In the aftermath of September 11 many ordinary citizens wondered what they could do to make a difference. How, as one of millions, could one effectively express one's sorrow to the American nation; to everyone who lost loved ones, and at the same time pray for peace?

Those were the thoughts haunting Japanese-born Keiko Ward, who wanted to do something meaningful. Like most women, she favours peaceful solutions to the world's problems, and is not a supporter of wars.

For some time she tossed the questions around in her mind before turning to the cultural traditions of her homeland to find the answer: senbazuru, which means 'a thousand cranes'.

Senbazuru is a type of origami (the Japanese art of paper folding) which became popular after the Second World War, when a thousand folded paper cranes, each representing a prayer, were strung on strings and used as a gift to wish good health to the sick, particularly those suffering from the effects of radiation.

Even today, senbazuru decorations have become an indispensable part of the annual ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to remember the devastation of the atomic bombs, and to pray for its victims.

Because the prayers of many people can be folded into the paper cranes, the decoration is also used to pray for peace.

Japanese children learn the art of origami, including making cranes, from an early age, and Ms Ward was no exception.

This then would be her choice.

"It was a small, simple thing that I could do," she decided.

During an earlier trip to Japan she had bought a quantity of the special paper squares used in origami, so all she had to do was cut them into smaller squares and count off 1000. Making all of the cranes herself, however, would take months so Ms Ward, who lives in Bermuda with her British husband, decided to involve others in her project.

In addition to teaching Japanese to local martial arts students of all ages, she also tries to introduce them to aspects of her culture, and she was certain her young students would love to help.

"I know children love origami, so I thought this would be something we could do together," she says. "And while the Japanese community here is small, I also asked them to help. Everybody thought it was a good idea."

Soon staff from the sushi restaurants joined in, and as word of the senbazuru spread others became involved, including nurses, chefs and volunteers from Agape House. "Inside each bird we try to put a thought," Ms Ward says. "Some people just wrote 'Peace' or their name, while others wrote a poem. Some messages were written in English and some in Japanese."

So the Bermuda-made senbazuru became a truly international project, to Ms Ward's delight.

"Japanese, Bermudian, British, American, Jamaicans and Mauritian people worked on the project," she says. "It was a real United Nations effort, and it makes me very happy that people from different countries and religions joined together.

"In fact, I want to emphasise that this was not my project, but everyone's. I had the original idea, but many, many people made it reality, and thanks to them it took just a month. I just asked people to make one crane, but they asked for more, so it went much quicker than I expected."

When the 1000 cranes were completed, six Japanese friends assembled them on strings.

"There are 50 birds on each string, and then all the strings were tied together with one large silver crane on top," Ms Ward says.

The end result is a beautiful cascade of many colours, and it is going to be presented to the US Consulate in Bermuda.

"We decided to do that because of what happened on September 11 in the United States, and I just want the many people who were directly involved in the tragedy to think from the bottom of their hearts that tomorrow will be better," Ms Ward says.