Current Involvements
Here are some of the areas where the Silk Road Peace Project is currently active:
- Convening multi-ethnic gatherings to promote understanding and reconciliation.
- Developing media resources for awareness and advocacy - see examples on the home page and below.
- Reaching out to members of affected communities to help with practical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
- Facilitating prayer gatherings to focus on key factors in the crisis.
- Convening listening events or webinars where victims' voices can be heard.
- Joining efforts to inform government leaders and to support appropriate legislation.
Project highlights
Voice for the Voiceless: Tursun Nurmemet
Uyghur Soccer Tournament
This past July the Silk Road Peace Project was one of the co-sponsers for the Uyghur American Cup 2022, held in Toronto, Canada. During the past several years, this annual tournament has become an outstanding example of community building for Uyghurs who have suffered so much loss due to the ongoing genocide in their homeland. Specifically, we made a donation to help provide lodging for out-of-town players who might otherwise not be able to participate. Similar to tournaments held in past years, we also served by taking thousands of sports-action photographs and then making them available to the players through a special website. It was very well appreciated.
Freedom Trek Creative Video
During the summer of 2021, the Silk Road Peace Project organized a benefit thru-hike of the 485-mile / 780 km Colorado Trail. The purpose was three-fold: 1. Fund-raising 2. Advocacy, and 3. Prayer. Wilderness, the exact opposite of a concentration camp, was the ideal expression for what Uyghurs most need right now — freedom. All donations went directly to the cause. It was a privilege to represent our Uyghur friends during their hour of greatest trial. We recently produced a video from the trek set to a Uyghur-language poetic reading and a piano composition based on a famous Uyghur folksong (Adargul). It is our sincere desire that this short production will be a source of hope and encouragement for Uyghurs who are facing so much trauma. You can view it below (with English sub-titles). Here are the links for the same video with Arabic script Uyghur subtitles and Latin script Uyghur subtitles.