syrian refugees

Headlines this week in PD News showcased the convening power of cultural diplomacy. 

The heartbreaking image of a dead, three-year old Syrian refugee who was drowned in the Mediterranean sea last year just got a huge artistic tribute. [...] That photograph of Ai captured by India Today magazine on the Greek island of Lesbos is now the toast of the India Art Fair at an exhibition called “The Artists” this weekend.

The ten most notable PD moments from 2015.

Pope Francis has called on European leaders not to turn their back on refugees and migrants despite the cultural and security challenges associated with the arrival of 1 million people this past year.

A bright orange peace sign appeared on a hillside on the Greek island of Lesbos on New Year's Day, transforming a growing pile of life jackets discarded by refugees arriving on the island into a message to the world. 

“It's the dramatic multiplication of conflicts in the world. It's the fact that the international community has lost much of its capacity to avoid conflicts, to prevent conflicts, and then to timely solve them. And this is what needs in my opinion to have a surge in diplomacy for peace.” 

A family of Syrian refugees had been invited to dinner in a penthouse atop the Waldorf Towers, the official residence of the United States ambassador to the United Nations. [...] Morad and Ola Al Teibawi, and their five children — ages 3 to 17 — came to the Waldorf from their tiny apartment in Paterson, N.J., on Monday evening, guests of Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, and her husband, the writer and law professor Cass Sunstein.

When an Indian man invented a simple machine for poor rural women to make cheap sanitary pads, the idea was to provide jobs for some, and hygiene for millions - often for the first time. The story gave one British woman an idea that quickly became her mission in life.

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