Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up!At any given day of the year, feel free to look at the world map and press the zoom-in button. Chances are high that you will find a group of MasterPeacers busy somewhere creating peace -one step at a time- within their own local communities. You will find true stories of guts, persistence and ambition. In this booklet, we selected 15 of those stories for you to enjoy and give a big high five to those champions. We surely hope that their stories will inspire you to team up with us and use your talent and energy to create peace together.

Phot

ogra

pher

na

me

The MasterPeacer 2

The Founders - Making Dreams For Change Reality2006. Mohamed Helmy (Egypt) and Ilco van der Linde (The Netherlands) stood abreast on their stage alongside the Pyramids. Thousands of students attended their Dance4Life event as a reward for their participation in educational programs. Supported by celebrities and Egyptian TV they reached out to millions and broke the silence on HIV and Aids. This successful East-West collaboration made them hungry for more so they promised to continue working together on involving people for social change. Today Dance4Life involves hundreds of thousands young people globally. At an earlier stage Ilco developed the Liberation Festivals with one million people attending the largest yearly human rights project of Europe.

2009. This ambitious couple had the dream of creating a global movement of peace-builders. Within ten years they aim to inspire millions of people using their talent and energy to fuel ‘3D’: Dialogue, Development, Disarmament. They called their journey MasterPeace. Day by day artists, social entrepreneurs and companies jump on board and the dream became reality in over 30 countries with grassroots initiatives run by thousands of volunteers. Mohamed and Ilco: “This dream is not our possession. We truly hope you feel invited to become the co-owner of MasterPeace!”

From Dream to Reality!Within two years of hard work and 24/7

dedication of all team members, MasterPeace has reached its current status with a Central Office in Cairo (Egypt), a European office in

Utrecht (Netherlands), MasterPeace Clubs in 25+ countries, a distinguished board with members

from 4 continents, a campaigning team, 7 Founding Partners, 37 Collaborative Partners

(including Mayors for Peace in over 5,000 cities), 16 media partners and some first donors and

business partners (including KPMG). Are you next to team up with us? masterpeace.org/About

The MasterPeacer 3

Cha

rlin

e G

oud

Music above Fighting “Find an instrument to strike back with. Not to get even, but to get equal.” With his clear Irish tone Terry O'Neill from Belfast found a perfect way to express his feelings in the latest MasterPeace mini-documentary. O'Neill starts the journey of knocking down his own emotional walls playing his violin and singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ to Jack Forgie, his ‘enemy’ in thirty years of war. Filmmakers of the company Wefilm followed O’Neill’s journey creating the A quality short documentary ‘Music above Fighting’ for us. The touching film tells the story of two musicians ‘from both sides’ in three different conflict areas, challenging their differences and coming together to sing Imagine next to the (physical) walls separating them. The conflict areas featured in the documentary are Belfast in Northern Ireland, the border area between India and Pakistan, and Jerusalem, border between Israel and Palestine. Areas where people have been separated from their neighbors by mental and physical walls for decades. The film demonstrates that where words fail, music speaks: a language that goes beyond bombs, fighting and differences! You can enjoy the film on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/masterpeace2014.

Our Focus AreasSo far, we have selected sixteen focus

areas because peace efforts and peace builders there need additional support and media attention. We aim to set up MasterPeace Clubs in those areas and provide a stage for their top artists to

perform in our 2014 concert. The current focus areas are: Afghanistan, Armenia/

Azerbaijan, China/Tibet, Colombia, Congo, India/Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Kenya, Kosovo/Serbia, North/South Korea, Nigeria, Russia/Chechnya, Sudan/South

Sudan, Turkey/Kurdish area. More info on masterpeace.org/About/FAQ

The MasterPeacer 4

wefi

lm

From Victim of War to a Voice of Peace: MasterPeace Uganda led by a true peace hero “As a result of all the LRA rebel violence and the terror in Uganda, I felt insecure and lost. I witnessed the loss of my brother and many other relatives who were either maimed, killed or abducted, a painful memory that I will live with for the rest of my life. Thanks to MasterPeace I have now a new lease of life, an avenue to lift the spirits of fellow victims of war,” said Moses Kyamakya, who didn’t hesitate a second before joining MasterPeace.

