NEW YORK | “Seeds of Peace changed the course of my life and changes the lives of hundreds of young people worldwide every summer,” starts an email from Seeds of Peace alumni Kayla to every person on her contact list. “I’m asking you to please follow this link and sign an online pledge that you will vote for Seeds of Peace in the next round of the Chase Community Giving Competition.”
On December 16, 2009, Chase Bank announced that Seeds of Peace was among the top 100 charities in America as selected by popular vote on the Facebook social networking site. Each of these charities is now competing to garner additional support for the next round of the competition.
Seeds alumni around the world have wasted no time in beginning to campaign, engage new supporters and build a coalition with others working in the field of conflict resolution. Israeli Seed Karin emailed her father, who is a ship captain.
“He sent my e-mail to all his acquaintances in Israel and abroad: to Hong Kong, the USA, India, England, the Caribbean islands, etc,” Karin writes.
In Kabul, Afghan Seed Ramish collected votes at his community mosque. In Lahore, Pakistani Seed Sana spread the word via a news website, while American Seed Nick wrote an article for his high school newspaper.
To engage its own network, Seeds of Peace launched an online version of the Seeds of Peace Olympics, called Color Games, which takes place at its Camp every summer. Over 200 Seeds participated in the Color Games competition (won by the Blue Team) and collected over 900 pledges to vote before the Final Round of the competition even began.
Groups of Seeds and counselors in New York, Washington, DC, and Boston then came together with laptops to “get out the vote.”
“This is no longer just about potentially winning a million dollars,” said Seeds of Peace Executive Director Leslie Lewin. “Our Seeds are sharing their experience and learning how to be ambassadors for a cause they care deeply about. Through the Chase Competition we are giving these young leaders another way to put their beliefs into action.”
As an organization, Seeds of Peace is also putting into practice its own belief in the importance of securing lasting solutions to some of the world’s longest conflicts through the empowerment of the next generation of youth. Each of the 100 charities that made it to the second round were asked to submit their “Big Idea” for what they would do with the top prize of $1M. Seeds of Peace developed its response by polling the over 4,000 graduates of its program and asking them for their own big ideas for creating peace. “They told us they need more programs in their home countries (Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, The West Bank and Gaza Strip) that will give them the skills and opportunities they need to lead. They said they need better technology to keep them connected across borders, and more tools to engage their communities in this work.”
In addition to polling their graduates, Seeds of Peace is asking other charities and peace organizations to take a stand with them and show the demand and importance of programs, such as Seeds of Peace, which support grassroots, nonviolent movements for the resolution of conflict.
“Billions are spent each year on defense and security. We are hoping to send a message that programs such as ours, which provide youth with the tools and skills to peacefully resolve conflicts, are essential and in desperate need of investment from the corporate community,” says Lewin.
Whether or not Seeds of Peace wins the next round the competition, it has sparked something in Kayla. She knows that the steps towards a more peaceful future begin with her and she has taken up the challenge.
She writes “This fundraiser competition thing is really going well. I’ve sent that message out to all 2,000 of my Facebook friends plus everyone I know who has an email address. People have been walking up to me in the hallways in school talking about it!”