Dhaka, Bangladesh - The United Nations Information Centre in Dhaka, the Universal Peace Federation, and the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) jointly organized a seminar on the International Day of Families 2011 titled “Family Crisis, Internal and External.” The seminar was attended by about 70 people: religious leaders, educators, social workers, and student leaders. It was held on May 3 at the Dhaka Business & Professional Women’s Club.
As the master of ceremonies, Dr. Kazi Nurul Islam, Professor and Chairman of the Department of World Religions and Culture at Dhaka University, opened the seminar by explaining that together with the UN Information Centre in Dhaka, the UPF and WFWP in Bangladesh have supported the International Day of Families every year since 2009. After Mrs. Zeenat Ara Bhuiyan, President of WFWP-Bangladesh, delivered the welcoming remarks, Mr. Kazi Ali Reza, Officer-in-Charge of the UN Information Centre in Dhaka, presented the main speech about the worldwide observance of the International Day of Families on the theme of confronting family poverty and social exclusion.
Chief Guest Mrs. Syeda Razia Faiz, former Minister of Women & Children's Affairs, stated that the family is indeed the training ground of all kinds of relationships. Prof. Dr. M. Shamsher Ali, President of the Bangladesh Academy of Science and Chairman of UPF-Bangladesh, gave the presidential speech mentioning that the root cause of present social ills is family breakdown and that God designed the family to be the school of love.
As the field report, two Ambassadors for Peace talked about their work helping confront family crises: Mrs. Shireen Rahman, who has been working with slum children and running a family development program in Dhaka, and Mr. Rezaul Karim, who has dedicated himself to giving the girl children of untouchables, aborigines, and the street children in general technical and moral education for personal and community development.
Finally all participants read the UPF and WFWP Declaration of the International Day of Families, which contains five recommendations. The fifth recommendation states, “Lasting peace is secured not merely through laws, backed by the power of government enforcement, but by a rising awareness of our universal solidarity as one human family, brothers and sisters who share a common spiritual and moral heritage. We are one family under God.”