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Ambassadors for Peace Back Moscow Ecology Festival
Written by Maria Nazarova, secretary general, UPF-Russia
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Moscow, Russia—A festival titled “Ecology and the Family” was held to educate children and parents about caring for the environment.
The one-day festival, organized jointly by UPF and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), an affiliated organization, was held on October 1, 2017, in the Moscow Peace Embassy.
Elena Volokhova, an Ambassador for Peace and president of the charitable foundation called Give Love to the World, was the first speaker. A beautiful and brave woman with only one arm and one leg, Ms. Volokhova inspires the disabled, teaching them to love life and rejoice over it. She spoke about the ecological-charity project Peace Bottle Caps.
This project initially was created to help a girl named Margarita from the city of Cherepovets in western Russia, who, because of the bad ecology in her city, was born with one arm and one leg. Her mother found Elena Volokhova through the Internet and, inspired by her active life position, wrote to her words of gratitude. This was how a friendship between Ms. Volokhova and Margarita’s family began. To help the girl, Ms. Volokhova organized the collection of plastic caps, which are then recycled, with the proceeds transferred to the parents.
The idea of collecting bottle caps is not new; in many countries people collect hundreds of thousands of dollars for charitable purposes by bringing plastic caps and other waste materials to processing plants. The Peace Bottle Caps campaign from the children's game has turned into a large-scale environmental education and charity action.
Now activists collect and take to processing plants not only bottle caps but also other types of plastic, glass, etc. Children participating of the action share new environmental ideas with their parents, and these ideas are being promoted widely among adults. "We do not ask you to give money for charity; we ask you to give us garbage!"—this is the motto of this action. The fact is that the landfill area in Russia is equal in size to two Israels. By taking the garbage to processing, we not only help people but also reduce the number of landfills in our country.
Irina Morgunova, an Ambassador for Peace who is a coach and expert in harmonious relations, explained her views on the environment. "It's not just cleaning up garbage; you need to maintain cleanliness in general,” she said. “Leave the space cleaner than it was before, even if you need to clean up the garbage of others."
It is necessary to keep clean not only the planet but also ourselves, our body, our thoughts. A deeper ecological level is the purity of emotions. An advisor to women on issues of family relations, Ms. Morgunova concluded that in relations people are often guided not by reason but by chronic grievances. Getting rid of grievances, we not only change the quality of our life but also influence our environment in a positive way.
Also, she said, we must remove from our lives deeds, people, habits, and objects that take our energy. Consciously creating mental balance and health for ourselves and others is one of the principles of the ecology of relations.
Nikita Chechurin, who has been disabled since his childhood, suffers from the consequences of cerebral palsy. The 18-year-old has won various competitions and prizes, including the Presidential Prize for support of talented youth, and the N. Ostrovsky Prize ("For courage, strength of spirit and creative success in various spheres of activity"). Nikita, an active volunteer of the organization Give Love to the World, read his poem and sang the songs Conversation with Happiness and Swan Loyalty.
The guests of the festival stayed for a long time after the official end, not wanting to leave. The children brought home with them the artifacts that they had made during the festival. The adults realized that the purity of nature and the purity of the soul are interrelated.
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