The Dalai Lama is to visit Derry in April. Claire Corrigan of The Daily Shift has more…
The Tibetan spiritual leader will be guest of honour at an event
called Culture of Compassion, which will be held in The Vital Venue at
Ebrington on April 18. He will be in the city as part of its UK City of
Culture celebrations.
This will not be the Dalai Lama’s first time in Derry, having visited
the city six years ago as part of the charity’s 10th anniversary
celebrations. Since then he has been a dedicated patron of the charity.
The conference is organised by Children in Crossfire, a charity that
focuses on children under eight years of age that suffer from poverty
throughout the world.
Founder of Children in Crossfire, Richard Moore has met the Dalai Lama on a number of occasions. He told the Independent:
“I met the Dalai Lama in 2000. I lost my sight through being shot during the Troubles in Northern Ireland when I was ten year old. I met the Dalai Lama though that in a way because I was victim of the troubles. I was one of the few people who met his holiness and since then I became friendly with him and he invited me out to India where he lives in exile.”
Children in Crossfire, which has being running since 1996, is based
in Derry and has projects in Africa, Asia and South America. The charity
deals with issues such as access to clean water, food, health and
education.
During his last visit to the city, the Dalai Lama met privately with
Mr Moore and Charles, the soldier who blinded him as a boy but who he
ended up befriending.
“It is wonderful to see the person who suffered and the person who caused the suffering becomes true friends, there is genuine friendship and happiness which is based on forgiveness.”
Speaking about the conference, Mr Moore told the Independent:
“There’ll be a series of events happening. We have him for one full day. He will be speaking at an event run by Children in Crossfire and it’s the only public event that he’ll be doing in the theme of culture of compassion.”
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