Uganda holds a special position for us, as it was the first country to launch a MasterPeace Club in the world! Moses, leader of MasterPeace Uganda, lost his brother to the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group in 1996. In an inspiring display of compassion and positivity, Moses has used this personal experience as a motivation for committing his life to peace building and conflict prevention.

MasterPeace Uganda focuses on peace education and teaching students and households about conflict resolution in their daily lives. Together with many schools and other NGOs they have been collaborating through many contests, competitions and artwork along with a yearly celebration of the International Day of Peace.

MasterPeace ClubsSocial entrepreneurs, young change makers and other peace lovers from

all over the world are invited to set up MasterPeace Clubs within their cities, regions or countries. Clubs use art,

music, events and dialogue to support local peace building activities. We

currently have 28 clubs in 25 countries and probably more by the moment you are reading this. Active club members earn an invitation to the MasterPeace

Concert in Cairo. More info on masterpeace.org/clubs.

The MasterPeacer 5

Walking for 4 Years: a story of a man, with an iPhone and a Guitar “I believe people are inherently good and willing to help one another. And social media have great possibilities in terms of connecting people across all divides”. These were the words that Wijnand Boon, MasterPeace’s first Alchemist Alive traveler, shared on why he is doing his journey for peace.

Wijnand is a brave Dutch man who quit his job and his routine life to start the MasterPeace journey, walking for 4 years from his hometown Leiden (Netherlands) to Cairo, to celebrate the MasterPeace concert in 2014. Boon is following the footsteps of the Alchemist novel by Paulo Coelho, in which the leading character, a shepherd boy, walks all the way from Andalusia (Spain) to Egyptian Pyramids.

Boon is walking on zero budgets, with only an iPhone to connect with people and media on his way. He proofs that traveling, social media and music can really bring people together. You can follow him on www.twalkwithme.eu.

Along with being a great adventurer, Wijnand is also a talented musician using his best friend, his guitar, to entertain his hosts and also to finance his trip. Guts and entrepreneurship have no limits. Are you the next MasterPeace traveler?

MasterPeace Journey – The Alchemist Alive

Inspired by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and his famous novel ‘The Alchemist’,

MasterPeace is providing an opportunity for thousands of people around the world to leave their own comfort zone and travel in a green

and eye-catching manner towards the Pyramids in Cairo and support local peace building

initiatives on their way. All travelers earn an invitation for the MasterPeace Concert in Cairo.

More info on masterpeace.org/alchemist

The MasterPeacer 6

MasterPeace Dialogues: bringing opposites together “Truth and reconciliation, is that a concept that can be rooted in the hearts and minds of Egyptians in order to move forward?”, Our hosts Marwah El Ghobashy and Bart Burghgraef asked the participants of Cairo Conversation, MasterPeace’s first hosted dialogue event in the Sawy Culture Wheel along the Nile.

Right after the revolution, Egypt was caught off balance; a restless nation, recovering from a popular movement to throw out the old system, divided between calls of revenge and demands for justice.

Together with Bart we decided to bring the experience of South Africa during the abolishment of Apartheid in 1994 to the attention of the Egyptian people. The discussion was very lively with different opinions among the participants. While some saw it a promising move toward a better Egypt, others disagreed about how reconciliation could be applied to contemporary Egypt, or whether it was necessary at all. But we decided to put dialogue in the core of all our work with the MasterPeace Clubs all over the world and also in Egypt, where regular Dialogue Saloons bring liberals, Islamists and Salafists together to shape the future of their country.

