United Nations

World Humanitarian Day Meditation in Central Park, NYC 19 August 2014 Alessia Ferraro & Dr. Ani Kalayjian The 19th of August has been selected by the United Nation as World Humanitarian Day, to recognize and remember those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. According to the UN, “World Humanitarian Day is also an opportunity to celebrate the spirit that inspires humanitarian work around the globe.” What better day than this to offer a free meditation session? ATOP Meaningfulworld organized this event in the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park in NYC, and the weather was perfect – cloudy enough to freshen the air but not too cold. The reason for this meditation was to highlight the importance of helping other people, while we first help ourselves. In addition, to spread the word about the work we do every day locally and globally in order to help people overcome the psychological isolation and despair that may feel after a natural catastrophe or a human-made disaster. Concomitantly, we wanted to ascertain the impact of meditation on anxiety levels before and after the meditation. Blood pressure and pulse were taken before and after meditation and pre and post questionnaires on anxiety were also completed. The meditation session started with an introduction of all the attendees, who numbered approximately twenty. All were welcomed to dedicate their meditation to a cause, a person, or themselves. Dedications were to: self, loved ones, mentors, recently transitioned people, etc. Dr. Ani dedicated it to Robin Williams and Rivka Mier, who had both transitioned-in a devastating manner-in the previous week. After brief introductions and networking the meditation was divided into five parts. The first part was the “silent meditation:” with the help of the light of a candle in the center of the meditation circle everyone focused on the heart chakra, closing the eyes and bringing awareness into the heart center. The second part was the “meditation with essential oils,” during which were distributed lavender for peace and calm, sweet orange for joy, and green essence for a closer connection with Mother Nature, and the sound of a drum helped the attendees relax and go deeper into their meditation. The third part included chakra-balancing exercises to open the heart center. The next part was the “walking meditation,” where everyone walked in a circle around the trees in their bare feet to better connect with nature. The last part was the sound and vibrational meditation, where each exhalation was released with an “OM” sound. At the end of the meditation everyone was very calm and began networking and sharing personal stories, their passion, their love of humanity, and how to start by caring for ourselves. This turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to meet new people and to share our feelings and thoughts with one another. As our motto underscores: When one helps another, both become stronger. A special gratitude to Dr. Ani Kalayjian, founder of ATOP Meaningfulworld, for leading the meditation, to Alessia Ferraro and Justin Koroglu for helping to welcome the attendees and document the event, and to Jean Weiss for spreading the word and inviting her family and friends. ATOP Meaningfulworld would also like to invite you to our next event: the International Day of Peace, taking place on 21 September at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. There will be live music, films of humanitarian missions, home-cooked food, raffles and prizes, and a Peace Award will be given to Dr. Patch Adams and to Amanda Neshweiwat. For more information contact us at info@meaninfulworld.com, and visit our website at: www.Meaningfulworld.com.

