The Peace Project is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2010 by marketing and new media entrepreneur Lisa Schultz. The Peace Project's mission is to promote peace in its most tangible form: helping people in need. The Peace Project's initiatives include education, personal mobility, housing, vocational skills training and micro-lending.
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History
The Peace Project, powered by the social networking site TheWhole9.com, was launched in 2010. Sierra Leone was identified as the starting point for their work which has since expanded to include disaster relief and community building work in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.
Immediately after launching, artists from around the world were mobilized to submit their art to The Peace Project's 1st Annual Call for Artists via TheWhole9.com. Since then, artists from around the world have submitted peace-related art which results in an annual art exhibit that travels throughout the United States. The Call for Artists and traveling exhibits have helped to provide funding for The Peace Project's work including Operation Rise.
Operation Rise, Sierra Leone
The Peace Project's inaugural endeavor was in Sierra Leone; Operation Rise provided crutches to people, many of whom, due to the loss of limbs through amputation during the civil war as well as disabilities, had little personal mobility.
On September 11, World Peace Day 2011, The Peace Project distributed 10,000 pairs of crutches to amputees, polio survivors and women and children across the entire country of Sierra Leone. According to Mahimbo Mdoe, the country representative for UNICEF which supported The Peace Project on this effort, a pair of crutches can change someone's life "For these people, it will mean they are able to move around," he said, adding that it will allow men and women to hold jobs, while children will be able to get to and from school. "To the person who gets a pair, it will be everything."
Peace Tips
During the planning stages of Operation Rise, it was discovered that the plastic tips of crutches wear out within one month at which point crutches begin to deteriorate, thereby hindering the sustainability of crutch distribution efforts. In early 2011, The Peace Project began working with Thomas Fetterman, an inventor who specializes in crutches and crutch tips, to find a solution. Utilizing a crutch tip perfected by Fetterman over a twenty-five-year period that can last up to one year, Fetterman and The Peace Project created a design that has a peace sign cut into the bottom—with each step, a peace sign imprint is left in the ground.
Family to Family, Philippines
After Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon recorded at landfall, devastated portions of the Philippines on November 8, 2013, The Peace Project sought a way to assist some of the people that had been left homeless. Working with a team of architects and engineers, The Peace Project designed a small house that has about $500 in building materials and can be built within a day. Utilizing this design and a unique model whereby for a donation of $500, individuals or organizations can select a family and sponsor the building of their house, and with the support of local tradesmen and community volunteers, The Peace Project completed their first community of forty houses on Bantayan Island on November 8, 2014, the anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan.