Dear Reader,
Important message for volunteers: Following requests from volunteers, our main method of communication will now be via WhatsApp. If you have this app on your phone and have given us your phone number then you should already have access to the UNACOV Ambassadors 2018 chat. If not then please let me know. Alternatively if you don't want to use WhatsApp then please register with our United Nations Cov Volunteers Facebook group (unacov) and you will be able to see most of the information there.
Now let's think about the month ahead
November will be a special month for us. 11 November will be the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War fighting. To celebrate this special day we have organised our very first "PeaceTwalk". People from different communities will talk as they walk together around the War Memorial Park. UNA volunteers will be guiding small parties to various peace-related locations and using the history of each to stimulate conversations. We have prepared a script for you so it should be easy. See below for more details.
The United Nations was not yet formed when the First World War ended. It emerged from the ruins of the Second World War with the aim of preventing more wars. But it has dismally failed in this task. We believe that the UN needs to do far more in reconciling communities after wars end. This is called Transitional Justice. Conflicts between individual can also be reconciled using the same principal. In this case it is called Restorative Justice. Come to our RJ Conference on 14 November to find out more!
There are still a few seats left at the Lord Mayor's Peace Lecture on 13 November to be delivered by the well-known independent-minded journalist and broadcaster Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the subject "Keeping Faith in Just Values in an Age of Populism". Book here as soon as possible.
And if you cannot attend any of these, there is something you can do to help save the planet and fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals from the comfort of your own home. Use your mobile phone to make a short video about a simple action that anyone can take, then post to social media using the hashtag #globalgoals. For lots ideas on things people can do visit
www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/takeaction
Thank you for your continued support of our work in promoting international and UN issues to the wider public.
Philip Brown
Secretary, UNA Coventry Branch
philip@unacov.uk
