Published by: World Tibet Network News, Friday, July 5, 1996

PEACEJAM: ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN HEART THEME OF INDIANA TEEN CONFERENCE WITH TIBET'S DALAI LAMA

INDIANA UNIVERSITY NEWS BUREAU

306 North Union Street

Bloomington, Indiana 47405-3801

812-855-3911

FOR RELEASE: CONTACT: Susan Williams

Friday, June 28th, 1996 812-855-3911

sulwilli@indiana.edu

BLOOMINGTON -- PeaceJam is offering Indiana youths the opportunity to apprentice themselves to a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama of Tibet.

During a weekend retreat titled "Ecology and the Human Heart" at Indiana University, July 26-27, the Dalai Lama will interact personally with 80 selected students from 25 high schools and youth groups from across the state. There is no fee for participating in the conference.

This particular conference will analyze the life of the Dalai Lama, examine the situations he has faced, how he chose to respond, and what inner qualities and strengths allowed him to make a difference. The conference's ultimate goal is to teach participants to implement environmental and peace projects in their own communities, and to become involved in the international movement for Tibet.

PeaceJam, supported by the Fetzer Institute, is an international educational organization whose dynamic outreach program is designed to foster the next generation of peacemakers. The organization's board of advisers is comprised of eight Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams, Aung San Suu Kyi, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the Dalai Lama and Mairead Corrigan Maguire.

Topics and sizes of PeaceJam conferences vary, but all focus on the idea that (MORE-peacejam) PeaceJam-2 young people can make a positive difference. Three components are built into the program to help ensure its success.

First, participating schools and organizations designate a group of students which will work on the PeaceJam project. The students are provided with a preparatory training curriculum, which includes information on the Nobel Peace Prize, its winners in general, and more specifically, on the participating laureate. The packet also features ideas for students to consider in designing their own solutions to local and global conflicts and problems.

Two youths are then selected from each participating group to attend a conference during which they are invited to brainstorm their best ideas on how problems might be solved. They also are given the opportunity to meet with the participating Nobel laureate during the conference.

Finally, follow-up reports from the PeaceJam conference are taken back to the original schools and community groups, which then may implement their own projects.

PeaceJam's inaugural conference drew 200 students to Regis University in Denver last March. There, participants listened to Betty Williams, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, along with Mairead Corrigan Maguire, for their efforts to create a grassroots movement to end violence in Northern Ireland.