Stepping Up to the Realization of Peace through HWPL Western Africa Peace Development Forum

On July 23, 2022, 137 people from 119 organizations participated in ‘HWPL Western Africa Peace Development Forum: Establishing Peace Network for Western Africa.’ This online forum aimed to introduce peace-building activities and build peaceful environment in Western Africa by encouraging the signing of MoUs. At this meeting, HWPL presented HWPL Western Africa Peace Initiative, Peace Education in Action, and Initiative to Establish Peace Network (MoU).

The host organization, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), is an international peace NGO working to spread a culture of peace and restore the global community with the spirit of the Declaration of World Peace. Associated with the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) and in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it cooperates with various worldwide organizations without being limited by national, cultural, or ideological boundaries.

Starting with HWPL Africa General Meeting in 2020, ‘Peace Educator Empowerment Training’ was designed based on the peace policy proposals and developed as one of the African peace initiatives to train professional peace educators that can give equal opportunities of peace education to youth in various settings.

Since 71 local organizations from various fields such as NGOs, state officials, media, academic institutions, and youths signed the joint agreement for peace in 2021, peace educator empowerment trainings and HWPL peace education programs have been carried out across Western Africa countries including Nigeria and Ghana.

At the forum, the progress of the peace initiatives in 2022 was also introduced. 197 people from 121 organizations including civic groups, universities, educational institutions, and media completed the online peace educator empowerment training while more than 60 peace education programs have been conducted.

Regarding the plan to affirm the peace network in Western Africa, Kevin Lee from the HWPL Africa team encouraged the participants to join the peace initiatives by signing MoUs and MoAs. “Let us shed the unprecedented peace light on Western Africa by planting the hope that peace can be achieved with our solidarity,” he said.

In addition, Damien Asobayire, Western Regional Executive Secretary of National Peace Council said, “HWPL Peace Education is so simple and practical that students can easily grasp its contents and be able to relate to it. As a Western regional executive secretary of National Peace Council, I will cooperate with HWPL through signing MoU. As we should be one to make a greater impact in the world, let us establish a peace network through the signing of MoU with HWPL.”