‘Peace-city’ Chandigarh hosts 14th Global Youth Peace Festival

Over 200 youngsters from 20 countries are participating in this year’s peace festival

With the theme ‘leave no one behind’, the 14th Global Youth Peace Festival got off to a rollicking start here on Monday at Chandigarh Institute of Hotel Management (CIHM), Sector 42, Chandigarh.

An artiste from Bali, Indonesia, performing at the Global Youth Peace Festival in Chandigarh on Monday. (Sanjeev Sharma/HT)

The American Gandhi, Bernie Meyer, who has been a guest at the peace festival continuously for the last 10 years and who continues to be a star attraction to this day, said we must embrace Gandhi’s framework of ahimsa, satyagraha and tapasya. “The world needs a new way of tackling problems and this can be found in the way Gandhi found solutions to various issues plaguing humankind,” said the 82-year-old.

The highlight of the inaugural session was a cultural performance by young people from Gandhi Bali Ashram, Indonesia.

Artiste from Bali performing at the peace festival in Chandigarh on Monday. (HT Photo)

Over 200 youngsters from 20 countries are participating in this year’s peace festival. Some of the participating countries include Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Syria, Sudan, Sri Lanka, USA, Vietnam and Rwanda.

Executive Director of Sociopreneur ID from Indonesia Dessy Aliandrina; President of the Malaysian Humanitarian Movement Khiarul Answar Mansoor, and Managing Director, BillionAbles India Sameer Garg, were conferred the global youth icon awards.