ATOP Meaningfulworld UN International Day of Peace Education for Peace Zhehan Fan & Dr. Ani Kalayjian September 21, 2013, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York   “On this International Day of Peace, let us pledge to teach our children the value of tolerance and mutual respect. Let us invest in the schools and teachers that will build a fair and inclusive world that embraces diversity. Let us fight for peace and defend it with all our might.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Each year the International Day of Peace is celebrated around the world on the 21st of September. This year ATOP Meaningfulworld collaborated with like-minded co-sponsors and dear friends to celebrate peace at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York City. Our most appreciated co-sponsors include The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Armenian Constitutional Rights Protective Centre, Armenian American Society for Studies on Stress & Genocide, Voices for Freedom, EOTO World, Original Women, and Lisa Schiller. The program featured the Award Ceremony for Humanitarian and Peacebuilding in the World, an art exhibition of youth inspired by peace, a live world music performance, and homemade healthy fare. The event recognized and promoted UN MDG Goal 8: Establish a global partnership creating a nurturing partnership among NGOs, corporations, academia, and the United Nations affiliates to recognize those individuals, collaborative peace centers, and conflict resolution efforts. After welcoming remarks, the event proceeded with a Meaningfulworld tradition, a moment of silence, followed by singer Nirvana Lucie’s rendition of one of Michael Jackson’s most loved classics, “Man in the Mirror.” Bathed in the people’s warm applause, Dr. Ani Kalayjian, founder and President of ATOP Meaningfulworld, recited a poem before introducing the first honoree, H.E. Bangladesh Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury for Humanitarian and Peacebuilding Work in the World. Ambassador Chowdhury also served as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States. He has a lifelong passion for global peacebuilding and is also the founder of the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace with his pioneering effort to partner with civil society. The ambassador gave a brief overview of his passion and global work on peace, speaking also of the history of the UN International Day of Peace. The second honoree is H. E. Palestine Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour. Dr. Mansour was born to a refugee family that lived in the city of Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank. In 1967, Ambassador Mansour started his college education in the United States. Since his youth, he has always been involved in Palestinian politics and began his career in the Palestinian diplomatic service in 1983 at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the United Nations (UN). He was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN in 2005 and since November 29, 2012, he has been Ambassador and Permanent Observer to the State of Palestine to the UN. H.E. Burundi Ambassador Herménégilde Niyonzima is the third honoree from the United Nations. Ambassador Niyonzima presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on October 20, 2011. Before his appointment, he had served as Burundi’s Ambassador to Libya since October 2009, as well as the Legal Representative and Project Coordinator for the Burundian Refugee Relief Organization, a charity registered in the United Kingdom, from 2001 through 2003. From 1991 to 1993 he taught psychology at the École National de Police (National Police Academy) and was a member of the Confederative Committee of the Union of Workers of Burundi.   In addition to the excellent work and presence of the United Nation Ambassadors, we also had the Paul Robeson Freedom School, with founders Rahmi and Justin receiving an award. Located in a historical church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Paul Robeson Freedom School (named after African singer and activist Paul Robeson) has an educational goal: The curriculum is designed to build an empowering community of youth and adult leader-educators to nurture and liberate human minds and bodies and the collective spirit.             Professor Maria Volpe was the fourth honoree. She is professor of Sociology and the director of the Dispute Resolution Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the City University of New York. As an internationally known scholar, Dr. Volpe’s work focuses largely on the dispute resolution process, particularly in mediation. Then Katherine Kaze, our Meaningfulworld Ambassador, showed a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation with photos and details of peacekeeping operations, peacebuilding humanitarian missions, and educational programs conducted by ATOP Meaningfulworld from 1990 to the present, in more than 45 calamities around the world.   “What does peace mean to me? World peace seems so far away, but the first step is right in our hearts. If we could all take on personal responsibility to follow our hearts and do the right thing, we’d be 7 billion steps closer to peace.” — Katrina Martinez, UN Youth Representative, ATOP Meaningfulworld   Live music provided a wonderful intermission between the speeches and filled the room with glorious energy and enthusiasm. The featured musicians included the Flamenco Team with Michel Mimar (guitar), Sonia Olla (dancer), Samara de la Rosa (vocal), and Ismael de la Rosa (vocal) from Spain, Camille Safiya (vocal), Nirvana Lucie (vocal), and Lindsay Krasna (vocal and guitar). Music is the language connecting people from all races and cultures, and in these wonderful performances we heard the universal call for peace from the heart. Along with the music, the art coordinator of this event, Lisa Schiller, curated an art exhibit: the Art of Peace from young artists in greater New York. After two hours of celebration, the event ended in a Heart-to-Heart-Circle led by Dr. Ani Kalayjian. Close to 100 participants joined this special moment for world peace: the UN ambassadors along with the youth artists, the world-famous scholars all alike held hands and connected in their hearts for world peace. Each one announced the name of the country, and the entire members of the circle chanted together “May peace prevail in [name of

