Begin 2011

Celebrating the first day of school with the World Harmony Run at the Darussalam Mosque kindergarten was something very special for the many participants present from around the world. 

The charming 5 and 6 years old children touched everyone's heart.

Many of these young people at first looked amazed and surprised by so many western faces surrounding them.They responded with bright smiles as they looked round and round and observed the smiling eyes of different colors looking back.

After a short introduction the childeren were invited to join in singing with the guest runners

Much fun and spontaneous joy was had by all as the children took to the simple harmony run theme song with participation in acting out some movements to

"We are the oneness and
fullness of Tomorrow’s Sun."

The excitement carried over to holding the torch together with all the new friends

Our heartfelt gratitudes to Ms Mira, the principal Ms Marhana, all the teachers and the Executive Management Committee of Masjid Darussalam to welcome us to their holy mosque.

The event has special importance for many of the intenational runners who in previous years had been to many different countries. In 2010 many had supported the  UN and UNESCO special year celebrating cultural diversity and the comming together of  "different kinds of people, different forces, different views, different religions, and different beliefs."

The local organizer of the event only thought about  10 to 15 visitors would be comming from other countires. He was pleasently supriesed on the morning of the run by such a great turnout of international participants visiting Singapore.

Happy New Year -Yap Thian Beng

The 27 participants included runners from Mongolia, Japan, Russia, Italy, Ireland, USA, Australia, Poland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany, England, and Singapore.

Some had also been to the last World Harmony Run event in 2010 which was at a Hindu Temple in Malaysia on 31 Dec and a run with the torch around the multi-culture and multi-faith island of Pangkor on 30 December.

The World Harmony Run proudly supports the International Year of Youth (IYY) and the International Year of Forests (IYF) proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly.

See the recent Youtube video on African experience which illustrates IYY slogan "Our Year Our Voice"  International Year of Youth - Zambia World Harmony. They surprisingly mention Presidents and UN Secretary-General in a unique way! 

See also the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) Centre support for IY of Forests.  ... Convention for conservation of forest biodiversity. (more)

Listen to the World-Harmony-Run song: 2 min version // 6 min 

See also:  Music Scores;  Arrangements;   Song in Non-English Languages;  Schools Arrangements and Performances