By Nirmala Carvalho
Mumbai, Jan 7, 2026: Heidi Kühn, a world-renowned American peace activist, helped 50 visually challenged children plant white roses in Mumbai as part of launching in India her unique campaign for world peace.
The January 5 “While Rose” Campaign launch symbolized the values of hope and unity as a pathway forward for peace in the New Year, said Kuhn, who won the 2023 World Food Prize for her work to remove landmines around the world and turn the land into productive agricultural areas.
The 68-year-old mother of four from San Rafael, California, United States, was invited to become patroness of St Stephen High School for the Deaf and Aphasic, managed by Montfort Brothers at Mumbai’s Dadar West.
The children planted the roses on the campus of St. Andrew’s College campus, Bandra, a Mumbai suburb, in the presence of Ashish Shelar, Maharashtra state’s Minister of Information Technology and Cultural Affairs.
“Uniting over 50 young deaf children in planting white roses on the grounds of their campus exemplifies the global spirit of peace rooted in humanity,” Kuhn said.
She wrote,” together, let us foster a culture of serenity, encouraging individuals globally to promote unity through agricultural initiatives, thereby transforming the world’s most challenging environments into peaceful landscapes.”
“May the ‘White Rose’ guide us towards a more promising future where everyone can thrive, finding comfort in the beauty of nature and the kindness of humanity,” she added.
The White Rose Campaign is Kuhn’s symbolic effort to promote peace and unity across the world. The white rose is considered a universal emblem of peace, hope, love, and purity.
The campaign encourages communities to “plant the roots of peace” at a time when global tensions, conflicts, and divisions are escalating. The white rose reminds people to embrace compassion over hatred, unity over fear, and healing over harm.
Kuhn founded “Roots of Peace” in 1997 to clear war-scarred fields in Afghanistan and other countries of land mines and convert them into life-sustaining farmland.
Addressing a gathering at St Andrew’s, Kuhn said the white rose has invaluable significance in today’s troubled world.
She spoke of the devastating impact of landmines across nations and called for collective action rooted in peace. She urged that demining must go beyond the soil–inviting people to demine their thoughts, minds, and souls to help lasting peace take root.
Planting the white rose on Indian soil reaffirms the country’s shared commitment to nurturing peace, compassion, and love for one another.
She envisions the movement as a global awakening, where people embrace the white rose as a sacred symbol of peace and love, practising peace and becoming harbingers of meaningful change.
Speaking on the occasion, Abraham Mathai, founder-chairman of the Harmony Foundation, pointed out profound global unrest marks the present time. The white rose, he stressed, symbolizes both the urgency of global peace and people’s shared responsibility to nurture peace in their immediate surroundings.
Kuhn came to India mainly to attend the episcopal ordination of her collaborator Auxiliary Bishop Stephen Fernandes of Bombay at Salvation Church on January 3.