| Exchange
Programmes: building friendship at the grassroots |
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| Exchange programmes
bring Peace Boat participants and local people together to
share common activities and move beyond the barriers of language
and cultural difference. By dancing together, playing sport
or learning each other’s handicraft skills, we hope
that participants can identify with each other on a human
level, building the friendship links across nations and cultures
that are a pre-condition for peace and sustainability. |
| Study
Programmes: understanding local realities |
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| In order
to move towards peace and sustainability, we need to recognize
the diversity, complexity and interconnectedness of our world.
Local realities, at the grassroots level, are mostly unknown
and thus ignored by the rest of the world. One powerful way
to overcome this situation is by being directly exposed to
those local realities, and by creating a common understanding
of the problems and their possible solutions. Study programmes
are organized so that they shed light on particular problems
and share innovative local alternatives. This local level
learning is then integrated into thinking on a global scale.
We hope that, by raising such awareness, people participating
in our activities can then better direct their actions towards
positive change. |
| Supporting
Each Other: goods for sustainability |
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| One component
of a Peace Boat visit to a port can include the delivery of
support goods for sustainability. These goods, such as computers,
school supplies and bikes are gathered by volunteers from
across Japan and transported onboard the ship. Contributions
reflect the actual needs of local communities, as determined
through consultation with Peace Boat’s partner organizations.
Peace Boat members personally deliver the goods to the community
in question, with the objective of understanding the needs
for, and use of, the goods and building friendship links.
This work is coordinated by the Peace Boat project team United
People’s Alliance (UPA). |
| Joint
Appeals: supporting local advocacy campaigns |
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| Peace Boat aims to contribute
to the advocacy work of our local partners through the organisation
of joint appeals in port aimed at raising local, national
and international awareness. These can take the form of participating
in public advocacy actions such as street demonstrations and
delegations to embassies, or by highlighting a particular
issue through a study programme or symposium. Media is key
in this work, with the arrival of the ship itself often a
newsworthy event that local partners can utilize to generate
media coverage that includes their campaign issues. The ship
is often used as a venue for press conferences. |
| Socially
and Environmentally Responsible Tourism: |
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| Peace Boat strives to practice a progressive form
of travel which aims
to benefit people and communities at the local level as well as create a
more meaningful and educational travel experience based on
people-to-people exchange for participants. Our goal is to continuously
identify and implement new practices that will help a better
redistribution of the income generated through our travel/tourist
activities towards our NGO or grassroots partners. We also hope to
contribute to sustainable development projects and better understand and
minimize our impact on the environment while linking local issues to the
global context and learning first hand how we can positively impact
these issues. |
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