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THE Urdd’s annual peace and goodwill message is being shared by football stars this year as the organisation celebrates its centenary.
The message – a familiar ritual to many Welsh schoolchildren – is intended as a message from the young people of Wales and is this year focused on the environment and calls on those in power to take urgent action to protect the planet, saying: “It’s time to wake up.”
Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey are among the players who have appeared in a short video supporting the message urging business leaders and governments across the world not to ignore the climate emergency.
The students from Aberystwyth University who wrote the message and Wales’ first minister Mark Drakeford will present it at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday.
Drakeford said: “The Nobel Peace Centre is the ideal location for the Urdd to share the centenary peace message with the world.
“At a time when the peace of the world is in such peril, the message and work of the Urdd in welcoming refugees to Wales have never been more significant.
“The theme of the climate emergency, too, will resonate with young people from around the globe as we work together to protect the fragile planet which we inhabit together.”
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A peace and goodwill message has been delivered every year for the last century by the young people of Wales, with 2022 being the charity’s centenary year.
Wales is the only country that has produced such an important message for over 100 years.
The first message was sent using Morse Code, followed by the BBC World Service. It is now most widely shared on social networks.
Last year’s message was the most successful to dateThe text has been translated into 65 languages, viewed in 59 different countries, and reached more than 84,000,000 people worldwide. Hillary Clinton is one of the prominent names who have expressed their support via Twitter.
This year it is available in 100 languages, and with promotion by Bale, Ramsey and a number of other well-known faces from the Football Association of Wales’s senior female and male teams it is hoped the message will spread even further.
Mae’n amser deffro 🔴⚪️💚
Our players are proud and honored to support the @UrddTomorrow’s Peace Message will be sent to the entire world.#TogetherStronger | #Heddwch100 pic.twitter.com/EspUdnSuTT
— Wales 🏴 (@Cymru) May 17, 2022
Sian Lewis, the Urdd’s chief executive, said: “As an organisation, we have a duty to the next generation to use this platform to amplify their voices, because giving a voice to the young people of Wales is at the core of everything the Urdd does.”
Along with the message, Urdd has committed itself to reducing its carbon footprint. They have created a net Zero plan with a target to achieve net zero by 2050.
It also opened its first environmentally residential centre for young people in north Pembrokeshire.
The Urdd and Aberystwyth Universities have donated to the Urdd and Aberystwyth University’s carbon capturing and storage woodland protection plan to offset the impact of students traveling to Norway.
You can read the full Urdd’s message of peace and goodwill.
THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY
The clock is ticking
Our world is on fire.
It’s time to wake up.
Floods, fires or starvation can lead to poverty.
This is our reality.
Migration, conflict, displacement,
Is this our future?
Why are we still listening?
What about the blah?blah?blah of those in power
Why do we still believe?
That we can make our own way out.
It’s time to wake up.
It’s time to make a change.
We can’t carry on like this.
We have the freedom to choose.
To slow down and to reduce our use
To think.
To stop overconsumption.
Because we won’t be the first to suffer.
Gareth Bale, a Welsh football star, supports the message.
And so here’s our promise
To change the way we live
To call for a systemic shift
For the sake of all those in the Global South.
For the sake and future.
We’ll begin with ourselves
Make small changes
Put pressure on politicians as well as corporations
Make big changes.
This is our promise.
What’s yours?
It’s time to wake up.
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