Netherlands Youth Peacebuilding Working Group (YEPW): Paint for Peace Project

 

 

The Netherlands is a multicultural country where people of various ethnicities live together. This has led to various social problems, and among them, youth mental health issues are emerging as a particularly serious issue. Accordingly, HWPL and the IPYG Netherlands Branch planned a citizen-based Youth Engagement & Peacebuilding Working Group (YEPW)* project focused on mental health issues and summarized the results.

*The Youth Engagement & Peacebuilding Working Group (YEPW) is a youth-led regional group that discusses various issues that threaten peace and security in the community and seeks practical solutions.

According to the Corona Health Monitor for Young Adults from 2022, in a joint study by the Municipal Health Service, the National Institute for Public Health, and the Environment in the Netherlands, approximately 6.5% of young people ages 16 to 25 reported having experienced suicidal thoughts (very) frequently in the year prior to completing the survey. Additionally, 63.1% reported feeling lonely sometimes or always in the past four weeks. These results show that many young people in the Netherlands still have not yet achieved true inner peace.

However, if there is no peace within oneself, one cannot achieve peace in one’s surroundings. Accordingly, the working group sought to promote inner peace among Dutch youth by utilizing ‘sticker painting’ as a tool for self-expression. Furthermore, based on the belief that peace among Dutch youth can lead to peace throughout Europe and even the entire world, the inner peace pilot project ‘Paint for Peace’ was planned.

 

 

The ‘Paint for Peace’ project was designed to divide an A2-sized canvas into several sections, with citizens attaching stickers to each section to complete the overall design.

The first project was a canvas design inspired by the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, which served as the starting point for the project while visually conveying the message of building inner peace.

 

 

YEPW in Netherlands visited Rotterdam’s Blok Station, a place with a large floating population, to introduce HWPL and IPYG’s peace activities to citizens and inform them of the importance of peace. Many citizens listened to their voices and deeply sympathized with the value of peace. In particular, it was a significant experience for them to receive 20-30 new citizens who were open to participating in HWPL’s peace activities, such as signing up for membership.

 

 

The second project included various themes and methods. We focused on the mentality of Rotterdam citizens who rebuilt the city after the bombing in 1940, and designed a canvas based on the Cube Houses, Rotterdam’s iconic architecture. A young man who is a representative of an IPYG partner organization and a member of the YEPW in Netherlands, volunteered for this project twice and passionately explained that “HWPL’s goal is to end war and achieve world peace.” He also said that it was a very special and proud experience to see other organizations working together with IPYG.

 

 

Events were held in various places, including the temple of a religious organization, the Rotterdam City Library, and Erasmus University. In April, the Amsterdam Myanmar community hosted a charity event to support Myanmar, which is currently facing a serious human rights crisis. The community expressed solidarity by donating goods to celebrate Myanmar’s new year (Thingyan). YEPW in the Netherlands shared their hope for peace in Myanmar by painting stickers with designs using the Myanmar flag.

 

 

In May, an exhibition was hosted in the lobby of the Rotterdam Library to commemorate the 11th Anniversary of the September 18th HWPL World Peace Summit, which gathered canvases from the ‘Paint for Peace’ projects that were completed. The goal of the exhibition was to inform citizens about the importance of peace. The library, which deeply sympathized with the activities of the YEPW in Netherlands, provided their lobby space free of charge. About 150 citizens, including religious leaders and youth leaders from the Netherlands and Belgium, attended the event, and about 50 of them expressed their willingness to participate in peace activities with HWPL.

 

 

In August, the ‘Eurekaweek’ event, an introductory week for new and international students, was held at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, and IPYG participated as an NGO. At this event, IPYG operated various programs such as ‘Paint for Peace,” a spinning-wheel game, and having participants write peace messages. About 120 people visited the booth and left various messages about peace, showing great interest and response.

 

 

Even in 2025, the Netherlands’ peace activities have not stopped. YEPW in the Netherlands took to the streets with a canvas design containing a white dove (a symbol of peace) and a heart (a symbol of love), under the theme of spreading the culture of peace referenced in Article 10 of the ‘Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War’ (DPCW). Dozens of citizens we met that day experienced firsthand the culture of peace created by YEPW and promised to continue working together in the future.