In 2004 following the return of the U.S. to UNESCO, the first UNESCO Center for Peace was founded in Frederick, Maryland to help promote the understanding of UNESCO’s mission and ideals and to translate them into programs that will help raise a new generation of Peacemakers, placing Human Dignity at the center of their activities and striving to make the culture of peace a commodity of everyday life through Education, Science, Culture and Communication. Working with Americans for UNESCO and other regional institutions, within a year, the Center became a cultural anchor for the region, celebrating community diversity, contributing to current issues and events, engaging policy makers, and working with all stakeholders to further understanding of peace, acceptance and tolerance in the region. At the same time, a successful outreach was made towards the worldwide UNESCO Clubs movement in the world. In December 2008, the Center’s Board Chair Professor Leonard Latkovsky attended the annual European Federation of UNESCO Clubs & Associations in Paris, France. In April 2009 Dr. Hoda Zaki attended the United Nations conference on racism and discrimination as representative of our Center. On October 17, 2009 we were honored to host the Honorable Benjamin Cardin, U.S. Senator as keynote speaker during our commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. In December 2009, Board Member Seth Roberts travelled to China to share our expertise in Model UN with the Hailiang Educational Group, China. In 2011 after the appointment of Mr. Eric Woodard as Executive Director of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, our efforts to help create, facilitate and strengthen the UNESCO Club movement in the U.S. witnessed a dramatic and most significant progress to date. Mr. Woodard created the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Clubs, Centers & Associations that allowed the U.S. UNESCO Club movement to join the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations (WFUCA) during its 8th Congress in Hanoi, Vietnam. Since then, the UNESCO Club movement in the U.S. has been growing, strengthening. This year alone we welcome the NY State Chapter, The UNESCO Center for Global Citizenship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the MIT UNESCO Club. We have also been working closely with The European and North American Federation as well as the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers & Associations (WFUCA). During the 33rd Executive Board of WFUCA held in Lucca-Florence, Italy last March 8-13, 2013, the U.S. was selected the as the host of the 34th Executive Board meeting set for March 2014, which is the current task at hand for the new U.S. Federation. I am hereby inviting other UN related agencies in the U.S. such the UNA USA, UNICEF USA, Amnesty USA to join forces with us to welcome the world movement in March 2014.
Sincerely,
Guy Djoken
President U.S. Federation for UNESCO Clubs, Centers & Associations
Discussion about this post