With the intention of installing 100 ‘Peace Poles’ in schools around Australia to help commemorate this year’s 100th anniversary of Rotary, the initiative had it’s beginnings in 1955 after Japan’s Masahisa Goi witnessed the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
He dedicated himself to global peace and received the message, ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth’, in a moment of inspiration.
This message, reminding us to think and act in the spirit of peace, is written in four languages on each side of the ‘Peace Pole’.
The Rotary Peace Pole Project is an extension of the Canberra Rotary Peace Bell project.
The first World Peace Bell was gifted to the United Nations in 1954 by another Japanese man Chiyoji Nakagawa who had served during WWII.
He made a bell with coins from all over the world including nine gold coins donated by Pope Pius XII.
Padstow Rotary’s Veronica Necyporuk, former principal of East Hills Girls Technology High, said: “Our young make up 20 per cent of our population and 100 per cent of our future. We wanted to give them ‘peace’ as our centenary gift.”
Caroline Chisholm School Principal Leanne Bilsborough said: “We are so pleased to see the ‘Peace Pole’ standing proudly in our school – what a wonderful reinforcement of a very special message.”
For other schools wanting to take part, email michaelprabey@gmail.com.
