Deadline: 22-Oct-21
The Niwano Peace Foundation has launched its Activity Grant Program.
Objectives
- Peace is the desire of all humankind.
- Many people in many nations are working unstintingly to bring it about. In spite of this, enormous problems still exist. How best to handle them is the task facing them today.
- The causes of obstructions to peace are manifold, ranging from those involving the individual, the family, the local community, and the nation through problems involving nature and the environment. It is no overstatement to say, however, that the way human beings themselves live is the root of these problems. In times like these, a religion that teaches peace and tolerance has an important role to play.
- Based on these considerations, the Niwano Peace Foundation promotes interreligious understanding and cooperation. It also strives to strengthen cooperation among people actively making continuing efforts, in a religious spirit, to achieve a peaceful society.
- The Foundation does not support any specific religious group. Respecting the uniqueness of all religions and embracing the spirit of tolerance, it aims to build a world of peace and coexistence.
- The Foundation makes grants in order to actively encourage activities undertaken in the spirit of religious principles grounded and conducted in such a way as to invite broad social participation.
Theme
Dialogue and collaboration in divided societies
- NFP believes that one of the primary factors obstructing peace are divisions within society and between peoples. Divisions within society and
- between peoples indicates isolation through estrangement, disengagement, and insularity among people who should originally be united or together, which are caused by internal and external reasons. In the present era these divisions appear to create many problems.
- To find solutions for such problems in society, NPF believes in the effectiveness of the ‘intrinsic strength of the community’ and ‘problem solving through social experimental’ methods.
- In societies that are divided, NPF expects that the actual people who are affected should be the protagonists of dialogue and cooperative action, and that they will actively use social experimental methods to seek practical and effective solutions.
- The social experimental methods referred to above include those that incorporate the following series of process.
- Researching and analyzing the specific problems people face
- Developing a hypothesis on how to solve the problem based on research and analysis, and then implementing it on a trial basis
- Verifying the hypothesis through trial-based implementation to seek more effective ways to solve the problem
- For this fiscal year, the NPF Activity Grant is calling for applications that challenge them to resolve divisions in society in these ways.
Funding Information
The grant amount which one applicant can apply will be up to 1,000,000 Japanese Yen. (For foreign applicant, the grant amount which one can apply will be up to some USD equivalent to 1,000,000 Japanese Yen) After screening and determination by Screening Committee, actual amount to be provided can be sometime reduced than original amount in applying.
Eligible Project/Activity
- Activities which are consistent with the theme of NPF’s activity grant for fiscal year 2019
- Practical activities, short-term or long-term, directly related to peace building.
- Activities which stimulate activities not only in one’s own field but as well in other fieldsand can be creative and pioneering models for realization of peace
Activities
- Social activities based on the spirit of religious principles
- Social activities based on the spirit of religious principals are defined as those undertaken for individual and community welfare and peace, both physical and spiritual, based on the spirit of religious principles that emerge from reverence for God, Buddha, or other universal spiritual reality.
- In particular, these include peace-making activities related to education, volunteer work, development cooperation, environmental protection, human rights or the social problems of aging societies done in the spirit of religious principles which transcend religious boundaries.
- Grass-roots activities deployed in a local community
- Activities to vitalize local communities through interdisciplinary workshops and meetings with particular emphasis on collaboration by groups and individuals from diverse organizations and religious groups.
- It is expected that local communities will come up with some new values with an independent mind.
- Examples would be workshops and outreach programs to inspire people to think about how people living in faraway countries are related to their own lives, or to encourage development of local activities in which people “think globally, and act locally.”
Eligibility Criteria
- An application may be made by either an individual or an organization.
- Nationality is not a criterion for eligibility.
- Any group which has been in continuous existence for a reasonable length of time is eligible to apply, whether or not it is legally incorporated.
For more information, visit https://www.npf.or.jp/english/grant/guidelines_application_forms