SEEDS India, YMCA Kerala Region (600 YMCAs) and Mayors for Peace jointly observed UN International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 26 September. This Day provides an occasion for the world community to reaffirm its commitment to global nuclear disarmament as a high priority. Achieving global nuclear disarmament is one of the oldest goals of the United Nations.
To mark the day and express our solidarity to United Nations, two programs were organized in Kochi, a metro city in India. Mr. Yasuyoshi Komizo, Chairperson Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation was the chief guest of the program. Mr. Komizo handed over a letter to Kochi Mayor on selection of Kochi as the Lead City for coordinating activities for global peace and IARF leader Dr. Thomas Mathew has been nominated to lead the peace activities in the South Asia Region. In turn the Kochi city officially declared its full support for achieving this noble goal. Also the City has generously given a few cents of land in the heart of city facing the Arabian Sea, worth millions of Indian Rupees to install a Peace Flame from Hiroshima Peace Park. Also the sapling of a tree that survived the Hiroshima bombing – known as ‘Aoigiri Tree’- will be planted in Kochi when the Peace Boat arrives at Cochin Port, April 2015.
In India we are the only group started the campaign to highlight the importance of achieving peace through nuclear disarmament. Also we have decided to gather one lakh signatures from University Students, Youths and peace activists and the same will be presented to Mr. Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General during the forth coming NPT Review Conference, April 2015. Metro cities like Dhaka-Bangladesh, Kathmandu-Nepal, Colombo-Sri Lanka and New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkota, Lucknow, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi in India have agreed to join us in this noble endeavour to collect signatures for world peace. One of our members in the group, SEEDS India collected One Thousand Nuclear disaster (including tests) photo panels of Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Marshall Island, Tahiti, Nevada USA, Semipalatinsk (former USSR) to distribute across this region to educate youths and students about the destructive power of Nuclear warheads even in the peace time. We have been meeting with different religious and community leaders to ensure their support to arrange peace seminars in their institutions and community centres. Already we had received positive responses from Catholic Bishop Conference of India, Ramakrishna Mission-Kochi, Brhammakumaris-Rajasthan, Syrian Orthodox Church of India, Church of South India and Jains from Nagpur.
Earlier, an interactive meeting with youths and religious leaders was organized at Catholic Renewal Centre, Kochi. Leaders of various religious groups, Kerala State Excise Minister, social and political activists and students from selected colleges participated in the program. Mr. Komizo interacted with students and cleared their doubts about nuclear weapon. It provided an opportunity to educate them about the real benefits of eliminating such weapons, and the social and economic costs of perpetuating them.
