“Where there is unity, there is always victory.” – Publilius Syrus

International Peace Day is observed annually on the 21 September and constitutes a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. Adopted in 2001 by the UN General Assembly, it is estimated that, as of Peace Day 2016, around 940 million people are aware of the day. St Christopher’s School, Bahrain holds an annual initiative to raise awareness and commemorate Peace Day. This year, Peace Week was held from 14 – 20 September, and celebrated the theme of unity. The aim of the 2017 Peace Day celebrations was to encourage both staff and students to spread awareness of the event, and in doing so, share their enthusiasm and creativity throughout the week. Prior to the week, competitions were held. These were the Peace Day Poem and Peace Logo competitions. The winning logo was featured on Peace Day T-shirts worn by Sixth Form students on the day and was designed by Madelyn Harrison-Mirfield of 10C. The winning poem, written by Umaiza Ahmed of 8C, was read over the school’s tannoy at noon, followed by a minute of silence to commemorate Peace Day. The goal is to have a minute of silence for Peace Day in every time zone so that everyone in the world is unified in honour of Peace One Day. In the week building up to Peace Day, the Organizing Committee, a team of Year 13 students led by Ms Al Hammoud, Head of Year 13, planned a range of events to celebrate this occasion and raise awareness of the day. The committee delivered presentations which aimed at educating all year groups about the achievements and importance of the day, and followed these assemblies with the distribution of white ribbons to be worn in support of the day. During the week, a mural peace painting was created with the fingerprints of students from all year groups in the Senior School. On Wednesday 20 September, during Enrichment, a Peace themed Kahoot Quiz took place to test students’ knowledge of World Peace Day and measure awareness of our school’s past involvement with the event. Students sent two representatives from their forms to complete the quiz, while the remaining students cut out paper men and decorated them with peace-related quotes to be linked to the school’s peace pole. Another activity on the day was the Student vs Staff Volleyball Match, which was won by the student team. As with previous years, an aerial photo was taken. In line with this year’s theme, students spelled out ‘UNITY’. ~ Danielle Abi-Farrage, Noor Hammad, Shubhra Batra.