Young Women of Wales Call For Peace: The 2024 Peace and Goodwill Message

Atnaujinta Penktadienis, 17/05/2024

Today (17 May 2024), Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Wales’ largest youth organisation, shares its annual Peace and Goodwill Message by the young people of Wales with the world. The title of this year’s message is ‘Gweithred yw Gobaith’ – ‘Hope is an Action’.

Since 1922 the young people of Wales have shared a Message of Peace and Goodwill with the world, each year focusing on a different theme. Every May a message has been shared without fail, initially through Morse code, then through the BBC World Service and more recently through digital media. Last year’s anti-racism Peace Message was seen by millions in 50 countries and supported by celebrities and hundreds of schools across Wales and beyond.

This year’s Peace and Goodwill Message celebrates the centenary of the remarkable 1923-24 Welsh Women Peace Petition, and highlights the need to advocate for peace a hundred years on.

A century ago, on the 19th of February 1924, the Welsh Women's Peace Petition chest was opened with its 390, 296 signatures inside in front of 600 US women at the Baltimore Hotel, New York. The petition was an act of hope for world peace, and its story has inspired the Urdd to encourage a group of young women to come together to create this year's Peace and Goodwill Message.

To prepare for this year's message, the Urdd held a workshop in the Cardiff Urdd Center on the 25-26 of January. Staff members, apprentices and volunteers of the Urdd, and students of the ESOL course (learning English as a second language) of Cardiff and the Vale Collage all came together for the workshop. The poet and singer, Casi Wyn, led the insightful workshop. All the attendees were women, to reflect the message of the Welsh women's petition 1923-1924. Special guests were invited to enhance the workshop experience. Mererid Hopwood, Ffion Fielding from WCIA, Zoey Allen, and Mah Kakar delivered powerful talks. 

Shatw Ali is one of the young women who contributed to the message. She said:  

“The workshop made me realise there are so many more people who are desperately looking for peace and in everyone’s heart there is a part that wants to experience peace at least once in their lifetime no matter their race, age, gender, or background. I’m really looking forward to the message going out.”

Following the workshop, Casi Wyn transformed the powerful words and ideas from the young women into a written message. The words are now available to read in over 60 languages here on the Urdd’s website. The Peace Message was then created into a short film, this year by the talented animator, Efa Blosse-Mason. The film is now live and available to share from the Urdd’s social media channels.

The message emphasizes the importance of taking action and persistently advocating for peace. It asserts that atrocities, wars, and violence must be stopped, and that cooperation, passion, and hope are the driving forces that can lead the towards a better future.

Today, the Urdd and the young people of Wales urge everyone worldwide to join them in advocating for international peace.

If you would like to know more about the Urdd’s Peace and Goodwill Message, please get in touch – peace@urdd.org 

Support this important campaign today by sharing the message on social media (see below).