Address to Latin America Summit 2018, São Paulo, Brazil, August 2-5, 2018
Opening Banquet Welcome Remarks
Thomas Walsh, Chairman, UPF International
Good evening, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
On behalf of UPF International I want to extend a heartfelt welcome to the Latin America Summit 2018.
It is very encouraging and inspiring to be here in Sao Paolo and to have so many distinguished leaders from throughout all of South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as from North America, Asia, Europe, Africa and the world.
The Summit Series is the flagship program of the Universal Peace Federation, and it has attracted the attention of leaders across the globe, increasingly recognized not only as a world class conference series, but as an instrument or agent of peace, development and transformation. We have witnessed this recently with our Africa Summit, convened in Senegal in January of this year, as well as with the previous Summit held in Korea, and the ones soon to be convened in the Asia Pacific, in South Africa, and other parts of the world, leading up to the World Summit 2019 in Korea. More about that later. Suffice to say that this Summit series, and indeed this LA Summit, can and I believe will be a catalyst of transformation for this entire region.
This is not an evening for long speeches. It is an evening to meet and get to know one another. In that respect, it is incumbent upon me to introduce several key players without whose labors and commitment this LAS would never have taken place. We have just heard form Rev. Sang Seuk Kim. I also want to acknowledge the amazing work of Dr. Chang Shik Yang, President of UPF for Central America and the Caribbean, and Rev. Dong Mo Shin, President of UPF for UPF South America. I also recognize the secretary general of UPF South America, Dr. Simao Ferabolli, and the secretary general of UPF Central America and Caribbean, Mr. Eliecer Araya Valladares.
I want to acknowledge the presence of the chief of staff of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, Mrs. Wonju Chung McDevitt, and also the secretary general of FFWPU International, Dr. Young Ho Yun.
I want to briefly review our program. Tomorrow we have four sessions. The first, our opening plenary, will feature the Founder’s Address by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, True Mother, Mother Moon.
This session will be followed by several Keynote Addresses from some of the most distinguished participants attending this Summit.
After lunch we will have an Assembly of the IAPP.
And in our final session, we will feature a number of the programs linked to UPF and affiliated organizations of our movement.
On the following day, we will have the inaugural assembly of the IAPD, followed by our closing session.
In the afternoon, and the highlight of our visit here, we will join the 100,000-person rally for peace that will take place nearby at the Alliance World Cup Stadium. In addition to world-class entertainment, we will hear once again from our Founder, Dr. Moon. We will travel there by bus. It will be an event you will not want to miss.
Details of this program can be found in the registration packet.
Thank you once again for being here. Let us learn from one another, value one another, and work together to build a better world, a world of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universal values.
To go to the Latin America Summit 2018 Schedule page, click here.