Yesterday Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation announced that after careful consideration the image designed by Coventry artist Andrea Mbarushimana has been selected from 24 entries to win the competition to design a logo for the Committee.

Andrea collected her prize of £50 of during a meeting with the Committee yesterday. The logo competition was funded by Coventry publisher Penny Press Ltd.

The new logo will be placed on all of the Lord Mayor’s Peace Committee documents and websites.

“The Lord Mayor’s Committee has never had a logo before,” said Chair of the Lord Mayor’s Committee Philip Brown, “and we decided that it will help us to raise the profile of the excellent work that the Committee is already doing and the exciting new innovations that we are planning with our partners.”

The competition attracted entries from people ranging from 8 year old Ria Mann to several designed by professional designers such as Nick Price Creatives and Jack Fayter. “The competition was very strong and selecting the winner was extremely difficult,” said Committee Communications Manager Neslihan Ozfaris.  “We were delighted with the quality of these entries and thank all those who took the trouble to submit their design.”

In the end the winner was Andrea Mbarushimana. Andrea is a community worker for Grapevine Coventry and Warwickshire, and a freelance artist and writer living in Coventry. “I have worked for peace in the community for more than a decade,” Andrea said, “running exhibitions, performances of the spoken word and events around social justice and promoting multi-culturalism, so winning this competition for the Lord Mayor’s Committee means a lot to me.” A long-time supporter of the Coventry Peace Festival, Andrea is also a Culture Rep for Coventry 2021, City of Culture. Her work is showcased at www.andrea-mbarushimana.com and her book ‘The Africa in My House’ is available from Silhouette Press.

Presenting Andrea with her cheque, Philip Brown said “I am sure that the recognition that your logo will bring to this Committee will help us not only to promote our existing work but to engage new audiences, especially young people, their parents and teachers with the vitally important topics of peace, justice and reconciliation. We plan to do this by working with our partners and volunteers in Coventry University, Warwick University, the United Nations Association and Coventry Schools Peace & Justice Forum to promote Restorative Justice within the City of Coventry.”

When asked to explain what he meant by Restorative Justice he said “It is a formalised process of reconciliation between a victim and a perpetrator of a crime. Working with a mediator they each explain their own view of what happened and agree on how reparation for the crime can be made. It has been proven that this process not only helps to reduce repetition of crimes but helps the victim to overcome the bitterness they often feel towards the criminal. This process is being promoted by the Ministry of Justice throughout the criminal justice system. But the same process can help at a community level to reduce tensions after conflict, and the United Nations sees it as a way of preventing recurrent civil wars which have so often torn countries apart.”

He encouraged people to visit the Lord Mayor’s Committee website to find out more and sign up to their newsletter. http://coventrycityofpeace.uk/