For Immediate Release
Issued by United Nations Association Coventry Branch
23 September 2016

Lord Mayor Welcomes United Nations Association to Coventry

On International Day of Peace, 21 September 2016, the Lord Mayor of Coventry Councillor Lindlsey Harvard welcomed the formation of the United Nations Association Coventry Branch and thanked them for organising the first Coventry Peace Day.

He was speaking during a three-course dinner which the UNA had organised in the highly-rated Rising Cafe and was attended by 60 diners from a wide variety of organisations engaged in peace within the city of Coventry, as well as a number of refugees from Syria.

2016 was the first time that International Day of Peace has been celebrated in Coventry and the dinner was one of several events which the UNA organised in the city.

In keeping with the theme of Coventry Peace Day, “Come Together for Peace”, diners were encouraged to sit with somebody they did not know. The Chair of the Coventry UNA, Shagufta Hamid-Khan, welcomed the guests and introduced Dr James Hodkinson from the University of Warwick who ran the Two Chairs Exchange, in which strangers from different cultures meet and share their common humanity.

The meal was accompanied by music from Mexican singer Leticia and Amit Chakraborty from India. It included talks by the Lord Mayor, by Jenny Page from Rising Global Peace Forum and Sabir Zazai, Director of the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre. After the meal a collection was held to enable the Centre to support refugee children. There followed a talk by Mr Terry Waite in Coventry Cathedral.

Other events which the UNA Coventry Branch organised during Peace Day included the making of origami peace doves in the FabLab, City Arcade. This followed a similar event held in the Lower Precinct on Saturday 17 September.

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In addition the website CoventryCityOfPeace.uk included a wide variety of other ideas about how people could celebrate and think about peace. Coventry UNA created this site as a portal into the wide variety of peace-related organisations and activities in the city.

Coventry United Nations Association are planning a variety of other activities on international subjects throughout the coming year. Their programme can be found at UNACov.uk

Information for Editors

United Nations Association

The United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK) is the UK’s leading source of independent analysis on the United Nations as well as a UK-wide grassroots movement. UNA-UK believes that a strong, credible and effective UN is essential if we are to build a safer, fairer and more sustainable world. It advocates strong government support for the UN and demonstrates why the UN matters to people everywhere.
UNA-UK is a UK-registered charity number 1146016
www.una.org.uk

UNA Coventry Branch

The UNA Coventry Branch runs events throughout the year where experts discuss international issues with the public, such as Women in ISIS, International Law, the Future of Democracy.
More information at unacov.uk

Coventry Peace Website

UNA Coventry Branch has brought together information about the wide range of peace-related activities in Coventry to create the portal CoventryCityOfPeace.uk

Two Chairs Exchange

This is a rolling, co-operative project between Dr. Hodkinson of Warwick University and diverse, non-academic partners in the UK and Germany. lt aims to set up and stimulate reflection on real-life and virtual encounters between mutually different groups and communities, whether these are defined in terms of ethnicity, faith, gender, geography, language or nation – with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on young people.

Contact

Philip Brown
Secretary
United Nations Association Coventry Branch
philip@UNACov.uk
024 7671 7275