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M.A.D for Peace is a not-for-profit organisation based in London, England, which has one main focus: communicating to the general public the importance of our individual responsibility in creating a world in which extreme conflict and its human consequences are ended.
M.A.D (Making a Difference) for Peace was founded in 2007 by Dr Gill Hicks MBE FRSA, survivor of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, who lost both her legs that day. She discovered a great inner strength to not only fight for her life but to learn to walk again using prosthetic legs. Truly grateful to be alive, Hicks now devotes her time to making her life count, to really making a difference.
At M.A.D, peace is a daily activity, a daily consciousness. Drawing on their background in the arts and creative industries, Hicks and her co-director Claire Sawford devise projects which are participatory, encourage people to interact and together to ensure that peace becomes as instinctive an action as recycling and caring about the environment have become. Just one person’s positive actions within their own community, when multiplied, have a significant effect nationally and globally, and leave a ‘lasting footprint’.
M.A.D’s work is focused in three key areas - Public Engagement, Education and Bridging Divides in Communities - at local, national and international level.
Each M.A.D project embeds one or more of the five key messages from Gill’s own story of survival: Identity, The Brilliance of Humanity, Determination, Optimism and Choice. Specific objectives are incorporated to meet the needs of each particular community.
A simple and effective way that M.A.D get people involved is to ask people to see the ‘other’ point of view, encouraging greater understanding and the willingness to resolve conflict and division.
M.A.D’s first Public Engagement project, WALKTALK, was devised to encourage people of all ages and from all walks of life – who might otherwise never have the opportunity to meet - to come together and walk and, most importantly, talk about their beliefs and focus on everything we have in common. Hicks and a small core team including two co-developer organisations from Yorkshire, and with the support of volunteers from the London Ambulance Service, walked over 250 miles from Millennium Square, Leeds, to Trafalgar Square, London, in summer 2008. Their enthusiasm and determination was matched by local communities, creating a lasting footprint in each community through which they passed.
The message with M.A.D’s second major project, launched in Trafalgar Square on 8 May 2009, was equally strong and simple, asking people to literally DRAW A LINE - whether a human chain with friends and colleagues, an intricate piece of artwork or a simple scribble on a sticky note stuck onto the fridge – and use this as a daily reminder that change and real peace starts from within. The project has been extended as part of M.A.D’s work with schools all over the world as Draw A Line: School to School. [1]
In September 2010, M.A.D launched an international design competition with TafeSA, Technical Centre for Printing and Visual Communication in South Australia, entitled Playing for Peace, which is open to design students under the age of 21. [2] [3]
Charing Cross is a junction and its focal marker in London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; Northumberland Avenue leading to the Thames Embankment; Whitehall leading to Parliament Square; The Mall leading to Admiralty Arch and Buckingham Palace; and two short roads leading to Pall Mall. It also commonly refers to the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross at Charing Cross station.
Moshe Safdie is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author who claims Israeli, Canadian and American citizenship. Over a 50-year career, Safdie has explored the essential principles of socially responsible design through a comprehensive and humane design philosophy. Safdie is an important architect of the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first century because of his multiculturalism, commitment to geographic, social and cultural elements that define a place, and constant search for typological and technological innovation. Safdie's projects include cultural, educational, and civic institutions; neighborhoods and public parks; housing; mixed-use urban centers; airports; and master plans for both existing communities and entirely new cities. Safdie has had projects in North and South America, the Middle East, and throughout Asia. He is most identified with designing Marina Bay Sands and Jewel Changi Airport, as well as his debut project, Habitat 67, originally conceived as his thesis at McGill University. This led to his international career. Safdie is considered a thought leader and his exemplary projects have inspired generations of architects and architecture.
Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, established in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. The Square's name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar.
