in ending the Viet Nam war or dismantling apartheid. The young people of today are the best hope we have for transforming cultures of war and violence into cultures of peace and prosperity. By providing people, ages 17-21, with interactive and stimulating opportunities to learn about and embrace moral and ethical practices they are more likely to engage in and foster the principles of non-violence, equality, compassion and integrity in their societies.

In order to provide them with a pedagogically balanced and intriguing place to acquire this knowledge and the related skills The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation is creating YPeace.org. YPeace.org ("YPeace”) is an interactive multimedia web-based environment and online curriculum.

Conceptually YPeace is organized around peace within (personal or inner peace), peace between people and peace among groups and nations. The content will draw on the world’s religious, spiritual and cultural traditions as well as history, the physical, behavioral and social sciences, and jurisprudence.

The methods for conveying this information will be based in large measure on the suggestions of young adults who are currently participating in focus groups and will take advantage of cutting edge web technology and social networking.

In addition to building the YPeace website and producing web-based curricula, there will be opportunities for visitors to the site to make serendipitous discoveries, join online peacemaker networks or communities, share their peace methods, get questions answered, play educational games, see and send peace related art; hear and compose music and create plans for undertaking their own peacemaking initiatives. YPeace will also have links to YouTube.com, PeaceJam.com and other sites that feature peace related content (e.g. the UN sites, United States Institute of Peace).

The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation plans to partner with existing organizations that have similar missions and programs for youth. The combination of learning in the virtual world and practicing in the actual world capitalizes on the strength and benefits of each. The Foundation’s collaborations with youth development, human rights, women’s rights and faith-based organizations will make it possible for online YPeace members to work on peace projects within their communities.

YPeace will be launched in November 2009.

The Desmond Tutu Conversations on Peace and Reconciliation (The Conversations)

The Conversations will be a series of conversations between laypersons and experts that will take place in educational and community settings (e.g. at colleges/universities, community centers, places of worship). One purpose of these conversations will be to encourage people of all backgrounds to discuss some of the most important threats and hindrances to peace so as to learn and have empathy for the stories of other peoples and nations. Another purpose will be to explore reconciliation-based interventions that ordinary people as well as officials can undertake.

Living Peace

Coming soon...

The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre

Up until 2008, the DTPF mainly supported the work of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in South Africa. (In 2008, the DTPF expanded its work to include conducting programs in the U.S. and other countries as well. The programs that DTPF is currently developing are described in the above section.)

Shortly after the Foundation’s incorporation in 1999, we initiated and supported the 'Emerging Leadership Programme’ for youth. Started in Seattle and popularized by our South African colleagues, it spread to all four corners of the globe. The incubation phase ended in September 2006 and the ELP is now an independent organization based in Cape Town.

The Foundation has also supported the ‘Women in Leadership Programme’ from time-to-time run by the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre. Course participants grapple with the complex challenges that women face in their roles as leaders in the workplace, their homes and communities.

Other Achievements of the Centre:

A global Human Rights Project spearheaded by the Centre for the Victims of Torture, Minneapolis, USA, has selected the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre as its collaborative partner for the African region.
Internship programs have been established between Seattle University and the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.
In collaboration with the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation and the International Center for Transitional Justice based in New York, the Centre hosted two researchers for six months.
Students from Marquette University in Milwaukee participate in a South Africa Service Learning Program and spend time at the Peace Centre.
A Master’s Degree in Development Studies offered through the University of the Western Cape.
The Centre has formed contractual partnerships with three universities: the University of Pretoria, the University of the Western Cape and the University of Dar es Salaam to establish a collaborative Chair in Leadership and Future Studies.
The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre has hosted two colloquia. The first colloquium’s theme was `Values-Based Leadership in Africa’, held in August 1999. Twenty-three people holding key leadership positions in society attended the colloquium. The second colloquium held in August 2001 was attended by 250 Emerging African Leaders. Publications consisting of the papers presented at these conferences have been widely circulated.
Initiating the world’s largest humanitarian exhibition, ‘The Hands That Shape Humanity’.

Once completed, the new, state-of-the-art Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa will offer a range of programs and services focusing on peace, leadership training and sustainable development. It will attract an estimated 1.5 million visitors a year.

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Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation
205 East 64th Street, Suite 503 New York, NY 10065 Tel: 212-750-5504 | Fax: 212-371-2776
info@tutufoundation-usa.org

The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation (U.S.) and the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust (S.A.) work together to raise funds throughout the world for the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.