Africa embraces Golden Rule poster

The following letter was sent to Paul McKenna of the Scarboro Missions Interfaith Desk by Mussie Hailu, Board Chair of the Interfaith Peace-Building Initiative in Ethiopia. The Golden Rule poster is making an impact around the world and particularly in Africa where the poster has been translated into some local African languages.

February 2006

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Greetings of peace to you and to all those working with you at Scarboro Missions for the noble cause of sharing the Golden Rule message with the world.

I am happy to report that I have managed to publish the translated version of your Golden Rule poster in Amharic, which is the widely spoken local language in Ethiopia.

I serve as Board Director at the Interfaith Peace-Building Initiative (IPI), a nonprofit registered nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Ethiopia. The poster translation was made possible by a grant IPI received from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) office in Ethiopia. I am thankful to CRS for their partnership with us in the work of interfaith cooperation and building a culture of peace. I am also grateful to Scarboro Missions for allowing us to translate and print your poster.

Here are the objectives of Inter-faith Peace-Building Initiative:

• to promote tolerance, respect, reconciliation, and a culture of peace;
• to promote dialogue among different religions and youth groups;
• to engage youth in peace-building efforts;
• to promote the Golden Rule.

Peace-building tool

I have found the Golden Rule poster to be the best tool in my peace and interfaith work here in Ethiopia, in other African countries and around the world. I commit myself to introduce it throughout Africa and beyond.

The Golden Rule is my guide in life and I practice it every day. It is my motto along with the world peace prayer, "May peace prevail on Earth." The Golden Rule is also my creed. I find it to be among those key elements needed for peace and harmony to prevail in our world.

The Golden Rule is the best road that can take us from war to peace, from hate to love, from darkness to light, from being selfish to living for the sake of others, from revenge to forgiveness, and from disrespect of other faith traditions to respect of them.

As part of a strategy to promote the building of a culture of peace and interfaith harmony, and to create a role model in Ethiopia, the board members of Interfaith Peace-Building Initiative have established a Goodwill Ambassador for Peace award. Each year we honour an individual who is working in the area of peace building, interfaith cooperation and serving the community in different humanitarian activities.

As part of the award, we give a diploma, a peace medal and a framed Golden Rule poster. We ask the person to commit him or herself to live according to the principles of the Golden Rule, to teach those principles to others and be a living example. In other words, we ask them to become a spokesperson for the Golden Rule. In this way we hope to reach out to more people with the message of the Golden Rule.

I have also given a framed Golden Rule poster to the office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the Office of the African Union, and to religious leaders here in Ethiopia.

The poster is useful in my work both at home and abroad. It is my plan for 2006 to give the Golden Rule poster to the 54 African Heads of State for use in their work to promote peace.

Editor's note: Mussie Hailu is a Coptic Christian. He is working to establish regional Golden Rule peace ambassador awards around the world. Inspired by Mussie, Scarboro Missions will be presenting its first such award in Toronto this spring.

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