The Rasur Foundation was founded by Rita Marie Johnson, a U.S. citizen who went to Costa Rica in 1993 to help strengthen its national model of peace. As a result, a new “peace package” is now being implemented: a Ministry for Peace that collaborates with a national Academy for Peace, which trains peace teachers in the schools to teach the practice of BePeace in each community. This new government infrastructure, coupled with grassroots peace skills, is inspiring hope around the world as people realize that similar models could be replicated in their countries.

The Rasur Foundation, named after the epic poem Rasur or Week of Splendor by Roberto Brenes Mesén, has inspired the foundation’s work. This prophetic poem tells the story of a master teacher, Rasur, who teaches the Costa Rican children how to be peacemakers. The children pass this knowledge on to their parents and soon their village is transformed into a culture of peace.

VISION: A world where every child practices peace and passes this gift to the next generation.

MISSION: To train educators to evoke the wisdom and compassion in students through the practice of BePeace.

MOTTO: Before directing the lightning in the sky, we must first harness the storms in our own hearts.

In 2002, Johnson discovered a powerful synergy between coherence for “feeling peace” and connection to universal needs through empathy and honesty for “speaking peace.” Inspired by this combination, she developed the practice of BePeace. She founded the Academy for Peace of Costa Rica as a project of the Rasur Foundation, with the vision of developing Rasurs, master peace teachers to provide BePeace training in every community.

As teachers, students, parents and other citizens learn BePeace, their social and emotional intelligence is enhanced, empowering them to make conscious choices toward peace in their daily lives. Now the Ministry of Education in Costa Rica is implementingBePeace in the national school system. In 2009, Rasur Foundation International began supporting other countries to establish their own academies, which include developing Rasurs and teaching BePeace.

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