Tirana, Albania—Leaders from the Presiding Council and Regional Peace Councils met to plan UPF activities for 2021.
On October 31, 2020—36 days after the UPF-Albania national assembly—the newly elected Presiding Council of UPF held its first meeting. They were joined by secretaries of Regional Peace Councils.
The main activities that were decided for 2021, starting in the remaining two months of 2020, were:
- The promotion of Mother Moon’s memoir, Mother of Peace
The first promotional event was held on October 31 at Tirana International Hotel with 130 participants, including around 60 Ambassadors for Peace. There will be a total of 21 events, and already five locations have been decided.
- Expanding Local Peace Councils and educating Ambassadors for Peace on the national level
Each Local Peace Council will organize at least one event during 2021, while Regional Peace Councils will organize more than one. A total of 70 events will be held on the local and regional levels.
- Establishing Albanians’ Peace Councils in Europe and other places.
Mr. Gaqo Apostoli will develop a strategy to move forward with Albanians’ Peace Councils. Already preparations to establish a Peace Council in Germany have begun.
- Events for an Albanians’ Peace Council in the Balkans
The coordinators of the Albanians’ Peace Council in the Balkans, Mr. Ali Laçej and Mr. Hydajet Hyseni, will organize an event in Albania in May 2021.
- Online Activities
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions, most events will be held online. For this reason, we will prepare a protocol for giving the title Ambassador for Peace through online events.
- Events organized by UPF commissions
Based on UPF International initiatives, UPF-Albania established eight UPF commissions, each of which will organize one event during 2021, focusing on their respective area: parliamentarians, academicians, media, religious leaders, youth, the arts and economy.
- Events in partnership with other NGOs and institutions
One of the goals of UPF is to build partnerships with other organizations, NGOs and central or local governments. For this we will aim to find partners who share the same or similar goals as UPF.
- Applying for grants, developing projects
One of the commissions of UPF-Albania will focus on developing projects and applying to different institutions, national or international, for grants. Our goal is to gain one project during 2021.
- Publishing a periodical magazine of UPF-Albania
It was decided to publish a magazine on UPF activities, twice a year. It will be available in both online and printed versions. The first copy will be published by the end of 2020.
- Producing emblems with UPF logos
In order to make UPF more widely known, we will produce emblems with UPF logos for Ambassadors for Peace. One proposal was to produce anti-COVID masks with the UPF logo printed on them.
- Preparing visit cards for all the UPF board members and ID cards with individual photos for the chairs of the 61 Peace Councils
In addition, UPF-Albania set goals for 2021 of holding 100 events throughout the country and, if the pandemic will not restrict us, appointing 500 new Ambassadors for Peace.