The urgent need for peace in the world, in our communities, schools, homes, and families is quite clear to most people. Mary-Faeth Chenery, Ph.D. (Psychology), a local Daylesford resident, has been working to foster peace for most of her life. Over the last year she decided that perhaps children are our best chance to help the world move toward peace, so she wrote a children’s book titled We Can Be Peace.
The new book gives children and their families and teachers help to think about how to foster peace and encourages them to talk about problems in ways that allow conflict to be avoided or dealt with calmly.
So often, it’s easy to assume there’s nothing we can do about conflict, but there is, Mary-Faeth thinks. “Children have great ideas to help us toward a kinder, more peaceful school, neighborhood, and planet. This book gives children the time, space, and encouragement to think about how they can help.”
The book, designed for children aged between 4 and 8, is beautifully illustrated by Leen Roslan, an artist from Malaysia. The illustrations portray a delightful mix of children, animals and natural surroundings.
For some years, Mary-Faeth worked as the Australian representative of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW), an international group of religious and spiritual elders which strives to connect these leaders with younger people working for peace around the world. GPIW seeks to provide support, wisdom from the world’s great teachings and insight into the nature of conflict and the possibilities of peace and the healing of the Earth. Its mission is “to gather young leaders and wise elders to listen, reflect and explore ways to foster systemic changes that create unity among humanity and a loving, respectful relationship with Earth and all of life.”
Now Mary-Faeth’s journey has taken her to children, families and schools to continue the search to foster peace.
The new book is available from Paradise Books in Daylesford and online at various booksellers. Copies of the book are being provided to the primary schools in the Shire and to the various library branches.
