The recent peace conference on May 9 was a collaborative effort by the Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) Diversity Resource Center, the International Sufi School for Peace and Service, and the Women's Federation for World Peace with the support of the MHCC Associated Student Government. The conference included a breakfast social, a panel discussion featuring peace workers and innovators from London, England; British Columbia, Canada; and Portland, Oregon; a Peace Expo; and four workshops to choose from: Peace Within, Peace in the Family, Peace in the Community, or Peace in the World.

The event opened with a guided meditation by Rev. Meiko Jones, Prior of the Portland Buddhist Priory and from the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. She has been a monk for thirty years, was ordained at Shasta Abbey, and then became the Prior in Portland, Oregon. After leading the group in a meditation, Rev. Jones then recited the Metta Sutra, which is the Sutra of Loving Kindness. It was a perfect beginning and segued to the depth of the presentations that followed.

The panelists included Ms. Lillian Pitt, an accomplished award-winning Pacific Northwest Native American artist whose ancestors have lived in and near the Columbia River Gorge for more than 10,000 years. Ms. Pitt is noted for creating images that sustain ancient Columbia Plateau cultures and beliefs and for promoting harmony within people, communities, and nature.

She is also a major contributor to the Columbia Gorge Confluence Project. She says of her art, "Regardless of the medium, my work directly relates to and honors my ancestors, my people, the environment, and the animals."

Mr. Gary Spanovich is the Founder and Executive Director of the Wholistic Peace Institute (WPI) and has had a history of accomplished humanitarian work in India since 1992. In 1995, with assistance from Rotary International, he built a school for Indian street children. His work later extended to 53 Tibetan refugee camps in India. In 2001, he held his first World Peace Conference in Portland and welcomed the Dalai Lama. Since then, Mr. Spanovich and the WPI continue to bring Nobel Peace Laureates to Oregon to educate others and promote peace.

Additional panelists included, Mrs. Kelly Coryell, author, teacher, and representative of the Women's Federation for World Peace and Sheikh Ally Peerbocus, PhD, of the International Sufi School for Peace and Service.

The afternoon session, entitled Eco Peace, was presented by Soraya Ramjane from London, England, a lecturer on peace initiatives, a musician and a law student. The Eco Peace presentation was about Pout, a village in Senegal, West Africa that was created as part of an Economic Alternative by Means of Peace. It promotes the return to the earth through nonviolence in a place of social and economic stasis where the lack of water has driven the peasants and youngsters away from their land, and most women have become mango sellers. Small business is booming at the expense of production.

The Bayouf Pout Eco Peace Project is bringing a reversal to these circumstances with techniques that promote production, water storage, and a return to the values of land ownership and economy, thus revitalizing the agricultural way of life. This was an interactive talk and demonstration on the techniques and how globalization can be used to enhance and reproduce the positive results of this project worldwide. Most relevant is that the presentation was given to 50 students who are themselves from third world countries in Central America and the Caribbean. One of the students is actually planning to create a mango tree project in his country of Honduras to combat climate change. It was wonderfully received and many new friendships forged.

As a result of this conference, new partnerships were created. Mr. Spanovich would like to collaborate on our next conference and has said he would bring Arun Gandhi, a Nobel Peace Laureate.

The Gresham Rotary Club also expressed a desire to participate in the next conference that we are planning and would like to organize a Peace Concert and offer Peace Scholarships to students of Mt. Hood Community College.

Here is some feedback and reflections from the participants:

"I am so grateful for this beautiful event. The presence of the Divine and unity was really there."
--Beatrice Yoshioka

"SEED students from Haiti were very inspired by the Eco peace project in Senegal and started to make plans with international Sufi school members to go to Senegal and participate in the agricultural project after they complete their studies at MHCC."
--Claudia Al-Amin, Chairwoman, Women's Federation for World Peace-Cascade Chapter

"I was very surprised and impressed by the level of support and collaboration with WFWP, ISS and MHCC. I was also inspired that WFWP and ISS share the common principle in spite of differences. Differences are necessity of lives." --Farah from the international Sufi School in England

"It has opened my eyes to how we as individual or as a group can effect change, not just in our backyard but anywhere in the world. Looking forward to the next conference." --Thuy Pham, a Vietnamese American participant.

"Christine Edwards' seminar on edible gardening was eye opening; when we tasted the plants, visualizing, actionizing and realization of peace all happened right in front of our eyes,"
--Stephanie Herremans, former Chairwoman, WFWP-Cascade Chapter.

"I was highly impressed by Sheikh Ally's huge display panels. They spanned about 30 feet long and 7 feet high and portrayed details on topics such as the Initiatory Way of Peace and featured lives of famous peacemakers including Dr. Martin Luther King, Eleanor Roosevelt, the Dalai Lama and others. All participants would probably join me in recommending that anyone who has the opportunity to do so attend similar events in the future." --Ms. Janice L. Asaoka