10,000 TOYS ARE HEADING TO SYRIA

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Sharen Ravat, centre, at St Philip's Church with the Rev Sonya Brown and Suleman nagdi and some of the toys

10,000 toys are heading to Syria

by Fiona Dryden

Generous folk have donated more than 10,000 toys for children devastated by the ongoing conflict in Syria.

Sharen Ravat, a multi-faith chaplaincy co-ordinator at Leicester College, was so deeply affected by the plight of children in Syria she decided to launch the initiative to help bring some joy to families, many of which have lost members.

According to the United Nations, the conflict has led to the worst humanitarian crisis since Rwanda, more than two decades ago.

The drop-in session held at St Philip's Church, in Leicester, on Sunday collected more than 10,000 toys – enough to fill seven van loads.

Sharen said: "The toys have been given to the charity Hand in Hand for Syria, which will take them to children in hospitals and refugee camps in Syria.

"I pay tribute to the wonderfully generous people, including many children, who donated toys for this vital cause.

"What was particularly heart-warming was that so many of Leicestershire's different faith communities came together.

"Collectively, they demonstrated their shared values of compassion and love for children they will never know. I hope that these toys will bring a smile to their faces."

The Federation of Muslim Organisations was one of the many faith organisations supporting the campaign.

Spokesman Suleman Nagdi said: "We were privileged to be part of this superb charity effort, which focused on children. I pay tribute to Sharen Ravat, who single-handedly had the vision to arrange this appeal." 

Fadi Al-Dairi, from Hand in Hand for Syria, said: "The people of Leicestershire will make a lot of children smile."

Hand in Hand works in partnership with projects overseas that have been established by members of the local community.

DIVERSITY DAY IS RELEVANT TO ALL OUR LIVES

This is from the Mercury Opinion column in today's Leicester Mercury:

Diversity Day is relevant to all our lives

We are pleased to be joining forces with Leicestershire Police today to produce a series of features to mark Diversity Day. The official title of this day is the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

If that sounds a little worthy and unwieldy, please do not be put off.The ideas and goals which underpin this event are very much grounded in reality and are relevant to all our lives.

It was sanctioned by the United Nations in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The declaration had been worked on for some time before that but the atrocity in New York emphasised the need to encourage and promote peaceful co-existence.

Diversity Day aims to put a worldwide focus on breaking down the barriers which sometimes separate us from one another and prevent the sort of division and misunderstanding which leads to disharmony and violence.

It is not just a day on the international calendar, but is also supported by some practical steps.

These include a Facebook page headlined Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion, which provides people from around the world with a forum to share their experiences and stories through posts and videos.

Leicester also has a great story to tell about diversity and peaceful co-existence.

This city has one of the most diverse populations in the UK and is rightly proud of its good record in community relations.

Indeed, other cities in Europe look at Leicester to learn lessons.However, we have to guard against complacency.

More needs to be done and it is vital to continue the process of promoting dialogue and understanding.

Many individuals and organisations in Leicester from many cultural backgrounds have worked incredibly hard and with great commitment over the past 30 or 40 years to build the community relations of which we are proud.

We now have to carry on their good work and ensure that we strive towards and live up to the goals of Diversity Day – every day.

WORLD DAY FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY FOR DIALOGUE & DIVERSITY

Today is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. Another one of these special annual occasions that I don’t know about till it happens. Even then, I only find out about this one from a single, solitary tweet. And this is another one of those special annual occasions that is relevant to the city and people of Leicester, to Leicester Council of Faiths and to my post. It would have been nice to mark it in some way here, if only by a letter in the Mercury.

Honestly, I simply can’t keep up with all this! I'll have no reason not to see it coming next year, I guess ...

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is annually held on May 21 to help people learn about the importance of cultural diversity and harmony.

Various events are organized to increase the understanding of issues around cultural diversity and development among governments, non-governmental organizations and the public. Many of these include presentations on the progress of implementing the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. Events include:

• Seminars for professionals.
• Educational programmes for children and young adolescents.
• The launch of collaborations between official agencies and ethnic groups.
• Exhibitions to help people understand the history of various cultural groups and the influence on their own identities.
• Celebrations to create greater awareness of cultural values and the need to preserve them.

The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development tends to be marked in countries that embraced their varied cultural history and acknowledged the importance of embracing it.

The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is an observance and not a public holiday.

The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in Paris, France, on November 2, 2001. Although the declaration was the culmination of years of work, it was adopted in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This reaffirmed the need for intercultural dialogue to prevent segregation and fundamentalism.

The year 2002 was the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage. At the end of that year, on December 20, 2002, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared May 21 to be the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The General Assembly emphasized links between the protection of cultural diversity and the importance of dialogue between civilizations in the modern world. The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development was first observed in 2003.

