Global Peace Foundation Celebrates World Peace Day By Dilip Butani & Kewal Kanda

Coinciding with the International Day of Peace, declared by The United Nations; Global Peace Foundation Celebrated World Peace Day; on Sunday, September 22 2019, at The Heritage Hall, Buena Park, CA. It was a houseful event attended not only by the Indian American Community but also by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mexican and Nepali Communities.

The theme of the program was peace through Art & Culture. The program started with melodious songs by Raj Upadhaya and Subhash Tolia. The formal function began with a welcome address by Kewal Kanda event chair followed by emcee Dr Madhu Gupta inviting Committee Members and distinguished guests for National Anthem and lamp lighting.

National Anthem was sung by Henna Noor followed by lamp lighting. Stephen Day explained peace through music and played Sarod accompanied by tabla played Dr. Sukrit Mukherjee. Sister Diana of Brahma Kumari Ashram explained the importance of Meditation in promoting peace as meditation makes people calm and tolerant so that they have less violent behavior. She spoke on technics of meditation and conducted a five minutes practical class.

The Chief Guest Sir Daniel Winn Famous Artist and Philanthropic Artist of the year 2019 spoke about the role we can play to bring peace at home, in the community, in the nation and the world. He expressed his experience in bring peace through art and how artist can play an important role in bringing peace. Good Neighbor Foundation’s President Mr. Park spoke about his foundation and how they can be part of promoting peace. They have offices in different countries. Mr Park and Dr Manorama S Gupta shared the views of working together.

Cultural performances were from different countries like Japanese flute playing, Korean dance Chinese dance, Nepali dance Lao dance, American dance and full American band with singer. Indian dances were performed by Dr sinduri Jaya Singhe’s student fron Savitri Art Academy.

Founder and President Dr. Manorama S. Gupta, who introduced the executive members Kewal Kanda, Dilip Butani, Radhika Patel, Ramesh Ramnani, Dr Asmath Noor, Dr Pammi Bevli, Mohammed Islam, Nila Parikh, Dr Sinduri Jayyasinghe, Dipika Desai and Raj Motwani who played important role in organizing the function and Advisory Board members who were present Junko Ishikawa, Dr Caren Rich, Kevin Rhee, Barry Simon and Dr Sukrit Mukherjee. She spoke about the organization, its mission, vision, goals and it’s past activities like feeding homeless, donating and packaging 10,000 meals to send all over the World for needy children. She also said that by end of this year we will have a satellite office in New Delhi India to promote peace by helping needy children and families. She welcomed all the participants from various countries. She thanked all guests, speakers, awardees, volunteers, and acknowledged the organizing committee members for their hard work Advisory Board members and thanked all invited guest chief guest, performers, volunteers, DJ, Ashoka Restaurant, City of Buena Park, vendors and audience and our Emcee Dr Madhu S Gupta who did wonderful job . She hoped the foundation could be spread around the world. Junko’s students spoke about how they envision peace and can be new generations peacemaker to promote peace. This program was moderated by Dr Caren Rich. Henna Noor sang an English song. Social workers, peace promoters and youth leaders were honored with plaques for their contributions to the community. A raffle prizes were donated by Dr Pammi Bevli and Darshan Singh of Ashoka and conducted by Mohammed Islam and other members.. This was followed by a sumptuous dinner by Ashoka Restaurant and few songs by Tolia. Overall it was a wonderful evening. It was a wonderful experience for audience of different culture who enjoyed and appreciated the program full of International dances, music showcasing different culture and being part of peace. This was the event for them to remember as different communities came together to celebrate peace.