Onlykashmir.in News Desk
New Delhi: Continuing its long-standing mission of nurturing peace, dialogue, and understanding across borders, Aaghaz-e-Dosti, a cross-border collective of young peacebuilders, has announced the launch of its 14th Indo-Pak Peace Calendar initiative, inviting student artists to contribute their creative expressions under the theme “Together We Rise.”
Founded in 2012 as an initiative of India-based Mission Bhartiyam, Aaghaz-e-Dosti has emerged as a unique platform that connects young minds from India and Pakistan through peace education, intercultural dialogue, and artistic collaboration. The initiative’s hallmark projects, including the Indo-Pak Peace Calendar, Aman Chaupal, Indo-Pak Classroom Connect, letter and greeting card exchanges, and open mic sessions, have engaged hundreds of students and educators across South Asia.
Every year, the Indo-Pak Peace Calendar features selected paintings created by school students from both countries, each artwork reflecting a shared longing for a world anchored in compassion, coexistence, and mutual respect. Over the years, the calendar has traveled far beyond classrooms — into homes, communities, and institutions worldwide — serving as a powerful reminder that peace begins with young minds.
In view of contemporary global challenges, Aaghaz-e-Dosti is expanding its vision this year beyond the India–Pakistan context. The 2026 calendar’s theme, “Together We Rise,” seeks to highlight peacebuilding as a universal human responsibility that transcends borders, ideologies, and cultural divides. The organization has also collaborated with renowned artist Neeraj Mittra and his creative platform Art’est – an art abode, to inspire participants toward this shared artistic journey.
Participation is open to students of Classes VI–XII, who are invited to submit original paintings made with poster colors on A4-sized paper (horizontal orientation). Each entry must include the artist’s name, class, school, and a short caption or description. If the artwork includes non-English text, a translation must be provided on the reverse side.
The submission deadline is November 20, 2025. Entries can be emailed in scanned form to aaghazedosti@gmail.com. Schools and organizations may also contact the organizers for details on sending physical copies.
Selected artworks will be featured in the Peace Calendar 2026, with full acknowledgment to the students and their institutions.
Encouraging schools to participate, the organizers said the initiative is not just about art but about fostering empathy and critical thinking. “Each brushstroke is a message of hope,” they noted, “and every young artist who participates becomes a messenger of peace in a divided world.”
Through this collective expression, Aaghaz-e-Dosti continues to reaffirm its belief that peace is not a distant ideal — it is a process that begins with imagination, nurtured by the hands and hearts of the young.
