Community Building

Fostering strong, healthy communities is at the core of URI’s work.
Youth for Peace CC's summer school in Bosnia and Herzegovina

URI encourages people to help each other by reaching across religious, ethnic, and cultural lines, creating a culture of respect and safety that fosters peace even during difficult times.

Examples of our work in this Action Area:

  • In Pakistan, the URI MCC Islamabad office works for inter-religious peace by addressing local Muslims' and Christians' joint need for necessities like roads, sewage systems, gas and water
  • In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Youth for Peace CC's summer school brought together young people from different backgrounds to serve their community through volunteering efforts like helping disadvantaged families, painting houses, and repairing old cemeteries
  • After a Helsinki mosque was vandalized, URI members from the URI Multiregion formed an interfaith group to clean it, sending a strong message that they would not allow their community to be divided
Search for Cooperation Circles (CCs) with a focus on Community Building
FIND CCs

Stories

Thumbnail

Vesak day Celebration

Latin America and the Caribbean
Community Building

Last Thursday, May 7, 2020, Vesak Day, also known as "Visakha Puja" or "Buddha Day" was celebrated around the world. It is the holiest day in the Buddhist calendar. It commemorates the birth of the Buddha, his illumination and his transit. On this date millions of Buddhists go to the temples and make offerings. The decision to celebrate Vesak worldwide was established in 1950, at a conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists.