In recognition of Refugee Week and World Refugee Day, UTS FASS is hosting a launch of The Kabul Peace House by refugee advocate and FASS alumni Mark Isaacs.

"A story of peace in a land of unending war."

"This is a story of hope and resilience in Afghanistan, a country constantly under siege from within and without.

Refugee advocate, activist and acclaimed author Mark Isaacs takes us inside a remarkable and unlikely peace project established in one of the most war-torn, violent countries in the world, Afghanistan.

After decades of war, few Afghans remember what it is like to live in peace, and many have never known a time without war. Yet, a group of Afghan youth, male and female, have come together – led by the charismatic and idealistic Insaan – to form a model community, a microcosm of how a new Afghanistan could be: a place of peaceful coexistence, a nation without violence and war that embraces the values of peace and humanity.

Mark takes us on a journey to the streets of Kabul, where day-to-day life involves terror and extreme danger, and lives alongside these inspirational and courageous young people in 'The Community’.

In The Kabul Peace House, Mark reveals their personal stories of trauma and loss that ultimately lead them to defy the risks and stand up to demand peace, a seemingly impossible dream. He witnesses their acts of non-violent protest, their small steps in making life better, their setbacks and struggles, but mostly their bravery and hope for a future that shines with peace."

For this event there is an option to choose free tickets or purchase tickets which cost $10. There is also an option to make a donation of an amount of your choice. The proceeds from the $10 tickets and donations will go to the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education.

The Edmund Rice Centre exists "to challenge popular beliefs and dominant cultural values, to ask the difficult questions, to look at life from the standpoint of the minority, the victim, the outcast and the stranger" and "to help to enable people to change the world through education that begins with awareness raising and ultimately inspires advocacy and social action".

About Mark Isaacs:

UTS Communications and International Studies graduate Mark Isaacs has taken himself into conflict zones in Mexico, Myanmar and Afghanistan, and to detention centres at Villawood and Nauru, combining his passions for writing and advocacy, by documenting stories of refugee experiences.

At great risk of personal persecution, he was among the first to publicly shatter the veil of secrecy around Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres, giving his eyewitness account into the climate of fear and suicidal despair for the detainees within.

This work has led to two published books (The Undesirables: Inside Nauru in 2014 and Nauru Burning: An Uprising and Its Aftermath in 2016) that shine a devastating light on Australia’s offshore detention regime on Nauru, as well as many other pieces published in print and online.

Building on his work with the Edmund Rice Centre, tracking returned asylum seekers in Afghanistan, Mark returned to Kabul in March 2017 to document the lives of a peaceful collective of young people with the shared goal of bringing about social change in their fractured and volatile country. Mark seeks to give renewed life to these stories in his third book, The Kabul Peace House.

Mark was also the winner of the UTS Community Alumni Award in 2017.