Filipino children fold peace cranes inspired by Hiroshima bombing victim
Catholic priest Robert Reyes organized two events in Quezon City where children made over 1,000 origami cranes to promote peace, drawing on Sadako Sasaki's story.
Robert Reyes, a 71-year-old Catholic priest, arranged two peace-crane workshops in a Quezon City church after learning about Sadako Sasaki during a 2024 trip to Hiroshima's peace memorials. Sasaki, exposed to the atomic bomb at age two, folded paper cranes hoping to heal, but later died of leukemia in 1955. In April, around 50 children gathered, prayed for peace, and began folding cranes while a video of Sasaki's life played.
A second session in May attracted about 200 participants and featured Archbishop Charles Brown, the Vatican's envoy to Manila, who promised to forward some of the cranes to Pope Leo XIV. Reyes sees the simple act of folding as a creative way to spread a message of peace amid ongoing global conflicts.
Why it matters
The initiative uses a historic symbol to teach children about peace during ongoing international tensions.
In this story