MasterPeace Concerts on the International Day of Peace

On the International Day of Peace, 21st of September 2014, MasterPeace will organize the

most heart-warming peace concert ever alongside the Egyptian Pyramids. Popular artists from

both sides of our focus areas will be performing together to promote our 3D-message of Dialogue, Development & Disarmament. So far, top artists like Juanes, Emmanuel Jal, Angelique Kidjo and

Gilberto Gil have expressed their willingness to be part of it. Tickets are not for sale. You can earn your ticket by getting actively involved in MasterPeace! Check masterpeace.org/About/

The2014Dream

The MasterPeacer 7

Dancing Alongside the Cradle of the Euro “I want to invite you to become part of the MasterPeace movement and join our activities in the Maastricht area. Become a volunteer and start your own initiative related to peace, dialogue and resolving conflict in society.” Karel van Eechoud (International Business student of Maastricht University) sent this invitation to all his fellow students, together with his friend Maarten Derksen.

Ten years ago the European Community signed a treaty to create the Euro in the city of Maastricht (The Netherlands). One currency to stabilize a continent! The young generation in Maastricht feels that stabilizing isn’t primarily a ‘money job’ but in the hands of real people: “It is up to everyone to contribute to a peaceful society, and help build on the positive vibe.” They named their club MasterPeace043 and they have already organized a dozen of upbeat events like musical performances and funky flash mobs in less than a year. They emphasize one of the goals of all clubs: bringing in more MasterPeacers in order to get stronger and more effective day after day.

Getting the Word OutMasterPeace is about inspiration;

especially when it comes to campaigns that reach large numbers of people.

Since the start, MasterPeace has succeeded in creating many catchy and high quality campaigns with the help of top creative communication companies forming our own campaigning team. It is a dream team including top names

like Ogilvy, Global Tolerance, Wefilm and Mortier Brigade. Barcelona designer Marion Dönneweg has developed our logo expressing that no matter your color or walk of life, we are all united

through music. More on masterpeace.org/InspirationCenter

The MasterPeacer 8

Drawing Egypt: graffiti as a colorful revolutionary tool Joining 70 artists in drawing one of Cairo’s longest graffiti walls, Hadeer Adel, a 23 years old art student, expressed her pride by putting her mark on Cairo’s walls for a better future: “I enjoyed every bit of it, the music, the atmosphere, the people, and most importantly I painted the new Egypt!”

Hadeer was happy using the same art format that was very popular during the Egyptian revolution when graffiti became the symbol of freedom adding vibrancy to the eternal stones of Cairo and transforming it into a new way of inspiration.

Hadeer is one of the cheerful 3000 attendees of MasterPeace street art festival in Cairo. As part of its Peace Day celebrations the MasterPeace club of Cairo has chosen an exceptional location, just a few miles away from Tahrir square, where sparks of the Egyptian revolution took place. Hundreds of artists, painters and musicians teamed up to fuel the festival and work with us for a better Egypt. Thousands of people attended the event and all participated in painting the huge wall of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture in Cairo. You can still visit it whenever you are in town!

Cairo, the World’s Peace Capital“Minds are like parachutes, they work better

if they’re open.” In the week prior to the MasterPeace Concert in 2014 MasterPeace

will transform Cairo - the biggest city of Africa - into a global Peace Capital where visitors will enjoy debates, seminars, music events,

fashion shows, exhibitions, talk shows, fueling the international exchange of knowledge on peace building. The first peace capital was

organized in Cairo in September 2010, and has been growing since then, working towards the largest peace gathering in 2014. Your idea is

welcome too! info@masterpeace.org

The MasterPeacer 9

Sierra Leone: Ending violence in one night After losing friends and family during tribes’ fights in Sierra Leone, Charles Boye decided to dedicate his talents and energy to prevent new violence. “Just give young people a chance and you will see miracles!” and this is exactly what the MasterPeace Club Sierra Leone put into test, when they recently succeeded to ease out a very tense situation between young people and the police. Charles and his MasterPeace team decided to uptake the hard task of negotiating between the police and an angry crowd of young people that wanted to take revenge after the shooting of two of their peers.

