Buddies for Peace honoured at Rotes Rathaus

The Bürgerstiftung Berlin and Buddy Bear Berlin jointly presented the annual Buddies For Peace Award in a festive ceremony at the Rotes Rathaus. The event was opened by the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, who thanked the young participants for their commitment in his speech. The award ceremony was hosted by Maximilian Pollux, founder of SichtWaisen e.V. for innovative youth work and former prolific offender. Musical entertainment was provided by the beatbox group The Razzzones, who filled the room with their rhythms.

This year's competition centred on the Anna Freud Secondary School's project on non-violent communication, which took first place. It was closely followed by the theatre performance by the Eukitea Theatre, which took second place. Due to the many good and equally good entries, two third places were awarded this year: Friedrich-Ebert-Gymnasium was honoured for its Rainbow Café and the Stadtschloss Kids from Moabit.
The winning groups each received a one metre high Buddy Bear trophy as a sign of recognition as well as prize money to further promote their valuable work.
With the Buddies for Peace Award, the Bürgerstiftung Berlin and Buddy Bear Berlin annually honour educational initiatives that are dedicated to and support peaceful conflict resolution. The award-winning projects are characterised by their focus on conflict awareness, confronting prejudices and promoting a willingness to change.
The prize is sponsored by Professor Riedel.
The prize honours school and extracurricular projects in Berlin that deal with conflicts and creative solutions in an exemplary manner. All types of schools, classes, study groups, learning groups, clubs and organisations that actively identify and resolve conflicts can take part.

Further information can be found here:

buergerstiftung-berlin.de/buddies-for-peace/