Tbilisi, Georgia - The Ural branch of the UPF continued its "Urals - Georgia: We'll Be Friends" project that was started in September 2009 around the International Day of Peace, in support of the UPF peace initiative in the South Caucasus. That time the children from the Urals made more than 200 paper doves as symbols of peace, friendship, and goodwill. They also wrote on them expressions of goodwill. All the gifts were brought to Georgia and handed to the children in one school of Tbilisi.
The children and teachers were deeply touched by the messages from Ural and in response accepted the offer of friendship by correspondence by writing letters wherein they told of their life, studies and hobbies; described the beauty of their Republic, sent photos and drawings. In the letters they enclosed their personal mail addresses. The return parcel came to Ural and then volunteers and Ambassadors for Peace distributed to the children letters from their Georgian peers.
A discussion on a peaceful settlement of conflicts in the Caucasus took place on March 16 as part of the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Social Center's “Peace, Progress, and Human Rights” project. The discussion on “Conflicts in the Caucasus” was attended by well-known human rights activists and experts in problems of South and North Caucasus. The director of the youth and humanitarian programs of UPF-Russia, Dmitry Oficerov participated in the discussion.