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UPF-Ghana: End-of-Year Assembly and Awards Program
Written by Dr. Helen Osei, Secretary General, UPF-Ghana
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Ghana—On Tuesday, December 21, 2021, the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) Ghana held a two-in-one event: (1) End of year Assembly and (2) Ambassadors for Peace Award Night at the Alisa Hotel in Accra. Originally, the event was scheduled to be held on December 9, following the 2-day workshop organized for AFP on December 7th and 8th. However, efforts to reserve the hall for December 9 failed. Hence, we shifted to December 21. The hall was filled to capacity, 120 people (due to COVID-19 restrictions), plus there were standees in the balcony.
The essence of the End-of-Year Assembly was to provide information to all members, prospective new ones and the nation at large, on a 7-Year Action Plan that has key components of Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon’s vision centering on interdependence, mutual prosperity and universal values. Also presented were the relevance of the initiative and the impact it may have on national/continental development, especially at this time of global crisis and great transformation, both in the political, social and economic arenas.
The Award Nite was to recognize and award persons who have served humanity in various disciplines of human endeavor: people who have demonstrated exemplary lives of living for the sake of others, either at the local or national levels and/or beyond.
- End-of-Year Assembly
Originally, we invited the Vice President of Ghana, H.E. Mahamudu Bawumia, as a special guest of honor and keynote speaker. We subsequently received his letter of apology that he would not be able to make it. We then invited Claudia Turbay Quintero, the Columbian Ambassador to Ghana & head of diplomatic corps in Ghana. She agreed to come as a special guest of honor, but unfortunately also could not make it due to sudden ill-health that surfaced a day before the event. However, she sent a “Solidarity Message.”
The event began with an opening prayer by the president of the Ambassadors for Peace Association, Archbishop Goodman Ezekiel Anim. In his welcoming remarks, the UPF-Ghana acting chairman, Hon. Frank Fuseini Adongo, expressed his excitement at seeing a very large audience in attendance. He spoke vibrantly about UPF’s and Mother Moon’s tireless efforts and determination to bring about substantial peace in the world.
He recalled that since January 2018 when he met and listened to Mother Moon’s passionate message to African leaders in Senegal during the first world African Summit, he never regretted forsaking a political seat to embrace a peace organization such as UPF. He enjoined each guest to put forth their best moral support to make the event a memorable one. Hon. Adongo was a Member of Parliament and a Deputy Regional Minister with the ruling party, New Patriotic Party (NPP), but lost the seat to an opposition party during the last election.
Next was a locally compiled video presentation featuring Mother Moon’s visit to Africa in 2018 and 2019, especially her visit to Goree Island and the liberation of African slaves; her declaration of New Heavenly Africa and the 10 projects; and of course, Rallies of Hope in 2020 with images of many heads of state in attendance, especially that of late former president Jerry John Rawlings. This prepared the audience to receive the 7-Year Action Plan presented by the UPF-Ghana secretary general, Dr. Helen M. Osei.
A PowerPoint presentation was given by Dr. Osei, who explained UPF’s fundamental goal as “World Peace.” She expressed that world peace has been the lifelong mission of UPF’s founders, the Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. Yet, despite all efforts, she said, peace still seems to be far away because the core “Principles of Peace-building” are yet to be embraced by human beings due to ignorance.
Highlighting the numerous challenges humanity faces today, e.g., risky migration, broken families, crime & violence, conflicts, to mention but a few, the SG reiterated the need for every individual to reflect and think of a new way of approach.
In an attempt to address these numerous global challenges in the past, she said that the Founder of UPF, Rev. Sun Myung Moon who happened to be a religious leader, opined that the solutions to the myriad problems would absolutely require a paradigm shift that embraces God as our Heavenly Parent. Dr. Osei made reference to Father Moon’s speech to world leaders in 2010 in which he announced that God will no longer wait for humanity before bringing down His heavenly law to govern the earth.
