On October 2, 2009 the World March for Peace and Nonviolence began in Wellington, New Zealand. At this early stage in the march, many festivals, forums, symbolic acts, and other initiatives have declared the beginning of a journey that will tour the world for three months. The march will visit more than 300 cities before finishing on January 2, 2010 in Punta de Vacas, Argentina.
Similarly, many cities that the march will pass through also carried out various activities. In Ibague, Colombia a group of youths supported by Journalists for Peace (FUPERPAZ) organized an event called “Over a Thousand Candles for Peace”, which started at seven in the evening.
The activity involved more than one hundred people, most of whom were young people from different social sectors. One of the attendees was psychology student Monica Moreno who said, “This kind of event is very important, especially in a fragmented and violent society like ours. Young people in attendance have the disposition to generate initiatives and realize how important it is for new generations to overcome the history of violence that the Colombian society has lived through. ”
A group of liberal youths also made their presence known at the event, which they qualified as “necessary and appropriate for the current historic moment of our country, the search for a peaceful solution to armed conflict.” With these terms of diversity and hope, the culminating activity of Candles for Peace left attendees with a commitment to continue working before the arrival of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence in Colombia on December 15th.
*(Translation provided by Matthew Oleson)*