Despite the chief of police’s lack of confidence in the youth’s role, the MasterPeace intervention team spent the night with the conflicting groups, convincing them to reach an agreement which was signed the following day in the presence of the president of Sierra Leone who thanked the MasterPeace Club for the immediate and responsible intervention. This is the core of ‘MasterPeace’: grassroots, spontaneous and entrepreneurial. By 2014 we aim to have 200 of these fresh, fast and effective clubs all over the world. Say ‘thanks’ to people like Charles by starting one in your region!

International Day of PeaceIn 2011, MasterPeace celebrated the international Day of Peace of

September 21st in 15 countries, some of which never witnessed Peace Day celebrations before. Between 2012

and 2020, MasterPeace Clubs aim to feature several hundreds of events on a local and regional level with

hundreds of thousands participants and volunteers, in the most cost efficient, grass roots way possible. Together

we can make this important day more loved, known and effective. More on masterpeace.org/About/Movement/

InternationalDayofPeace

The MasterPeacer 10

Inspired by Buddha, Nepal is pushing peace again! “I suddenly realized what my true passion is about: to help bring global peace.” This is how Santosh Bidari from Nepal was introduced to MasterPeace. Nepal is globally recognized as Lord Buddha’s birthplace, a true symbol of Peace, but the country suffered for several decades. Many infrastructures were destroyed and lives were harmed. Eventually, in 2010 a peace consensus was made between Government and Maoists and elections were held to form the new constitution.

Santosh started his work when he founded 'Peace for People' to act as a stakeholder in bringing peace to Nepal. Santosh and his team are currently dedicating their time and energy to expand the MasterPeace Nepal Club by conducting various peace programs with the youth in various schools and colleges. MasterPeace Nepal launched their first project for children under 16 years old, participating actively in various musical, dance and drama performances for peace. Santosh aims to create more programs to encourage and motivate the youth to put up their efforts for peace in their society, community and nation, as an inspiration for the entire world.

Peace building is a verb!Just imagine that you will be at

the pyramids in Egypt joining the MasterPeace Concert in 2014!

But remember, you can’t buy your tickets, you have to earn them!

By creating an account on www.masterpeace.org, you can join one of the peace building initiatives on the website and earn an invitation as you get involved! Write a blog, participate in an action, start a MasterPeace Club, travel to the Pyramids or launch your own

campaign. Just do it!

The MasterPeacer 11

From Malaysia to the World: Incitement towards social change Zikry Kholil and Daniel de Gruijter founded ‘Incitement’ in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as an inspiring way to make people stand up for social change. They used the MasterPeace 2.0 platform as a tool to develop their project by inviting guests to their events, recruiting speakers and connecting with other MasterPeacers on the website.

With the rapidly growing number of people who have access to the Internet, MasterPeace recognized the need to utilize the new ‘power of the people’ to fuel peace building. For this we developed MasterPeace.org into a 2.0 platform that functions as a marketplace for peace connecting MasterPeacers to grass root peace initiatives around the world.

Zikry stressed on the impact of the MasterPeace website on their work: “Through the website arrangements were very easily established. We had Mohamed Helmy kicking off the event and sharing the different projects and initiatives MasterPeace is doing. Our Incitement event is essentially a movement to encourage individuals to incite positivity through their goals and MasterPeace actually helped us to cultivate our message and it has been growing immensely ever since.”

MasterPeace 2.0: Just do it!Through our own www.masterpeace.org

you will find a cool marketplace for peace in which you can support initiatives around the world with your skills and talents. We

ask about your talent and if you are good in building websites before you know you might bring your talents to a peace initiative in, for

instance, Ethiopia.Every time you apply for an action, write a blog, or start an initiative, your earn points until you get rewarded with an invitation to

attend the MasterPeace concert.

The MasterPeacer 12

Rom

eo S

hagb

a

MasterPeace Warrior Walks From Village to Village in Masai Land A story of persistence, hope and determination, that is the story of Ezekiel Katato from the peaceful Masai land in Kenya. Despite all the hardships Ezekiel had to face living in a poor community, a pure smile and wise tone have always accompanied this calm man.

