Bringing people from diverse cultures, religions and backgrounds together is the goal of the West Texas Peace Academy in Odessa.
To that end, the Peace Academy is having its annual Friendship Dinner starting at 7 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Odessa Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.
Outreach Coordinator Oruc Karais said they are expecting 250 people to this edition and have invited many dignitaries and former NBA player Ennis Kanter Freedom and Hakan Sukur, the World Cup’s fastest goal kicker.
City officials from Odessa and Midland are invited, as are law enforcement, educators, nonprofit representatives, health department representatives, representatives from 20 different cultures and they are working on representatives from six different religious groups. Seating is limited.
Last year, they had 193 people attend.
“The planning takes all year” due to scheduling, Karais said.
Established in 2018, the nonprofit has 75 active volunteers, many of whom are teachers. They are active in Odessa, Alpine and Lubbock.
Karais said they try to focus on the similarities rather than the differences in people.
“Odessa is a diverse culture. And so we try to bring all those cultures together, to understand each other” and that we can live in harmony, Karais said.
The organization also participates in charitable endeavors. Its youth club raised almost $4,000 with the help of a local businessman and dug water wells in Chad on the African continent.
“Almost 4,000 people are benefiting from that water well and they named the water well Odessa Water Well; not Peace Academy,” Karais said.
He noted that they also offer after-school programs, soccer camps during the summer and raise money for cancer and drug prevention programs, for example.
“There are lots of activities going on and the schedule is really full.
“The charitable part is the main part because there is another side of the town which we don’t see most of the time. The grass is not greener everywhere,” Karais said.
He added that the Peace Academy tries to bring businessmen, nonprofits and local officials together.
“We are doing study groups together and it’s working so far. Instead of talking, we tried to go to the results. It helped and we did a lot of social components, women’s rights, humanitarian (discussions)” and drug abuse, Karais said.
The Academy tries to make sure it is collaborating with other nonprofits.
For more information, visit pawtx.org
