WFWP and the Next Generation
Prof. Yeon Ah Moon, International President of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, shared the following message at the CSW60 celebratory banquet on March 16, 2016.
Good evening. Did you enjoy dinner? Considering your hard work and effort, actually the meal is not enough. It’s really just a small expression of our appreciation, but I hope everybody enjoyed the meal and the company of good people. I think anything is okay for us.
To begin my short remarks, I would like to introduce the teaching of the co-founder of Women’s Federation for World Peace, Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Actually, he left us 3 and a half years ago, but as members of WFWP we constantly miss him and how he taught with his whole life, not just with his words. So I will briefly shares some of his words about peace:
“The important point is concern for our neighbors. We first need to develop the heart that when we are eating enough to fill our own stomachs, we think of others who are going hungry and consider how we can help them. True peace will not come as long as humanity does not solve the problem of hunger. If the person next to me is about to die of hunger, peace is a mere luxury. Resolving the food situation does not mean that peace will follow immediately. After the hunger issue has been resolved, it is important to carry out educational programs on peace and love. People who live well should come down to a slightly lower position and raise up those who live poorly to bring about a world where all people live well.”
When I read this passage just now, I was very thankful for all your work. We are working with our hands more than just our brain or our mouth. That’s why, even though we usually are working behind the scenes, and though we are working all the time with our physical body, because we also work with our heart, it’s really meaningful. Historically women’s role in the family and society is the mother’s role. Today I really would like to congratulate the 60th CSW [U.N. Commission on the Status of Women], and then also I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for your hard work and devotion and love for others and for the world. Also, I would like to convey the love and gratitude of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, our co-founder, for all of you.
WFWP will be 24 years old in April. We have matured enough, if we consider the years, so I think this is really a new stage of life for WFWP. We have to be real mothers for others and for the world. All this time we have worked with a motherly heart, but now we have enough experience from our grass-roots work around the world. From now on we will be focusing on future generations. Even the CSW this year had lots of younger people participating. Also, more men, including young men, are concerned and are participating; that’s wonderful. Even in this place, I have met more gentlemen than last year and more couples than last year. That’s a really good improvement for everybody. I have lots of hope. Even the presence here of Bishop Ki Hoon Kim, the chair of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) of North America and also the continental chairman of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) for North America, is a good sign of support for women’s work, and of his being concerned more than before. I really appreciate that.
In that way, in the role of mothers, WFWP will focus on raising and educating the next generation. Our co-founder, Mother Moon, is very concerned about the next generation, their education, and also the environmental issue. It’s not for us in the present time. It’s for the future generation. If our generation doesn’t care about the environment, or other issues that we are confronting now, our children, our descendants, also our younger brothers and sisters, will suffer the consequences. It’s our next step. We really want to prepare a good foundation for the next generation’s peace and happiness.
We have done a lot of work in the last 24 years, but it’s a new start again from today. Everybody, please remember that. Please also remember Mother Moon’s concern for future generations. So from now, we are going to create a stronger future for the next generation. I hope they can enjoy and live in a peaceful and loving environment and help and take care of each other. It comes basically from mothers and sisters, the caring heart that we have. Thank you very much.