Four student organizations will hold events both on campus and around Indianapolis in honor of Peace Week, in hopes of raising awareness about the issues of the world outside of the “Butler Bubble.”
Books for Peace, Amnesty International, Butler Peace and Justice and SGA are the four organizations collaborating to run events for the week.
There are many events throughout the week including movies on campus and events in the community to help raise awareness.
Books for Peace President Ana Baracaldo is originally from Colombia and started Peace Week with the help of a peace studies class.
“Books for Peace is an organization that I started in high school as a nonprofit,” said Baracaldo, a political science and international studies double major. “We work to start libraries in developing countries as a way of providing tools for education.”
Baracaldo’s Peace Week initiative seeks to spread awareness to campus from around the world.
“I believe that education is an important pillar in development,” she said. “When people have the tools for education they can contribute to society in different ways.”
Caleb Hamman, president of Butler Peace and Justice, is a senior double major in political science and philosophy.
He will be giving a presentation on his fieldwork in Israel and Palestine during the Peace Week festivities.
“I hope to build a campus community around themes of peace and justice and create an awareness of issues around the world,” Hamman said.
Hamman said he created this organization because he wanted a club that was more closely related to the academic offerings of peace studies at the university.
Amnesty International is also involved in peace week with petitions and letter writing projects involving Libya, the death penalty, immigration and women’s rights.
“For us, Peace Week is a chance to reach out to the Butler community and make them aware of these global complex issues,” Matt Kasper, junior political science major and president of Amnesty International, said.
Kasper also discussed how refreshing it was to have four organizations coming together this year. They hope to have even more in the future.
Their collaborative goal is to raise $2,011 for Peace Week 2011.
