The Keough School of Global Affairs will observe the International Day of Peace with two campus events: a prayer service featuring University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., on Friday (Sept. 20) and a talk by a Notre Dame graduate who serves in the Sierra Leone government on Tuesday (Sept. 24). Both events are free and open to the public.

Established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, the International Day of Peace is on Saturday (Sept. 21) this year, and this year’s theme is “cultivating a culture of peace.”

At 2 p.m. Friday, Father Dowd will join the Keough School for a prayer service at the Our Lady of the Lake World Peace Plaza, which is located west of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes (view on map). Guests can use this link for visitor parking.

The plaza was made possible through the legacy of William J. Pulte, a master builder and community member, who had a passion for world peace. It includes a fountain that displays a prayer for peace in six languages: English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and French. It is estimated that the inscribed prayer can be understood by 97 percent of the world’s population.

The event is hosted by the Keough School’s Pulte Institute for Global Development. Mary Gallagher, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School, will speak at the service, which will include prayers in multiple languages and from multiple faith traditions. Tracy Kijewski-Correa, the William J. Pulte Director of the Pulte Institute, will offer a reflection.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, the Honorable Chernor Bah, Sierra Leone’s minister of information and civic education, will speak in the Hesburgh Center Auditorium (view on map). Bah is a 2011 graduate of Notre Dame who earned a master’s degree in international peace studies. His talk is organized by the Keough School’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and he will also receive the institute’s Distinguished Alumni Award while on campus.

As a child, Bah faced displacement multiple times during Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war. At the end of the war, at age 15, he founded and led the Children's Forum Network, a mass movement of children who organized and mobilized to demand their voices be included in peace and reconciliation efforts. He was invited to present a report on the experience of Sierra Leonean children to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2002. Since then, Bah has worked with youth in Liberia, Lebanon, Haiti, Uganda and other emergency settings, leading efforts to strengthen youth voices in development and policy processes.

Bah has twice been appointed by the United Nations secretary-general to high-level steering committees and has spoken at the White House, the United Nations General Assembly, the European Union, the African Union and the World Bank. He has also lectured at universities around the world.

Originally published by Josh Stowe at keough.nd.edu on Sept. 18. 

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu