Giving Hope Foundation, a non-profit organisation working towards building social cohesion and promoting peace within the community, will be presenting their inaugural Peace Award at a prestigious event during Mandela week on Wednesday, 20 July.
Speaking to the Phoenix Tabloid, the spokesperson for the foundation, Roy Sukdhev said that last July’s unrest left horrible memories in the minds of thousands of South African people. He said: “It’s a memory that is extremely difficult to erase due to the violence, deaths, destruction, looting and false anti-racism accusations. Giving Hope Foundation is embarking on a campaign to encourage peace building and social cohesion in schools, communities and workplaces. South Africa belongs to all of us and we as the citizens of this country have a choice to save our country from total collapse through peace education.”
He added that education helps people gain knowledge, enhance their skills in the area of peace, and form an attitude about the meaning of peace in democracy. “It prevents the emergence of conflicts and creates conditions for peace in the world. Peace education is very important to prevent unrest, infrastructure destruction, gender based violence as well as strikes and protests. In an effort to encourage peace within communities the Giving Hope Foundation’s first prestigious peace award will be presented to the founder of the Gift of The Givers Foundation, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, at the Riverside Hotel in Durban on 20 July,” said Sukdhev.
The special peace award trophy was handcrafted out of Tambuti wood by Rajiv Singh, whose father, Kuber Eadhev Singh is well known for hand-carving royal gifts out of Tambouti wood. Sukdhev said when Princess Diana and Prince Charles tied the knot in 1981, Singh made a jewellery box for Diana and, in 1995, during Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Durban, he also presented her with one.
“When the Queen Mother died in 2002 at the age of 101, he made a wooden cross in her memory, which he laid at her shrine near Buckingham Palace and when Prince William and Kate Middleton married in 2011, he hand-crafted a table for them,” added Sukdhev.
The father of four has also crafted items for former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, as well as US presidents Ronald Reagan and George W Bush. The legacy continues as after Kuber Eadhev Singh’s retirement, his son Rajiv Singh is continuing the tradition and will be making the special Tambouti wood trophy for the prestigious peace award.
“This year it will just be one peace award but different categories for schools, businesses, journalists and other fields will be introduced going forward. The success of our peace education is dependent on the involvement of schools, business and communities,” said Sukdhev.
