Once upon a time.... in the land down under ( Australia) there lived an artist, poet, peacemaker, actionist, called Kerry Bowden, who for many years had worked very hard to help make life a bit better for the indigenous people of Australia. Being an Actionist doesn't mean you always get things right - it just means you don't give up, even when you might fail sometimes - or when things get really tough.
Kerry received an Order of Australia medal in 1991, for her work for the arts and for her many years of work for indigenous rights. The OAM award was returned to the government in 2003 as Kerry's personal protest against the war in Iraq.
Kerry was very happy when in 1963 she married a very beautiful man and had three sons who grew up to be happy and healthy. One son is the father of Kerry's first two grandchildren, Jayk and Maddy - she loves them very much.
Then on November 30 2000, the phone rang and it was Jay, Kerry's second son, ringing to tell her she was a grandmother again. Caitlin Jean the "Angel of Good Fortune" was born in Nambour Hospital. Granma Kerry because she was poor at the time, wished she had a better present for Caitlin but wrapped her present anyway - it was alright and it was pink - it could have been worse Caitlin could have had a boy and not a girl and he may have had to wear a pink bonnet, jacket and booties :-)
Next day at the hospital, Kerry had her camera and as she zoomed in to take a photo of Caitlin's tiny hand now holding on tightly to one finger of Jay, her dad's hand. Kerry felt very frightened for her and her future. Something she had not felt before when Jayk and Maddy were born. Kerry knew that Jay, her son, Caitlin's father and all of her family, would do everything to protect Caitlin and see she grew up safe, loved and happy.
No - Granma Kerry was scared by the bad discussions being make by some so called leaders of the world.
As Jay placed Caitlin Jean in her arms, Granma Kerry knew the present she would like to give her. A better world to live in. So she made a Promise to Caitlin - that she ( Granma Kerry) would work the rest of her life to make it a better world for her - but to do this Granma Kerry knew she would have to work to make it a better world for all children. So she made the promise and set a time when this promise should be carried out and set the date at 2015, that's when Caitlin will be 15 years old and will be very grown up by then
While Granma Kerry knew as an actionist, she would never give up trying to keep this promise! She really didn't know how she could achieve this. So when she got home she wrote her promise, to give to Caitlin on her fifteenth birthday, so Caitlin will be able to see if Granma Kerry kept it.
Meanwhile Granma Kerry set out on a journey to find out how to keep her promise. First she thought maybe she should set up her own government and show the leaders how to get along, but she found this meant you have to argue a lot with too many people and that wouldn't be fun.
Then one day in 2002 while having a cup of tea outside the little White House in Cairns (where Granma Kerry was living at the time) a poem flowed from her soul. Called One Mind One Voice, it has become her message for the world.
Next day, Granma Kerry sent the poem to a new friend in Israel, Ofir, who when he received the poem via email, he wrote back to Granma Kerry who had asked him if he would compose some music to go with the poem, he said " your poem landed in my imagination and I had to stop what I was doing and compose the music to go with your poem." When he finished making the lovely music to go with the poem, he sent it and the poem to Yayha from Kabul, who was living and studying in Pakistan at the time.
Yahya had told Granma Kerry that he would like to make one of her poems into a little One Mind One Voice Movie and Granma Kerry knew that this was the right poem for him to do that.
Meanwhile Granma Kerry worked at setting up a website of the same name. Since December 2000, when Granma Kerry made that promise to Caitlin, a number of special people around the world had heard about Kerry and her promise and all wanted to help her keep it. The problem was that Granma Kerry while she continued to try - she didn't really know how to do that, as the world was getting much worse - not better.
Lots of terrible things were happening around the world, the adults of the world were not being very nice to each other. So much anger, greed and misunderstanding of others needs. Then as the war got worse in Iraq she noticed that there seemed to be a change in many people around the world - millions of people around the globe marched for peace not war - this gave Granma Kerry a lot of hope. People were starting to realise that our world is really very small and we best hurry up and work out how we can protect it from all the earthlings bad decisions. Otherwise we won't have a world left to fight over. Do you realise it is us earthlings doing so much damage to the planet? So many beautiful creatures large and small are now disappearing.
How long is it since anyone has seen a Unicorn for instance?
On the 11th September 2002 Kerry launched www.onemindonevoice.org website and quickly many important people around the world contacted Granma Kerry, even the President of France,Monsieur Jacques Chirac who in an email on the 28th Sept 2002, said he agreed with the world of the One Mind One Voice poem. Others like Arsenio Rodriguez from the
Alliance for the New Humanity, with wonderful people like Nobel laureates Oscar Arias and Betty Williams, renowned author Deepak Chopra, Puerto Rican Senator Antonio Fas, human rights activists Kerry Kennedy and Judge Baltazar Garzon, singer Ricky Martin, environmentalist Ashok Khosla, philanthropists Raymond Chambers and Salomon Levis, peace maker Sarah Osacky-Lazar, and communicator Roberto Savio. Kerry and Caitlin Jean who was not 2 years old at the time was included on a Peace Delcaration with some very Important People.
Granma Kerry was also asked to be on the council for the Alliance for the New Humanity, a great honor for an unemployed Granma from Oz. They even took her to Puerto Rico for the launch of the Alliance in December 2003.
This gave Granma Kerry a lot of hope for Caitlin's future with all these wonderful people now working together.
Kerry found that she also was feeling quite angry with some of the leaders of the world and frustrated that she didn't have any money, and even thought for a moment that if she had some money she would be able to do more. How silly that was.
Meanwhile she was very happy as she had her three beautiful grandchildren and a wonderful family and many good friends. Kerry moved around the state of Queensland she lived in, trying to find a place to set up the headquarters for One Mind One Voice which had grow bigger and with some projects like the HOPE Hands of Peace, Kerry was running out of room for all the things she was receiving from children and adults wanting to help her.
So she move a number of times, but always she felt that it was not right, so she kept searching for the right place. Not knowing that she was really on a five-year journey of learning - learning how she could keep the promise made in 2000. It was now 2005 and Caitlin would soon be having her fifth birthday.
Granma Kerry knew by now that she needed to live closer to her family. So once again she packed her bags and headed back to the Sunshine Coast.
One day in September while having another cup of tea. Granma Kerry felt a light bulb going off in her head. She realised how she could keep that promise to Caitlin and the children of the world.
Joaquin from Peru had given her an idea. He had said in an email a few months before, that lots of other people like Granma Kerry would want to make the same promise to the children of the world.
And so Granma Kerry started work on another website called The Promise Club " a place where promise to children are kept" this would be her fifht birthday gift to Caitlin and the children of the world.
Granma Kerry will invite all the adult earthlings to make a promise to the children of the world and Granma Kerry will put those promises on this website for the children of the world to see.
And together we will all work to make it a better world for all children by the year 2015 as what Granma Kerry learnt in her five year journey was that she has lots of friends who want to help her keep the promise.
She doesn't need money or a building to do this.
She has everything she needs this computer and the Internet provided by Comcen, who have sponsored this from the very beginning in 2000.
What Granma Kerry learnt while getting her five year Promise degree, is that along the way we will all make a few mistakes, but if you keep your vision of what you want to achieve - nothing is impossible and lack of money or bad leaders, can't stand in your way. So...
Once Granma Kerry knew how to go about keeping her promise, there was only one thing left to do and that was to find a symbol for The Promise Club. And as you have seen on the first page of the website we have picked a unicorn. Come with me and together we will believe, because we want to…..
So lets just get on with making and keeping our promises to children…… that's what Granma Kerry learnt on her five-year journey of learning - so lets just do it…
