MANNAM Peace - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges ceasefire in Syria's Qusayr

UN Secretary General Bank-Ki-moon urged the two of the Syrian government and the militants to stop the war for the relief work of the wounded and civilians isolated in the fighting in Qusayr.

Mr.Ban said, "The Syrian government has a responsibility to protect the civilians in the area within a jurisdiction." and he demanded that the both sides, Syrian government forces and the militants let the trapped civilians and the wounded escape the town for the evacuation.

According to a statement, Mr.Ban stressed the both sides to do their utmost to avoid civilians casualties, and warned they would be held accountable for any acts of atrocity carried out against the civilian population of Qusayr.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos and UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay said, “We understand there may also be as many as 1,500 wounded people in urgent need of immediate evacuation for emergency medical treatment, and that the general situation in al-Qusayr is desperate.”

They also said there were reports that civilian neighborhoods continued to be indiscriminately attacked and that other major violations of human rights and international humanitarian law were being committed.

Qusayr, as a strategic point, located on the route between the capital city, Damascus and the coast, which used to be taken by the militants, was recaptured by the Syrian government forces last month backed by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

Rami Abdulrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights(SOHR), an information office reporting the Syrian civil war said, "The battle is continuing in the northern area of Qusayr. The Syrian government forces are increasing their military strength and the militants are mobilizing all what they have to fight against them as well.

MANNAM peace: Boy killed in Boston blast wrote..

Boy killed in Boston blast wrote,

'No more hurting people. 

"Peace"

Almost a year ago, 8-year-old Martin Richard wrote four simple words on a sign at school.

"No more hurting people," it said.

For the camera, he held up the bright blue sign decorated with hearts framing the word "Peace."

It's a photograph that many find difficult to look at Tuesday as they struggle to comprehend the violence that took Martin's life.

On Monday, the boy and his family were watching the Boston Marathon near the finish line when two bombs exploded just off Copley Square in the heart of the city. Martin's mother, Denise Richard underwent surgery for an injury to her brain, and Martin's 6-year-old sister lost her leg. Both were still hospitalized.

The boy's father, William Richard, said.

"My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston. My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries. We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers. I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin. We also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to simultaneously grieve and recover. Thank you."

Source : CNN News

「No more hurting people. "PEACE"」

When I saw the message the boy held, I felt sorrowful.

A tragic incident was happened just this week in order to express the terrorists' anger.

I don't want to know why they did this crazy job. Just I want to know why should they have chosen the way. Why did they target the innocent people.....

The terrorists must have their own families. They couldn't do this if the their families were there because they would love theirs.

What if every one regards others all around the world as a family? Then the world may be full of love. It would be wonderful when we make a concession a little bit and understand one another like a family.

Like the pure kid's hope, I hope the world peace. It's the reason why I'm volunteering at MANNAM Volunteer Association. MANNAM grounds on all people from the world, irrespective of their differences, unites and works towards the goal of the world peace and a culture of respect and tolerance through true volunteerism.

That is the vision of MANNAM and it's my vision as well. I sincerely wish the whole world can become one with love and peace. And I wish every one is happy through experiencing MANNAM.

No more hurting people...

I wish we can grant the pure boy's hope.

Written by

Hwang, Jae-yeon

A Fine day, Fine orphanage volunteer with MANNAM!

Sat. Mar. 23nd, 2013

MANNAM Jeonju branch went to Sundeok orphanage volunteer this weekend.

A month goes so fast. lol

Since we visit there every month, the children there and volunteers are getting closer. When we had arrived there, the kids were waiting for us which was not expected. Because they used to like sleeping more than spending time with us. We were touched.

This time, we prepared some notebooks with no pictures on them, and different kinds of color pans. We let the children decorate the covers of the notebooks which subject was Peace or Dream.

 

Their drawing skills were fantastic!!

Among them, a girl was dreaming to be a painter. I cheered for her.

Some mischievous children drew our hands for fun. Haha! :p

Although It's just small kindness, they like our visiting and even miss us.

They said, "You should come next month! Don't miss it!"

Thank you all my little angels!

I can't wait to meet them next time.

