Our Stories

Last month Play for Peace celebrated International Women’s Day, a day that honors the achievements of women around the world. Within Play for Peace, there are many amazing and admirable women who work tirelessly as peace builders, including Teresa Raguay or Seno Tere, a teacher and youth coordinator for one of our clubs in Guatemala. We sat down with Teresa to learn about how her work helps women in her community.

Last month, Play for Peace celebrated the United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week, joining a global effort to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence, as well as harmony between all people, regardless of faith. Throughout the week, our clubs had the opportunity to demonstrate and experience the richness of our diversity and show compassion for others.

When it comes to work, most of us tend to be highly strategic and thorough in our approach. But when it comes to leisure time, we don't often handle things the same way. In reality, we should place just as much importance on our passions, each of us appreciating our own unique individuality and sources of pleasure.  

Located in the Philippines, Play for Peace Cebu was founded in 2013 with five original members—including Mitzi Figueroa. As a Play for Peace facilitator, today she is committed to helping youth in her community and continuing the mission the club was founded on more than seven years ago—in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the past six years, Play for Peace has integrated interfaith reflection and learning into our peace building work. This year we are joining global efforts, February 1-7, as part of  the United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week.

At Play for Peace, we use cooperative play to create peaceful change in communities around the world—encouraging compassion, connection, and community across even the deepest divides. But fostering this change isn’t always easy. It takes time, patience, and the belief that change is possible. 

At the end of 2020, Play for Peace launched a campaign to inspire the sharing of appreciation, gratitude, and compassion. Here we'll share how promoting appreciation is not only important in our own daily lives, but also in the lives of youth affected by conflict.

Since 2016, the Youth for Change Club in Israel has hosted cultural exchanges as a way to connect in person with youth from other cultures. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group had figure out a new way to engage with other youth that would bring them together while staying physically apart.

As October comes to a close, Play for Peace also marks the official end of our Level Up: Race for Humanity fundraising efforts. After seven years of in-person events, we are excited that our first-ever virtual race, which took place last month, raised more than $28.2K and created compassion, connection, and community for all who participated.

Today we have another guest post from Jacob Gries, a freelance writer and avid runner who is joining us for Level Up: Race for Humanity. After completing Community Week, he’s back with another post with his take on finding community in today's world.