Missoula has a head start. Thanks in large part to the initiative of several young mothers who started an organization called Soft Landing, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is re-establishing an office in Missoula that will serve up to 100 incoming refugees from Syria and elsewhere in the year ahead. The IRC is an officially sanctioned Voluntary Agency (VOLAG) under U.S. refugee policy. 

International Day of the African Child has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union. It honours those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day in South Africa where thousands of black school children took to the streets in 1976, in a march more than half a mile long, to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. 

There are also thousands of organizations and people all around the world engaged in positive nonviolent and collective action. There are hundreds of indigenous environmental struggles around the world, from the US and Canada to Central and South America and Asia and Africa, resisting fossil fuel and other corporations from building pipelines, mining terminals and other controversial projects.

The grandson of the late Indian Leader Mahatma Gandhi is visiting Bucks County to advocate for peace and nonviolence. Arun Gandhi will be joining The Peace Center of Langhorne on Sunday as part of the organization's 35 anniversary for the "Speak Up for Peace" Campaign.

How is democracy promoted around the world? What techniques are successful? Established state democracies are by no means the only inspiration for democracy or for good governance; these ideas can find inspiration in other cultures and societies, such as Myanmar.

Ten refugee athletes will act as a symbol of hope for refugees worldwide and bring global attention to the magnitude of the refugee crisis when they take part in the Olympic Games Rio 2016 this summer. The athletes will compete for the Refugee Olympic Team (ROT) – the first of its kind – and march with the Olympic flag immediately before host nation Brazil at the Opening Ceremony. 

In 2015 the WHO said that smoking is on course to kill 100 million Chinese in this century, and it warned that if the Chinese continue the habit, that rate could increase to 3 million per year by 2050 [...] From Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, China has a long history of luminary smokers. However, “ashtray diplomacy” has abated thanks to a policy introduced in 2013.

What do World Cup champion Abby Wambach, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jewel, and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Lakshmi Puri have in common? Each of them is a fighter in the struggle for gender equality and has overcome stacked odds to become a 21st-century champion for change.