International Peace Day (Monday 21st September) kicked off the Peace Fields Projects around the world when local primary school children in Messines, Belgium, site of the 1914 Christmas Truces, played games of football with the Peace Poppy Ball.

Each poppy ball will be distributed to Peace Fields Projects in countries around the world.  The poppy ball commemorates the First World War and celebrates peace through play.  The Peace Day Celebration was facilitated by the Peace Village, Messines, Flanders Peace Fields and National Children’s Football Alliance with International Children’s Football Alliance partners One World Play Project.  Special guests from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the USA Embasy to Belgium attended the event.

INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY LAUNCHES PEACE FIELDS PROJECTS .

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MONDAY 21st SEPTEMBER, PEACE VILLAGE, MESSINES, BELGIUM

International Peace Day will be hosted at the Peace Village, Messines, Belgium, where local school children will kick off a series of football games with Peace Poppy Footballs. The footballs will then be distributed to International Children’s Football Alliance projects around the world helping to create peace-makers for the future.  The Peace Poppy Football will also help kick start the Heritage Lottery Funded Peace Field Project where schools in England research their World War Heritage through sport; commemorating the war and celebrating peace.

FOOTBALL & PEACE PROJECTS

Andrew Murrison, MP, The Prime Minister’s Representative for the First World War Centenary (left) & John Carmichael, International Children’s Football Alliance, NED (right) holding the Peace Field Poppy Ball which is due to kick off on International Peace Day, Monday 21st September, 2015, at the Peace Village, Messines, Belgium.