Vivo and Peace One Day partner to celebrate peace in schools
London Tuesday 27th August 2013 – Vivo, the award-winning recognition and rewards
platform for schools, has partnered with Peace One Day (POD), the global charity behind
‘Peace Day’ on 21st September, to raise awareness for peace in schools through a photo
competition.
From Thursday 29th August, children aged 11+ at Vivo schools across the UK will be
encouraged to use their creative ingenuity to answer the question, “What does peace look like
to you?” by submitting an image. The image could be a photograph, drawing or piece of
writing which expresses the idea of peace.
The lucky winner will be announced on 18th September before the big day. They will receive
an Apple iPad and a personal Skype call from the singer-songwriter Eliza Doolittle, who is
POD’s education ambassador. Doolittle says, “Every child deserves to feel safe and secure in
school and we can all make a difference. If we continue to work together, by Peace Day 2013
we will reduce violence on a global scale.”
The founder of POD, filmmakerJeremy Gilley,adds, “This year we anticipate over 600,000
million people will be aware of Peace Day - of which it is believed 4% will act more peacefully.
A global truce is not in the governments hands. It’s in your hands. It’s in our hands. It’s in the
students' hands.”
Reducing violence and global conflict is an issue which is close to the hearts of many British
school children. In a recent survey conducted by Vivo with 33,000 students who were asked
the question, “If you could use your Vivos to change something in the world for the better,
what would you choose?”, 19% suggested an end to war and conflict and 9% responded that
they would like to promote peace.
This year Vivo will be announcing more partnerships with charities and not-for-profits to
encourage volunteering, community and social enterprise in schools. Currently 7% of all Vivos
- the virtual currency which students are awarded by teachers for things like academic
achievement, attendance and a range of positive behaviours - are donated to charity rather
than spent on rewards in the school shop. 11.6M Vivos have been donated since launch or
£116,049.
“Peace starts with respect and respect starts with education,” says George Grima, cofounder of Vivo Rewards Ltd. “I have been lucky enough to see the incredible work schools
do across the country to teach young people the importance of tolerance and caring for
others. Young people are optimistic, passionate about helping others and hold peace in the
highest regard.”
For more information about the Vivo Peace competition, visit vivoclass.com/peaceoneday
For more information on global Peace Day visit peaceoneday.org
Notes to editors:
About Vivo Rewards:
Founded in 2009, Vivo Rewards provides a range of online reward solutions to the educational sector
and the wider community. Over a million students and teachers in England and Wales now use Vivo
across from in over 500 schools, including many of the most prestigious new academies. It has strategic
partnerships with the leading ICT providers to education, including all the leading MIS and VLE
manufacturers.
The company has a growing customer base in Australia and the UK, alongside rewards and recognition
products for other markets including primary schools, secondary schools and higher education, not-forprofit organisations and the wider community.
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Finalist in the 2012 BETT Award, ICT Company of the Year.
Vivo Rewards won the 2011 Education Investor award for Use of Technology.
Vivo Rewards won the 2010 BETT Award winner for Best Leadership and Management
Solution.
About Peace One Day:
Peace One Day’s objective is to institutionalise Peace Day on 21 September, making it a day that is
self-sustaining, an annual day of global unity, a day of intercultural cooperation on a scale that humanity
has never known.
Inspired by a 70% recorded reduction in violent incidents on Peace Day in Afghanistan (source: United
Nations Department of Safety and Security), and in order to build a strong foundation for 2012, Jeremy
Gilley launched the Global Truce campaign that involved the creation of a series of Peace One Day
coalitions, each with a lead partner: the NGO Coalition; the ‘Reducing Domestic Violence’ Coalition; the
Student Coalition; and the Schools’ Network.
Through detailed analysis conducted with the support of McKinsey & Company, the Peace One Day
2012 report found that, across the world, approximately 280 million people in 198 countries were aware
of Peace Day 2012 – 4% of the world’s population. The report further estimates that approximately 2%
of those people (5.6 million) behaved more peacefully as a result. Peace One Day expects to double
those figures for 2013, creating a solid foundation for informing 3 billion people about Peace Day by
2016.
Media contact:
Vivo Rewards
2nd Floor
1 Leicester Square
London
WC2H 7NA
T: +44 (0)207 234 9426
M: + 44 (0)7538 525655
Email: lucy.andrews@VivoMiles.com
Twitter: @lucyiandrews