On May 14, 2022 UPF-Austria in cooperation with
the Family Federation for World Peace and the Women's Federation organized a
breakfast meeting to commemorate the International Day of Families, which was
attended by more than 50 guests.
Peter Haider, President of Universal Peace
Federation (UPF) Austria welcomed everyone and explained the background of this
special UN day: In 1993, a resolution was passed by the United Nations General
Assembly to celebrate May 15 annually as International Day of Families. The UN also uses this day as a way
to recognise that family structures have undergone many changes due to social, economical
and demographic factors.
The annual event provides a way to highlight the
important role that families hold in communities and raises issues that may affect families. Then he introduced the speakers and invited them to the stage. The UN
choose “Families and
Urbanisation” as the topic for 2022.
The first speaker was
Mrs. Elisabeth Cook, President
of the Family Federation for World Peace Austria. She mentioned
urbaniation as one of the megatrends
in today’s society, including
technological change, migration, demographic
and climate change, which
all have impacts on family life. More than ever family-oriented
policies are needed in order to harness the positive
aspects of those trends and counteract
their negative facets. Another point in her speech was that a mature and loving character of parents is the prerequisite to a happy and successful
family life. Family relationships,
though considered as private, multiplay themselves in society by the famliy
members being active
participants in many areas of public life.
Dr.
Jan Ledochowski, President
of the platform “Christian Democracy”, emphasized the importance of being
clear about the existence of a creator
and being able to convince
people about it, as human beings derive their
dignity from their creator, our Heavenly
Father. As a father of four
children, he sees his main task
in strengthening Christian values in politics and in supporting
Christian politicians to be
successful.
Professor Ismail Yasin,
a scholar of Islamic studies
from Damaskus, spoke about the
importance of the family in Islam. For Muslim believers family life is the foundation of human society providing a secure, healthy and nurturing environment for parents and for raising
children. The best place to pass
on and develop human virtues such as love, kindness, mercy and compassion is in a family. Families are considered to be at the heart of every Muslim community.
The traditional Muslim family is an extended
family. It usually includes parents, children, grandparents and elderly
relatives. Most Muslims believe
that extended families mean greater
stability, continuity, love
and support for each other.
Dr. Melinda Fabian-Herzog, representing „Elternwerkstatt“,
an instituion which offers courses for parents to
improve their parenting skills, explained how parents can learn to commuincate more effectively with their children at
different stages of their development. „Elternwerkstatt
(Parents‘ workshop“) has gained recognition by the Austrian government as an educational institution and therefore
is partly funded by the Federal Ministry
for Family and Youth. The official
program ended with remarks and questions from the audience, moderated by Mr. Peter Haider, who
then thanked everyone for coming to the event.
Universal
Peace Federation - Familienföderation für Weltfrieden - Österreichische
Frauenföderation
UPF is an NGO in General Consultative Status with the ECOSOC
of the United Nations
Seidengasse 28/4, 1070 Wien, Austria; ZVR: 182012940; www.weltfriede.at