Celebrating The International Day of Peace, Wahid Foundation Declares Sinduharjo Peace Village

Welcoming the celebration of the 2021 International Day of Peace or World Peace Day 2021, Wahid Foundation organized a set of events such as Sinduharjo Peace Village Declaration and Managib Budaya, which consists of tahlil (quran recitation) and musical and cultural performance on Tuesday from noon to night (22/09/2021) at the Peace Village, Sinduharjo, Sleman.

With the theme, “Restoring World Peace Together”, Wahid Foundation invites people to restore the world, build peace, awareness, resilience, and change the world to be righteous, equal, inclusive, and sustainable, together.

Yenny Wahid, Director of Wahid Foundation mentioned that the theme carried by Wahid Foundation on the 2021 International Day of Peace is an invitation, call, and response to the current critical situation around the world due to Covid-19. She said, every attempt to recover from the situation can be done by every person, so we should not only rely to the government.

“The pandemic has proven that leadership does not only belong to the government or the authorities, as every country is not ready to face it. However, solidarity, awareness, and cooperation between the citizens can overcome the challenges,” said Yenny when she was asked about the theme carried on the day.

Regarding the Sinduharjo Peace Village Declaration, Yenny explained that Sinduharjo Village is the first village which received and became partner of the Wahid Foundation Peace Village Program in Yogyakarta. Previously, Wahid Foundation has declared 18 villages in West Java, Central Java and East Java.

The program, which is hoped to be available in all provinces in Indonesia, focuses on 3 principles. First, economic approach of women’s economic empowerment. Second, creating a more harmonious social life of the people, which is how people would be able to appreciate diversity more. Third, creating a peaceful community.

Yenny, who just received an award as Peace Advocate from Japanese Government a few days ago, added that the Peace Village Program intentionally promotes women as the main actors who will build peace in the family, society, and local authorities level.

Meanwhile, Dwi Yulianti Faiz, Head of Programmes of UN Women Indonesia expressed her gratitude for the help from all parties on the execution of Sinduharjo Peace Village Declaration.

“This declaration will not happen without the support from everyone. On behalf of UN Women, I am very grateful for all parties who have participated in this declaration,” she said.

On one hand, she really appreciates women’s participation in the community and governmental level of Sleman. In this case, the Regent of Sleman, Head of Ngaglik District, and Head of the District Police are all women.

“Particularly, I am thankful for women’s participation in the governmental and societal level of Sleman, especially in Sinduharjo,” she added.

She also explained that currently Indonesia is in the golden period of demographic bonus. Therefore, there are many opportunities to educate and strengthen the youths so they are more resilient towards the threat of being exposed to extremism ideology.

Regent of Sleman, Kustini Sri Purnomo, fully supports this program initiated by Wahid Foundation. She believes that the peaceful condition of the people of her regency can be started from the village level.

Moreover, Sleman is one of the miniatures of Indonesia. There are many groups, tribes and religions that live together, so it is mandatory to preserve diversity in order to create peace between people, home, and the environment.

Kustini agreed that Peace Village can be a grand design to increase people’s culture. This is as per the essence of the program that aims to improve people’s resilience in facing many challenges in life.

She really hopes that there will be many Yenny Wahids in Sleman in the future.

Declaration and inauguration of Sinduharjo village as Peace Village is marked with the signing of the Peace Village epigraph by Yenny Wahid, Regent of Sleman, and Head of Sinduharjo village.

Next, Wahid Foundation will declare Tipes Village of Solo as Peace Village in the beginning of Octber 2021Selanjutnya, Wahid Foundation juga akan mendeklarasikan Kelurahan Tipes Solo menjadi Kelurahan Damai di awal Oktober 2021 nanti.