As Ezekiel states it: “The MasterPeace mission has always been very relevant to me. All my life I have worked to promote peace inside my homeland and bring its culture to the world.” This brave peace warrior turned into a role model in his community, building up the MasterPeace Club in the Masai land. He prepares the biggest walk of peace across all 8 clusters in Kajiado County in Kenya bridging the gap between rural tribes. All walkers will be gifted the famous Masai land peace necklace which has brought peace in the past and still will do. Ezekiel told us about the peace necklace at the first boot camp, a story of Naserian, a girl who saved the community from a dreadful war. “I decided that this is going to be part of my vision for MasterPeace; to distribute these symbols of peace to about one million people all over the world in five years.”

More sustainable world with less armed conflicts

Poverty and armed conflict are interconnected. There is a potentially vicious cycle with underdevelopment leading to increased conflicts, which

undermines the economic growth leading to even more conflicts. And what is the answer of governments

all over the world? Yearly they spend more money on buying new weaponry:

411 billion USD in 2010 (SIPRI, 2012). Our movement will inspire political

leaders to choose this positive path as we envision resources are increasingly

used for the development of people (education, health, food).

The MasterPeacer 13

MasterPeace ‘2014 for 2014’: Fundraising Can’t Be More Fun The involvement in building peace is the best possible answer to indifference. People can grow, inspire and learn by doing. That’s why we often call MasterPeace the ‘Just do it’-campaign for peace. Students of the Dutch Inholland University understood this very well and adopted MasterPeace as theme for their yearly music contest. Student and singer Shelton Telesford (22) produced the single ‘All of us’. “I wanted to compose a song for MasterPeace in order to contribute to peace. With this song I hope to inspire others to help people in war zones and get active for peace,” says Shelton, who was inspired by the MasterPeace slogan ‘Creating Peace. Together’. He also managed to inspire other artists to work with him on the song including talented jazz singer Karsu Dönmez. All revenues of the music contest and the song go to the MasterPeace ‘2014for2014’ campaign, which implies raising 2014 Euros to realize the MasterPeace concert in Egypt and thus support its goal to promote dialogue, development and disarmament. ‘All of us’ is available for download via iTunes.

The MasterPeace ‘2014for 2014’ Action

MasterPeace is an independent grass root movement and we are inviting

companies, restaurants, sports teams, student clubs and bands to support us in this mission. Via the

MasterPeace.org/2014for2014 initiative, you are invited to organize your

own MasterPeace event (music, art, seminar, training, other), engage your public in peace building and raise at least 2014 Euros (or the equivalent in your currency) and get rewarded by 4 invitations to attend the MasterPeace

Concert in 2014.

The MasterPeacer 14

Cha

rlin

e G

oud

The Philippines: Uniting 7,107 Islands under the Banner of Peace “Some of the youth now are becoming passive because they are more concerned about their idols in television, facebook and twitter. With this in mind I realized that there is a need for an inspiration to arise.” said Razul Arboneda, leader of MasterPeace Club of the Philippines, expressing the need of an ‘eye-opener’ to increase the level of participation of the youth in their communities.

Razul started the MasterPeace Club of Tagoloan, the first peace advocate Club in the entire region. Razul and her team started by celebrating the International Day of Peace 2011 with the innovative idea of ‘ReciPeace’ – a competition in which students prepared creative international recipes to promote the dual concept of peace and nutrition. After this the active Club conducted a memorable ‘Culture of Peace’ seminar where young people learned about the approaches to peacemaking and the different challenges in conflict transformation.

“Young people have always been key actors in effecting change in society. MasterPeace Philippines is a living testimony on how youth can easily feel the need to work on something meaningful, worth their time and energy!” Razul said proudly. From now on, Razul, you are our very own Peace Idol and we will keep on following you!

Innovation is Key!MasterPeace was awarded the ‘Most Innovative Idea of 2011’ by

1,000 CEOs at the Big Improvement Day, one of the most prestigious business events in Europe. With events, cartoons, virals, songs,

clubs, social media and more we strive to inspire you to donate

your talent and energy for building peace. Moreover an innovative mindset helps us find creative

solutions to problems and do a lot with very little resources.