It was further explained that following the death of Rev. Dr. Moon two years later in 2012, his wife took up the mantle to fulfill the promise made to heaven by her husband. She therefore declared a 7-year course starting from 2013, which she and her followers embarked upon. After the successful completion of that 7-year course at the end of 2020, she announced that a foundation for the restoration of 7.8 billion people of the world has been established, and so declared another 7-year course starting from 2021 – 2027. With this, Mother Moon announced to the world that all people can now be restored to the bosom of God, as long as they acknowledge Him as their parent. This will obviously foster a world of peace. She emphasized that if the entire world cannot be restored by 2027, at least, one-third of world’s population, regional or national, must be restored.
To conclude her presentation, Dr. Osei announced that Mother Moon has been holding a series of webinar Rallies of Hope, calling on various heads of state and global leaders to unite with her vision in bringing about a national, regional and a world of lasting peace by 2027.
- Keynote Address
Initially, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban S. Bagbin, was invited as a guest of honor. When Ambassador Quintero was unable to attend the event due to ill-health, the onus fell on the Rt. Hon. Bagbin to assume the seat and serve as the “Keynote Speaker.” He was glad to serve but again, circumstances also prevailed that he could not make it. He however, sent a representative on his behalf, Hon. Magnus Kofi Amoatey, former Member of Parliament.
In the Speaker’s Keynote Address, read by Hon. Amoatey, the Rt. Hon. Bagbin recalled the exciting experience he had with the UPF delegation sometime in May this year in his office, and expressed that UPF is a very important organization in fostering peace for citizens the world over. He acknowledged that as a global body, its interreligious focus is a big plus.
He urged the organization to take advantage of existing concern for and interest in promoting peace, to deepen its agenda and help the world to be at peace with itself.
The Federation, the Rt. Hon. Speaker said, should not just be interested in the challenges of global peace, but should also be interested in such precursors that disturb the stability of nations, especially in Africa. Some of the precursors he narrated included endemic corruption, social inequalities, economic mismanagement and nepotism, among others, all of which are created by the elite in society. Hon. Bagbin commented that political scientists and development pundits have posited that corruption is a vile disease that sucks and drains the health of every country. Indeed, he said, it is a morally evil act which is now glorified to the extent that the law finds it difficult to punish perpetrators of such crimes against humanity. He pointed out that it is corruption that perpetuates poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and various other forms of deprivation, and all of these exist because of the greed that we exhibit as leaders of our countries, and all of these as well, feed into the lack of peace and tranquility in our countries.
To bring the address to a close, Rt. Hon. Bagbin charged everyone as follows: “We must learn to care; we need to recognize that the whole purpose of humanity is to care for the survival and wellbeing of our neighbors. This is what ensures peace. Consequently, we should be interested in making life more worthwhile and bearable for those who need our assistance, which is the reason I applaud this great organization for their philosophy and concept of striving towards global peace. To the Universal Peace Federation, I wish to assure you of my support to your organization.”
- Ambassadors for Peace Award Nite
As was mentioned earlier, there were ten people identified as qualified for the AFP Merit Award. Out of the ten, eight people were presented with both plaques and certificates.
There were also two members who received “Long Service” awards because they have served UPF diligently for more than ten years. They are: Archbishop Goodman E. Anim, president of AFP Association, and Apostle Eselecha Bill Forcha, CEO, Newlook Organic Fertilizer. Each of them received a plaque. Additionally, one “Patron Award” went to Dr. Aaron Adade, project director, Boankra Inland Port Project, and finally, four new members received Ambassadors for Peace award certificates. Altogether, there were fifteen awardees at the Ambassadors for Peace Award Nite.
- Closing
To bring the event to a close, the metropolitan chief imam of Tema Municipal Assembly, Immam Adams Abubakar, was called upon to make brief closing remarks. He thanked Allah for a successful event, thanked all guests for their participation, congratulated all awardees, and thanked UPF for hosting such an event. He then said a prayer in Arabic.
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