PEACE

B.C. kids’

When U.S president Ronald Reagan and
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in
Washington, D.C. Dec. 8 to sign the disar-
mament agreement on intermediate nuclear
missiles, nearly 200 children from Van-
couver were symbolic witness to the historic
agreement.

As television cameras panned across the
scene outside the White House, viewers
around the world could see bright red
banners, emblazoned with white peace
doves — and the names of hundreds of
children from around the world, including
British Columbia.

And when tens of thousands of people
march through the streets of Vancouver in
the Walk for Peace in April, 1988, the
banners will be there, too, carried by child-
ren as part of a unique peace project.

The banner project, which has caught the
imagination of organizations around the
world, was initiated by the Children as
Peacemakers Foundation, a San Francisco-
based peace group which has launched a
number of projects which bring children
into the peace-making process. The founda-
tion is also the sponsor of a peace contest for
children which invites drawings, essays and
other contributions from children on the
theme of peace.

Eventually, the banners will be gathered
from around the world, each one filled with
the names of children. They will be sewn
together to form a mile-long banner which
will go on permanent display at a site — yet
to be chosen — in the United States.

“We see this as a permanent children’s
memorial, not unlike the peace memorial in
Washington,” said foundation co-ordinator
Patricia Montandon in a brochure an-
nouncing the project.

Launched earlier this year, the banner
project was presented in June as a project-
in-progress to the World Congress of
Women, held in Moscow, where it was
endorsed by delegates and taken up by the
various women’s organizations around the
world.

In this province, the project is being
organized by a committee of the Canadian
Congress of Women, an affiliate of the
Women’s International Democratic Feder-
ation which hosted the world conference.

CCW co-ordinator Fran Saaninen said
that the committee only had time to prepare
two banners before they had to go down
to the U.S. to be part of the summit events.
But they will now be coming back ‘“‘and
we'll be making several more which will be

carried by children in the 1988 peace walk,”
she said.

Southern Africa
Action Coalition

Season's Greetings to all our
friends and supporters.

Let's make 1988 a year
to end apartheid.

2524 Cypress St., Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 734-1712

Annual
Christmas
Peace Appeal

Signing their names to the banner
are (I tor) Amy Radosevic, Jessica
Drouin, Shea and Sean O'Neill,
Ken and Dina Saaninen, Kevin
Chrunik. In background are Juliane
Drouin(l) and Fran Saaninen.

Peace to Everyone on Earth

So far, she and another CCW member,
Juliane Drouin, have sewn the banners but
others will also be involved before the peace
walk and “we hope hundreds of children
will sign their names,” she said.

Internationally, the banners are intended
as a memorial to children who have suffered
around the world as a result of war.

“We want to show in Canada that child-
ren are suffering because the government is
spending millions for military purposes
while there are cutbacks in hospital funding,
education, days care programs and other
needs,” she said.

“But in other countries, it will be inter-
preted differently — and in some countries,
children will have been affected directly.
Many will have lost their parents or broth-
ers or sisters as a result of war,” she said.

Once collected from around the world,
the banners are to be sewn together and the
memorial unveiled on U.S. Memorial Day,
May 30, 1988.

Fraser Valley
Peace Council
531-1009

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 16, 1987

banner flies at D.C. summit

ho
gl

Peace on Earth

_ It is possible
Greetings cards and gifts available.
Volunteers and donations welcome.

1708 West 16th Ave.
Vancouver, B.C. V6] 2M1_
Phone: 736-2366

End the Arms Race

...a Coalition of 230 B.C. peace groups.

a

Holiday Greetings
to all our friends.

Welcome to the INF agreement
— the first step to a nuclear

weapons free world by

the year 2000.

B.C. Peace Council
Room 712, 207 W. Hastings
Telephone: 685-9958

Season’s Greetings to our friends
from the executive and membership

of the f

Canada-USSR Friendship Society
C/o 3751 Selkirk St.
Vancouver, B.C. V6H 2Y3. 731-3048

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