The Mall is a road in the City of Westminster, central London, between Buckingham Palace at its western end and Trafalgar Square via Admiralty Arch to the east. Near the east end at Trafalgar Square and Whitehall it is met by Horse Guards Road and Spring Gardens where the Metropolitan Board of Works and London County Council were once based. It is closed to traffic on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and on ceremonial occasions.
Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian order built from Dartmoor granite. The statue of Nelson was carved from Craigleith sandstone by sculptor Edward Hodges Baily. The four bronze lions around its base, designed by Sir Edwin Landseer, were added in 1867.
The poll tax riots were a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge, introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The largest protest occurred in central London on Saturday 31 March 1990, shortly before the tax was due to come into force in England and Wales.
The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more than 17,200 volunteers and 3,400 staff. At the heart of their work is providing help to people in crisis, both in the UK and overseas. The Red Cross is committed to helping people without discrimination, regardless of their ethnic origin, nationality, political beliefs or religion. Queen Elizabeth II is the patron of the society.
The flag of Palestine is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. This flag is derived from the Pan-Arab colors and is used to represent the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people. It was first adopted on 28 May 1964 by the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Survivor Corps, formerly known as the Landmine Survivors Network, was a global network of survivors helping survivors to recover from war, rebuild their communities, and break cycles of violence. The organization currently operated programs in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, Croatia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Uganda, Rwanda, the United States and Vietnam.
Peace education is the process of acquiring values, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors to live in harmony with oneself, others, and the natural environment.
Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is for walking. Walkability has health, environmental, and economic benefits. Factors influencing walkability include the presence or absence and quality of footpaths, sidewalks or other pedestrian rights-of-way, traffic and road conditions, land use patterns, building accessibility, and safety, among others. Walkability is an important concept in sustainable urban design. Project Drawdown describes making cities walkable as an important solution in the toolkit for adapting cities to climate change: it reduces carbon emissions, and improves quality of life.
Radio Blue Mountains 89.1 is a not-for-profit, all volunteer community radio station serving the Blue Mountains since 1993. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day from its studio in Katoomba, to a potential audience of some 75,000 people across the Blue Mountains and to a much wider national and international audience through internet streaming.
The Olympic Truce is a tradition originating from ancient Greece that dates back to 776 BC. A "truce" was announced before and during the Olympic Games to ensure the host city state (Elis) was not attacked and athletes and spectators could travel safely to the Games and peacefully return to their respective countries.
William Lionel Wyllie also known as W. L. Wyllie was a prolific English painter of maritime themes in both oils and watercolours. He has been described as "the most distinguished marine artist of his day." His work is in the Tate, the Royal Academy, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, and many other institutions around the world.
Healthy community design is planning and designing communities that make it easier for people to live healthy lives. Healthy community design offers important benefits:
Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her efforts to end the war, along with her collaborator Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, helped usher in a period of peace and enabled a free election in 2005 that Sirleaf won. She, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Gillian Claire Hicks, FRSA, is the founder of the London-based not-for-profit M.A.D for Peace. She is a motivational speaker, author, curator, and trustee for several cultural organisations. She began her career as a speaker in the wake of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. She was the last living victim rescued. Both her legs were amputated below the knee, and her injuries were so severe that she was initially not expected to live. She was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital without a name, identified only as "One Unknown".
The Fourth plinth is the northwest plinth in Trafalgar Square in central London. It was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV, but remained bare due to insufficient funds. For over 150 years the fate of the plinth was debated; in 1998, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) commissioned three contemporary sculptures to be displayed temporarily on the plinth. Shortly afterwards, Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, commissioned Sir John Mortimer to seek opinions from public art commissioners, critics and members of the public as to the future of the plinth.
The Forgiveness Project is a UK-based charity that uses real stories of victims and perpetrators of crime and violence to help people explore ideas around forgiveness and alternatives to revenge. With no political or religious affiliations, The Forgiveness Project's independent and inclusive approach ensures its core message – that everyone has the potential to change their perspective and break the cycle of vengeance – resonates across all cultures.