MANNAM MAN meets Gamcheon Cultural Village

Greetings!!

I have been to Gamcheon Culture Village on last day of seollal holiday( korean New Year's day). Gamcheon Culture village is located in Busan, which is the second largest city in Korea. Since 2009, the village has been subjected to be remodelled and renovated as a part of government-supported art projects. The dense houses of this small hillside village makes a view with colorful buildings. If you are interested in photography, there are many opportunities to take photos than expected.

When I had arrived there, I, firstly, bought the colorfully-illustrated map which costed just 2,000 won. There are 7 blanks on the map that you should collect stamps each place. If you collect all seven stamps from all places marked on the map, you can get either two postcards or one printed photo you take for free at Hanuel maru which is located at the top of the village. But I couldn't. That day was National Holiday, so many people were there. :)

One place attracting my eye was House of Peace.

A sign was posted in front of the house.

[ Peace is invisible to the eye and inaudible to the ear. But still, peace is the container can hold everything in the world. This work is the visualization of the peace as a container can hold everything. Moonlight shines on everything fairly. It doesn't care whether they are rich or poor, what race and religion. Peace is the basis of equal and fair living for the whole human kind. ]

I have been deeply moved by this sign before entering this house.

These papers were posted by hundreds of people who wished real peace. 

I think that peace start from respecting different minds from your thoughts.

These days I've been working for one volunteer association called MANNAM on the weekends. Its ultimate goal is world peace through volunteering. This pure volunteer association grounding on all people from the world, irrespective of their differences, unites and works towards the goal of the world peace and a culture of respect and tolerance through true volunteerism. This is MANNAM's vision and I love it.

Volunteer work provides meaningful life to us as heaven gives us the light, rain, and air. Not expecting in return, like nature does. That's a real PURE volunteer work.

I am so happy that I could something for people in need. Honestly it makes me feel valued. I'm going to a hospital on this Saturday to treat sick children. The volunteers including me are preparing something special for the little friends.
Would you come with me? :)

www.mannamintl.org

I am an Office Worker!! I am a member of MANNAM!!

 I am an officer of a building company. I have been engaged in there for 3 years.  It was April 2012 when I started to join MANNAM. I had been tired of my repetitive life. At that time, one of my friend told me about one volunteer association called MANNAM and recommended to join the volunteer group. Honestly I had never heard the name before. Anyway he told me that it could bring me some happiness. At first, I turned it down because I thought I should spend lots of time and money if I joined there. Working in my office was hard enough for me. But he kept persuading me. He said I could feel happy while I helped people in need.
"You just need a little bit of spare time and passion.", he said.
So I decided to join MANNAM Volunteer Association.

 Before, I had been New Zealand for a while so I knew about the feelings of staying abroad. I knew well how difficult it was. So I started to help them with teaching Korean language and Korean culture to adjust this strange land. It was very easy for me to make them understand my culture,  but it was something special for them. The foreigners really thanked me for helping them. It was also great I was able to know about their countries and cultures.
 I felt great while I helped them. Amazingly, volunteering was healing my stress.

A few months later, I got a chance to manage sports teams. Through sports, we could get closer each other. It refreshed my boring life and brought happiness to me. Before doing that, I was a person who just knew oneself only and didn't care others so much. Now, however, I feel very happy that I could help someone.

 The best memory I have during activities is 'The Children Abuse Prevention Campaign' held on Children's day 2012. It was a campaign that we tried to let people think about how many children were under unfair situations and participate in the campaign through doing variety performances. We did Flash Mob to gather people and make them aware about the serious social problem with pictures and articles.
To prepare this campaign, we gathered some foreign friends who were interested in volunteering and talented at dancing. Thanks to the volunteers, about 100 people  were able to join Flash Mob. We practiced only twice before the event. But did a great job. And we made some clay toys to offer every children we met there.
 A lot of people watched our Flash Mob and hundreds of children enjoyed our program joyfully. I felt so amazing that we had made this wonderful event by ourselves and also could reduce this terrible problem at least once by doing this campaign. How worthwhile it was! I will not forget this forever.

 As an office worker and also a member of MANNAM, I have been volunteering on every weekends, helping Korean language class, joining orphanage volunteers, visiting a hospital to treat sick children and so on. It really brings me happy and pleasure. I have got much more passion about the world peace through those activities within MANNAM. If we share our thoughts about peace and love with our neighbors, I think the world peace is possible.

Thank you.

Written by
Min-uk Choi

My Seollal(Korean New Year's Day)

There is a big holiday in Korea called Seollal which is Lunar New Year's Day. On Seollal, each family member get together, have a chat and cook some special foods. One of the most typical dish that we feast is ddeok-guk. It is a rice cake soup and very delicious. Even if you are not Korean, you may like its light and clean taste.

By the way, do you know why do we eat ddeok-guk on Seollal?

Seollal, the day we have ddeok-guk, literally means the beginning of the year and also it's the time winter turns into spring. This rice cake is symbolized for living healthy and longevity with having a good harvest because of its long shape. So eating ddeok-guk, you could have the warm energy in your body. And we believe that sharing ddeok-guk with neighbors means sharing the good fortune with them together.

I will eat this delicious dish with my relatives on this Seollal as usual. My relatives gather in grandparents' house. My aunt and uncle drive for 5~7 hours to meet us. We will have great time, talking, laughing and preparing some traditional foods. We have not only the traditional foods but also variety traditional games for Seollal. We enjoy them all together, from little kids to grandparents.

Could you imagine how peaceful and happy the day would be?

However, at this moment, I'd like to say that there could be someone who are not able to have this peaceful and happy time with their family or relatives. I am talking about "War". Some children and young men could be fighting in the war holding guns to survive even at this moment. The words, like 'family' or 'happiness' are far away from them. I think we should not forget those people. We need to take care of those situations because the world has been getting closer and people living in each country become neighbors as we express 'global village'. If so, the world peace should be needed and the war should be stopped so that the children and young men won't be dragged to the battle.

In MANNAM Volunteer Association, we share our thoughts for world peace and try to make world be the place fulling of happiness and love. The MANNAM volunteers from all over the world seem to look different in color, race, culture, gender and religion, but those are not important to us. Whatever you have, whoever you are, we don't care. If you accept the differences and admire each other, we can understand each other. Furthermore we can be friend or family living in "global village". And when we understand and respect each other, the war will be end at last. Like MANNAM slogan says, 'When Light meets Light, there is Victory', the world peace is possible if there's someone desire to make it. And the "light" could be YOU and I.

That's all what I am thinking.

You and I, we can make the world bright.

Written by

Na-yeong Yoon.

A meeting of two peace makers, Man Hee Lee & Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced Ong San Soo Chee), Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, symbolizes the struggle of  Myanmar's people for freedom.
She returned to Myanmar in 1988 to nurse her dying mother and was immediately plunged into the country's nationwide democracy uprising. Joining the newly-formed National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi gave numerous speeches calling for freedom and democracy. The military regime responded to the uprising with brute force, killing up to 5,000 demonstrators. Unable to maintain its grip on power, the regime was forced to call a general election in 1990.
As Aung San Suu Kyi began to campaign for the NLD, she and many others were detained by the regime. Despite being held under house arrest, the NLD went on to win a staggering 82% of the seats in parliament. The regime never recognized the results of the election.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been in and out of arrest ever since. She was held under house arrest from 1989-1995, and again from 2000-2002. She was again arrested in May 2003 after the Depayin massacre, which was an incident that close to 100 of her supporters were beaten to death by the regime's militia.

She has spent more than 15 years being under detention. She was released from her current third period of detention on November 13, 2010. There are still over 2,200 political prisoners in Myanmar now. She has carried out a movement of Myanmar's nonviolent democracy, struggling with house arrest and detention.

Honorary president of MANNAM Volunteer Association, Man Hee Lee and the president, Nam Hee Kim have visited many countries in Europe, America, Africa to meet the world leaders and to convey the aspirations of world peace and liberation. All world leaders they have met agreed with the message that break down the walls of border, race, religion and become a family for world peace and liberation.

And they are planning to meet other leaders continuously. Becuase the world peace is not only our dream but also whole human race's desire. MANNAM will continue to make every effort to realize the World Peace.

Written by

Yeong-jae Yu