The MasterPeacer 15

Visiting the Nile Basin: A Motorcycle Peace Journey‘Gift of the Nile’, that is how Greek Historian Herodotus described Egypt and that is indeed very true since around 96% of the Egyptians depend on the Nile in all their life activities. However there is an ever-rising tension between Egypt and its Nile Basin neighbors about this gift. “Even before I joined MasterPeace and became an Alchemist Alive traveler, a friend of mine used to called me an ‘Alchemist’, so I believe it was an omen.” Omar explains how he joined the movement few months ago. “Whenever I pass a mountain I want to climb it, whenever I pass a river I want to cross it. I just want to connect with each and everyone on my journey, and learn more about life.”In November 2012, Omar is planning to follow the longest river on earth till its sources. From the heart of Egypt in Rosetta, Omar starts his journey for peace crossing the 10 Nile basin countries on his motorcycle. He will spread the MasterPeace message, carrying along gifts from the children of Egypt to the children of the Nile Basin and highlighting how sharing water actually means sharing a future.

Desmond Tutu supports MasterPeace!

We are honored to have the endorsement of South African archbishop Desmond Tutu. “I

believe in MasterPeace. World leaders cannot push back armed conflict alone. We need the whole world to make this happen.” Tutu has

agreed to support the MasterPeace WorldBand where prominent world leaders team up with world-class artist to perform together on the stage of the MasterPeace 2014 Concert. More info on masterpeace.org/About/The2014Dream

The MasterPeacer 16

Juanes & MasterPeace!The Colombian superstar Juanes,

with 17 Latin Gammy Awards, millions of records sold, saw the MasterPeace infomercial

on the Peace and Collaborative Development Network, and then he decided that MasterPeace was the

movement for him to join. Due to the match with his own message of peace through art

and music, Juanes has decided that he wants to join MasterPeace

performing at the foot of the pyramids in 2014!

Brave Hearts, Great Minds“MasterPeace is one of the most innovative peace building projects I have seen over the last 20 years.” Craig Zelizer (Professor on Conflict Resolution at the Georgetown University, USA) is well known in the peace building community for his important contributions: conducting capacity building trainings in addition to applying research, facilitations, and interventions in over 15 countries for over 2,000 individuals. He also managed to get the world of peace activists closely connected through a huge network of more than 26,000 peace workers through his own Peace and Collaborative Development Network.

Craig Zelizer is part of the professional and highly dedicated MasterPeace board with members from four different continents. In the board you will find renowned names such as our Chair Yolanda Eijgenstein, awarded the Business Woman of the Year 1997, former diplomat and winner of Women in Media Award 2011 Petra Stienen, former CEO of auditing company KPMG Wessel Ganzevoort, Gema Moreno Vega of Deloitte & Touche Mexico, along with the Director of Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, Egyptian Heba Ramzy, environmentalist Jan Paul van Soest as well as founder & director of Studio Zeitgeist and awarded Trendwatcher of the Year 2012 Farid Tabarki.

Cha

rlin

e G

oud

The MasterPeacer 17

The founding partnersof MasterPeace are

And a big thank you to all our partners,friends, staff and volunteers

MUSIC ABOVE FIGHTING.

DIALOGUE ABOVE JUDGMENT.

BREAD ABOVE BOMBS.

CREATION ABOVE DESTRUCTION.

THAT’S MASTERPEACE.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT!www.masterpeace.org

www.facebook.com/MasterPeace2014

www.twitter.com/MasterPeace2014

MASTERPEACE EUROPEAN OFFICE

Hoog Catherijne - P.O. Box 19289

3501 DG Utrecht, The Netherlands

T : +31 (0)30 2340500

M: euoffice@masterpeace.org

MASTERPEACE CENTRAL OFFICE

Suite 131, 9 Osman Buildings

Maadi Corniche. Cairo. Egypt

T : +20 2 25257540

M: info@masterpeace.org