21 September marks the International Peace Day and as usual I celebrated with family and friends. It was a special day for me as it coincided with the Moslem Id al fitir days which are observed after the end of Ramadan. Photo: I and My daughter, Maria, at the University of Vaxjo where I study Peace and Development. She is sending a message of peace to children in war zones and making an appeal to warlords to stop killing the children with mortars, hunger and disease. It was an event i arranged personally but attracted a great number of people in the campus. Maria reunited with me only two months ago after going through a difficult time, together with family, as a result of war in Somalia. We fled from war in 2007 and family have since been moving from bush to bush, from village to village and from town to town till they finally made safely to Addis where they contacted the Swedish Embassy to help them reunite with me in Sweden. At 7 Maria knows what peace means because she has seen war. So are her brothers and sisters.

Prepare the land of joy
Plant the seed of peace
Provide water of respect
Weed it with a love hoe
Spray it with commitment
Fence it with understanding
Be a person of integrity
In the soil of truth
Cultivate confidence