Norwegian Gifts for Peace at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo

Norwegian Scouts and Guides took part in the Gifts for Peace by making an enormous peace quilt. Each patch in the peace quilt was made by a group of 5-10 Scouts and Guides. They decorated these with their wishes for the future, and the majority chose a peace theme. More than 5000 patches were submitted and the final result is a peace quilt made out of 600 patches. For practical reasons, the quilt is divided into 6 sections, each of 2x2 metres.

The quilt is now displayed in the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, for everybody to see this autumn. The exhibition was officially opened on the International Day of Peace, 21st September, with Guides and Scouts, Chief Scout Lars Atle Andersen and Secretary General Karen Johanne Strømstad of The Norwegian Guide and Scout Association, Chief Commissioner Anne Sjømæling and Secretary General Per Ove Løkstad of the YWCA-YMCA Guides and Scouts of Norway, guests, and in the presence of the political advisor of the foreign ministry, Torbjørn Urfjell.

Torbjørn Urfjell presented a cheque for 100.000 Norwegian Kroners for their fundraising campaign for Sri Lanka and explained to the Scouts and Guides that whilst uniforms usually make him think of war and conflict, the Scout and Guide uniforms make him think of peace. He noted that the Norwegian government was very pleased with the work of the Norwegian Scouts and Guides. The Chief Scouts also gave brief speeches, and Scouts and Guides read a peace poem and talked about the making of the quilt.