The UN International Day for Tolerance 2014 was observed with a celebration of national cultures in Kamensk-Uralsky and a youth round table in St. Petersburg.
Kamensk-Uralsky
The head of the Municipal Center of National Cultures, Ambassador for Peace Tatyana S. Fomina, together with colleagues and associates, organized a meeting commemorating the UN Day for Tolerance on Nov. 12, 2014.
The meeting started with culinary preparations: ten people created a salad named "Friendship of the Peoples." Every nationality has some special salad recipes, and this "Salad for Peace" was composed of one special ingredient from each nationality: Armenians, Bashkirs, Belarusians, Chuvash, Jews, Russians, Tatars, Udmurtians, Ukranians and Yakuts. They all cut, shredded and laid out the components on a large platter. The whole array was flavored with Ukrainian sauce, and the words "Friendship of the Peoples!" were laid out with Armenian pomegranate seeds.
Over tea, each shared about his or her contribution and the various programs and public events in which he or she recently participated. Thus the elements of personal good deeds were composed into a picture of the social contribution of Kamensk-Uralsky to world peace. And, of course, there were folk songs!
The meeting became a tasty, beautiful, friendly and sincere event!
St. Petersburg
A "Business Card of Youth Organizations in St. Petersburg" round table related to the UN International Day for Tolerance and UN Students' Day was held in St. Petersburg on Nov. 17, 2014
It was scheduled as part of the “Knowledge” Academic and Methodological Council for Religious Studies of the St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. The event took place in the small conference hall of the October Hotel and brought together representatives of St. Petersburg youth organizations and representatives of different religious groups, among them:
- Youth Council of the St. Petersburg House of Nationalities
- Orthodox Diocesan Youth Volunteer Service
- Youth for Morality with representatives of the Unification Church and young Ambassadors for Peace
- Association of Azerbaijani Youth
- Youth for Human Rights with representatives of the Church of Scientology
- Source Islamic Cultural Center
- Seventh-day Adventists
- Ranger Teen youth club
- Hare Krishna
- Baha'i
All the speakers gave very interesting presentations about their organizations. The meeting was interesting, eventful and most importantly - quite helpful! Young people could meet and discuss prospects for future cooperation.
In his opening remarks, Mikhail Smirnov, the roundtable MC and co-chair of the Academic-Methodological Council, said that the goal of the event was to help participants find real ways to work for the good of the city on the basis of cooperation in the atmosphere of tolerance.
After the official part, the young people shared informally over a cup of tea and talked about possible joint projects.