For the past month, a main topic of discussion among members of The World Dreams Peace Bridge has been the silent auction/International Bazaar planned for the upcoming conference of The International Association for the Study of Dreams. From Turkey, Ilkin Sungu is sending a delectable combination of jewelry, beaded key chains and embroidered towels and scarves. Art Funkhouser is bringing Swiss chocolate. Members of the Bridge from Australia hope to provide Aboriginal paintings. And from California, many-times Grammy award winner Carlos Santana is expected to provide an autographed poster, his contribution to the auction, which will support the Peace Bridge Aid for Traumatized Children Project, helping children in war-torn Iraq.
How did this auction come into being? The World Dreams Peace Bridge is a demonstration of dreams in action.
Months ago, when members of the Peace Bridge discovered that Seasons Art School in Baghdad, Iraq was about to lose its funding from the UNICEF grant which sustained it through 2004, Ilkin asked the members of Harry Bosma's Psi Angels to dream about ways to do fundraising for the school. Among other things, what the Angels came up with was the idea of contacting celebrities and maybe hosting a fundraising concert.
As a result, Ilkin (who recalls dreaming about Santana at the time), contacted The Milagro Foundation, operated by the Santana family to create miracles for children around the world. And, after some months of proposal writing by Peace Bridge members, the foundation not only provided a $5,000 grant to Seasons Art School for 2005, but also promised an item for the upcoming auction. Harry's Angels, who have been regularly donating their services to IASD's monthly Online Auction, are participants in the conference auction too, since many of the Angels already belong to the Peace Bridge.
With the funding provided by The Milagro Foundation, the World Dreams Peace Bridge has seen the beginning of another dream, a piece of work called "Dreams and the Children of Baghdad." Supported by members of the Peace Bridge, the staff of Seasons Art School has begun to collect, and translate into English, dreams from the children who attend the school. The first of these dreams arrived this month, and are a poignant reminder of the war that is still going on in Iraq. For the children of SAS have never known anything in their brief lives but war, sanctions, and repression.
"Dreams and the Children of Baghdad," we hope, will become a way for children to express their dreams in writing and drawing, and for the staff of SAS to become familiar with Western methods for working with dreams, as well as for members of the Peace Bridge to become familiar with approaches toward dreaming used in the Middle East.
Here are just two of the drams sent to us this month from the children of Iraq:
Name: Zeinab
Age: 12
Gender: female
She dreamed that she was planting some flowers and small trees. She was making her own garden and yes successfully she did that after great efforts. But the war took place and she had to leave her house with her family. After their returning, she found that her garden had completely destroyed. Though she didn't give up, she started to plant and re-made her garden once again.
Name: Sarah
Age: 16
Gender: female
She had told us one of her dreams. One night she had dreamed that she and some of her friends were making some artworks (stars but of different shapes) and while they were making them, they looked at the sky and wished they could fly to hang their stars beside those already exist there. Suddenly they found themselves flying up to the sky carrying the stars and hanging them one by one. When they finally did that and returned to earth, they saw the sky shining by the stars. Their stars were representing their dreams, so they sky was shining with stars of different meanings. Star for PEACE, star for JUSTICE, star for LOVE AMONG PEOPLE WORLDWIDE and star for CHILDREN`S RIGHTS…etc. all people all over the world have seen the stars.
If you would like to contribute to the silent auction/International Bazaar for the conference, or look at some of the wonderful items already donated, go to
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/asdauction/auction.htm
where Peace Bridge web designer, Liz Diaz, has created an entire set of pages for the auction. Or cash to donations for Aid for Traumatized Children work can be given directly at http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org.
On the Peace Bridge, we believe that all people of the world long for peace and long for connectedness. We can reach out to one another through our dreams, and through our dreams we can connect with the children of the world. As our logo explains, "There can never be too many people dreaming of Peace."
If you would like to know more about the work of The World Dreams Peace Bridge, take a look at our web site at
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org, and if you would like to join us in discussion, just send a post to
worlddreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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