March 3 and 4, 2018
Love and Peace Newsletter’s Purpose and History
Beginnings
In December 2016, Swami commanded the global youth to begin a newsletter about their service projects. He sent Bobby Patel an email through Bhuvana Santhanam, the World Youth Coordinator which gave the following requirements and guidelines:
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A global youth newsletter will commence from January 1, 2017 which will be on the OWOS site
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Swami wants everyone to know what is happening is the other countries
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Swami has divided the youth of the world into four regions:
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Asia Pacific
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Middle East and Sub Continent
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UK, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Turkey and Europe
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Canada, America (North & South & Mexico)
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This means that one region will be responsible for bringing out one newsletter every week. Essentially every region will get to showcase the work they have done once a month.
As a result of this divine command by Swami, Love and Peace Newsletter’s first issue was published January 1, 2017 by Region One (see banner).
Guidelines for the newsletter were set up online for ease of access by each region newsletter lead including a spreadsheet with details of due dates and region assignments.
Additions Along the Way
Starting with the Region Four, January 22, 2017 issue, a Facebook page was created and weekly posts announcing the latest Love and Peace Newsletter issue were added. Then in October 2017, additional Facebook posting began. Because several months of the year have five weeks instead of four, a Special Issue was added in July 2017 for each of the five-week months, which occurred in July, October and December of 2017. The December 2017 special issue, which came out on December 31, marked the 1st Anniversary of Love and Peace Newsletter.
In the summer of 2017, word came from the World Youth Coordinator that articles on self-transformation should be included in each issue. The purpose of these articles was to emphasise that service was for the personal spiritual transformation of those providing the service more than anything else. The needy getting the help was just a wonderful by-product. The first self-transformation article was introduced as a special issue on July 30, 2017 (http://conta.cc/2hf9lpt) and from that point until the end of 2017, every other issue included a self-transformation article.
2018 – Year Two
To start the second year of Love and Peace, new banners for each region were created and four Special Issues will be written – one by each Region. Additionally, instead of every other issue including a self-transformation article, beginning in 2018, every issue will have one.
The first Special Issue of 2018 will be published April 29, 2018 by Region One. All the country leads in the region will work together to produce these special issues, summarising the region’s service projects and personal transformation stories. Another focus in 2018 is to train and encourage the youth to use the One World One Sai website to organise and bring awareness about their service projects and events.