The chic, modern offices at St Leonard’s look like they could belong to a trendy graphic-design firm. The airy glass offices are complete with a water cooler and glossy conference table.
Convinced I must be in the wrong building, I hesitantly stop a heeled and suited lady passing. “Excuse me,” I mumble, “I’m looking for Camilla Schippa.”
I’m surprised to find that I am in the right building after all, and these flashy offices are the home of Vision of Humanity – a not for profit organisation working towards world peace.
Where are the daisy-chain hippies, I wonder? Where are the ‘free love’ posters?
“We’re actually very professional,” Camilla says when I mention it to her. “I spend a lot of time working with businesses, telling them a peaceful nation will buy more computers than a country at war.”
Camilla Schippa is the Senior Vice President of Vision of Humanity, having joined the organisation after a ten-year stint with the United Nations.
“I often say I was running around the office,” Camilla laughs, describing her job with the UN. “I was running the office, but mostly running around the office.”
Imagining Camilla flustered in the office is no easy feat – she is perfectly calm, dressed in classic corporate wear, but with a string of brightly coloured woolen beads draped around her neck.
Despite being cool and collected, Camilla is passionate about her work for peace. To Camilla, peace is the pre-requisite for survival.
“If we are not friends, and we don’t seriously start working together, we can’t solve all our huge challenges – of climate change, and overpopulation, and everything else.
“I’ve learned from my many years at the UN, that unless countries are friendly and willing to collaborate, nothing’s going to work.”
Camilla Schippa’s latest project involves a partnership with tween social networking site, Bebo, to launch a design competition for a new peace logo. The winning design will be unveiled at the Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations in Washington, DC.
It’s not a typical project for a peace organization, but one that Camilla sees as tremendously important.
“We want to reach out to the youth of the world, to think about what peace means to them, and how important peace is to their futures.
“The challenges of sustainability are going to affect our youth much more than they’re going to affect at least my parents, and most likely me as well.”
Camilla became involved with the peace movement after visiting Africa in her teens. Having been raised in a fairly privileged home in Italy, Camilla’s trip to Africa was a turning point.
“I was pretty shocked by what I saw in Africa,” Camilla emphasises. “I was pretty impressed also by the beauty and the joy that I saw in Africa, together with the poverty and the desperation.
“From that day on, I said, ‘I will not spend my life making somebody else richer. I will spend my life trying to make the world a better place.’
“At the end of each day, I can go home, and I can be tired, but I know I’ve made a difference.”
And what do her kids think of her work?
“My son tells other people, ‘My Mummy works for peace’,” Camilla says with a laugh. Camilla has a five-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.
“I think they’re fortunate enough not to really understand yet what the issues are,” she says. “If I’m talking to my five-year-old, peace is what they have right now. It’s the ability to live their life in such a privileged way.”
Camilla recalls a seven-year-old girl she met last month in the slums of Nairobi. The girl cleaned clothes for work. It’s a powerful comparison.
“Peace to her would be different,” Camilla says. “To her, peace would be to be able not to work, and to live in a safe environment.”
Camilla’s peace logo project is part of a push to bring the peace movement out of the sixties, and pass the baton to a generation of digitally connected, technology-savvy teens.
It’s an extension of Camilla’s belief that the peace message can be delivered professionally to any audience.
The offices may be trendy and modern, but don't be surprised – Peace is getting a 21st Century makeover.
http://www.soldiersofpeacemovie.com/
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