Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Ambassador Renate shares thoughts of empathy, compassion, and community.
By Dr. David JakupcaPresident and CEO,
International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA)
March 28, 2020
To all the Worlds Children, members, staff, and beyond:
In these uncertain times, I wanted to reach out to share that you, your family, your friends, and your colleagues are in our thoughts. We’re all anxious and things are changing quickly—each day feels like five news cycles. Our first priority is the health and safety of all the Worlds Children, our staff, visitors, and volunteers.
We’re approaching this time with the experience of helping to build communities for 30 years+. We do that with the humility we draw from the natural world, with the nimbleness the public expects from us, and through the grassroots network of families and individuals who connect through Iceality. Even while we’re coming to grips with this new normal, People everywhere have demonstrated a deep appreciation for just being safely outside where they can keep appropriate social distance and yet try to hear the songs of Spring approaching.
We’ve done the important basics: To help stop the spread of the virus, we’ve closed all WCPM offices, we’ve suspended all non-essential travel, and we’re postponing events and large gatherings. We’ve also closed all of our nature center at the historic ARK in Berea Eco-Museum while keeping the trails open for now. We’re regularly updating COVID-19 messages though inspirational posters by Dr. A.J. Brohi
on our social media Facebook page, so you can see the status of the situation.
We’re continuing to work with our colleagues, some members of our conservation team are still able to perform important stewardship and monitoring work—and are doing so safely. Additionally, we’ve taken practical steps to ensure the health and continuity of the business side of our house as well.
We’re also looking at ways that the Worlds Children Peace Monument (WCPM) can help the broader community—and in times like these, Nature can provide a source of hope, a sense of resilience, and maybe even a little inspiration. Given the need for digital education tools with families staying home, we’re using this moment to leverage our digital tools and transform our educational programming and provide folks with online solutions that can be informative and fun:
We have an online gallery by Dr Brohi that give daily tips and inspiration you can use:
- THE AMAZING ARTWORK OF DR. ABDUL JABBAR BROHIFOR THE WORLDS CHILDREN PEACE MONUMENT (WCPM)AMAZING ARTWORK OF DR. ABDUL JABBAR BROHI
- We’re finding new ways of serving local communities, based on what they tell us they need.
The CLEVELAND NATIONAL PEACE PLAN for AMERICA. - We’re engaging our network to use at-home time productively. We can’t bring much activism to a system that’s appropriately focused elsewhere, but we can keep our network connected through compelling training on everything from building great advocacy ICEALITY campaigns to the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the conservation world.
To be sure, we’re all facing a long and challenging list of unknowns. We’re both gaining and losing visibility on what our new reality is each day—and it seems likely that things may get worse before they get better. But I’m confident that the International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA) leadership team and its international and state and center boards have the conservation expertise and the business experience to make good decisions at a trying time.To our dismay, amid the #COVID2019 controversy #Cleveland, #Ohio is missing the chance of global leadership as the 'Cradle for a Universal Culture of Peace" for All Living Things! By delaying to implementing of the acclaimed Worlds Children Peace Monument (WCPM) Politicians are not utilizing the respected Science of Peace and Global Harmony, the Theory of Iceality, for maximum affect to save the Planet from self destruction.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or if we can be helpful or supportive of you in any way. And a special request: If you know of creative changes from the United Nations or that other NGOs are making during this period—or if you have suggestions—I’m all ears. If you have ideas on how we can help serve you or your community, please send them to me.
Many of you have heard me say that ‘I cannot do all the good that the WORLDS CHILDREN need, But the Worlds Children need all the good I can do". . . and right now, along with state and local leaders and patient funder partners, we are also what hope can look like for our communities.
Thank you for helping make our work possible.
Peace Friends and Please stay safe,
Ambassador Renate
ARK in Berea Eco-Musum
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