WORLD INTERFAITH HARMONY WEEK

The first week of February of each year has been designated World Interfaith Harmony Week by the United Nations. First proposed in 2010 by HM King Abdullah of Jordan, this new event aims to promote harmony among all people regardless of their faith.

World Interfaith Harmony Week seeks to spread the message of tolerance among the followers of all the world's religions, faiths, and beliefs. It does this by promoting the common basis of "Love of God and Love of the Neighbour, or Love of the Good and Love of the Neighbour." Its message invites everyone, excludes no one, and is purely voluntary. The objectives behind the World Interfaith Harmony Week, in the words of the author of the resolution, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, are:

1. To co-ordinate and unite the efforts of all the interfaith groups doing positive work with one focused theme at one specific time annually, thereby increasing their collective momentum and eliminating redundancy.
2. To harness and utilize the collective might of the world’s second-largest infrastructure (that of places of worship — the largest being that of education) specifically for peace and harmony in the world: inserting, as it were, the right "software" into the world’s religious "hardware." 
3. To permanently and regularly encourage the silent majority of preachers to declare themselves for peace and harmony and providing a ready-made vehicle for them to do so. Moreover, if preachers and teachers commit themselves on the record once a year to peace and harmony, this means that when the next inter-religious crisis or provocation occurs, they cannot then relapse into parochial fear and mistrust, and will be more likely to resist the winds of popular demagoguery.

World Interfaith Harmony Week is not widely acknowledged or celebrated in this country, since we have our own national Inter Faith Week, established by the Inter Faith Network UK at the end of November (as if I have to tell you that, faithful reader). And from my personal point of view, I really need another week like that, so soon after the draining efforts I put into that!

However: there are a number of activities and events taking place in the UK during this week, which can be found on the events calendar of Interfaith Harmony Week's website. Events in the UK, according to this calendar, are limited to some pretty high-level affaris in Birmingham, Cambridge, London and Woking. There doesn't seem much in the way of grass roots community support of the kind that characterises our own Inter Faith Week. I don't think that two people turning out on a cold Sunday evening in November to watch Keanau Reeves in Little Buddha at Phoenix Square in our Faiths Film Festival would cause much of a blip on World Interfaith Harmony Week's radar!

A variety of resources of interest and use to individuals and groups involved in inter-faith work are available through the World Interfaith Harmony Week website.

Just because we're not doing it here doesn't mean I'm going to ignore it. I'll be following it in the virtual sense at least and posting daily reminders about it here. You can follow it on your own through Facebook or by dipping into the news page on the World Interfaith Harmony Week website.

EARTH DAY

Today (Friday 22 April) is Earth Day, dedicated to raising awareness of – and appreciation for – the natural environment. Earth Day was founded in 1970 and for the first two decades remained focused almost entirely on activities and events in the USA. It went global in 1990 and is now celebrated in more than 175 countries and by a significant number of national governments. In 2009, the United Nations designated 22 April International Mother Earth Day. Over the years, many communities have extended their observance to celebrate Earth Week. Earth Day is now the first day of Earth Month. This is, obviously, the kind of occasion in which faith communities can participate jointly and alongside other agencies which promote the common weal. However, I'm not aware of anything taking place locally (or nationally for that matter). This may be because Earth Day coincides with Good Friday this year. Some religious groups and organisations have put advice, guidance, information and resources online. If you're interested in looking at these, they can be found in the usual ways.

MAKING THE MOST OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS

The Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) has arranged a training session today with the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL). The training is delivered by Sonia Omar. Sonia has been here on a couple of occasions before; she tells me that the last time was two years ago. Doesn't seem like that, but it appears to be before the birth of the blog, so she may well be right there.

Sonia's style of leading and facilitating these sessions is relaxed but rigorous, authoritative without being authoritarian, intensive without being intense - as you may be able to see from the photo above (Sonia is on the left, with Averil Dobson, from Signing Network).

Attending today, we have people from the following groups:

• Age UK Leicester Shire & Rutland
• Derby and Derbyshire Race Equality Commission
• Leicester Deaf Action Group
• Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre
• Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living
• Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council
• One East Midlands
• The Race Equality Centre

I'm glad that Minou Cortazzi, who is a member of the Board of Directors at Leicester Council of Faiths, is with us today.

About 1100 I have to nip out for a short while, just to ensure that the photo shoot of faith community representatives (to support the Census) is going smoothly in the Town Hall, but I get back in good time.

After lunch, we do small group work on some specific treaties and other UN tools:

• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

We're considering each of these on the basis of our own experience gained from working in these fields. We highlight where government has done well in relation to these conventions, covenants or principles or where they haven't been doing so well and may be liable to challenge.

In my specific area of interest, I must look up the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. This would be particularly relevant just now as it would inform discussions with the University of Derby on the project currently looking at Leicester.

We realise that there's a clear need not only to educate the Voluntary and Community Sector about human rights, but also to foreground them in our relations with local and national authorities, service providers etc - especially in relation to mounting challenges to the effects of cuts