DPI/NGO Relations is pleased to announce that the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information is in support of the NGO/DPI Executive Committee’s recommendation that Mr. Felix Dodds, Executive Director, Stakeholder Forum for Sustainable Future, be appointed chair of the 64th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference, which will be held in Bonn, Germany, Saturday, 3 September, to Monday, 5 September, 2011. Mr. Dodds, who possesses an extensive background in sustainability, is appropriately suited to Chair the Conference. As you may already be aware, the theme of the Conference is “Sustainable Societies; Responsive Citizens”. Mr. Dodds has played a critical role in promoting multi-stakeholder dialogue at the UN. From 1997 to 2001 he chaired the NGO Coalition on Sustainable Development at the UN.  He facilitated the setting up of the international NGO Coalition for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and the UN Habitat II Conference. He has published seven books, the latest, edited with Andrew Higham and Richard Sherman, is called “Climate Change and Energy Insecurity”, and the previous one, with Tim Pipard, “Human and Environmental Security” brought out for the World Summit 2005 and was nominated as best environmental book of 2005. During the months of planning leading to the opening of the 64th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference, Mr. Dodds will serve as Co-Chair of the Conference Planning Committee along with Maria-Luisa Chávez, Chief of NGO Relations. Although Mr. Dodds’ NGO only has consultative status with ECOSOC, we look forward to getting to know him better and build a fruitful, cooperative relationship with him in the coming year.

The Health, Transformation and Spirituality (HTS) Working Group of CSVGC-NY at UN 11  November 2010 New York, NY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Week of Spirituality at UN Association for Trauma Outreach & Prevention (ATOP) of Meaningfulworld Dr. Ani Kalayjian Phone: 201-941-2266 Email: DrKalayjian@meaningfulworld.com www.meaningfulworld.com What does rapprochement mean to you??. Love, hope, understanding, unity, sharing, compassion, empathy, oneness, and forgiveness. This was the theme of the program organized as part of Week of Spirituality by CSVGC-NY at the UN. Wrapping up the Spirit of the UN Week of Spirituality, Friday October 29 2010, was The Health, Transformation and Spirituality (HTS) -Working Group of CSVGC-NY at UN-program From War To Peace Ancestral Healing Transforming Generational Pain into Meaning-Making. Several insightful examples of healing and forgiveness were discussed: compassionate listening, acknowledgement, validation, and reparation, music, movement, breath, sound and art, the program was able to help the audience heal, transform, and let go of the constricting past and embrace the freedom in the present. Dr. Kalayjian, Founder and Executive Director of Association for Trauma Outreach and Prevention (ATOP) of Meaningfulworld, and the Chair of HTS managed to; once again, inspire an audience of over hundred eager listeners with a panel of knowledgeable experts, experiential meditation, drumming for release and empowerment, and art for the aesthetic beauty and the soul. The invocation by Laurie Schwartz-Friedman opened up the morning of events with drums while Katherine Kaze, HTS Secretary, welcomed the audience and introduced Harvey Newman who opened the event with a peaceful mediation. Jennifer DeMucci, the Main UN Representative for ATOP then read the poem entitled Let Love Transform You, written by Dr. Kalayjian, and then Dr. Kalayjian as the chair of the conference presented the theme for the day: Universal Harmony through Rapprochement, from War to Peace. Dr. Kalayjian reinforced the notion of being in touch with our both Emotional (EQ) and Spiritual Intelligence (SQ). Submitting to our SQ can open up a different way of seeing things and going through our daily lives with potentially less conflict both externally and internally. Each audience member was given an index card and was asked to write down what rapprochement meant to them. Each audience member shared their responses which included (among many others): love, hope, understanding, unity, sharing, compassion, empathy, oneness, humility, and forgiveness. The first speaker was Yael Petretti, a Compassionate Listening trainer and facilitator. Yael offered a definition for Compassionate Listening (CL) that can be found on the website “a process rather than a product… [Compassionate Listening] engages the participants in processes that have each seeing the humanity of the other, even when they disagree.” Yael has recently done some work with Compassionate Listening (CL) in Israel and Palestine. A lot of the work she does involves teaching the participants to listen non-judgmentally. She also highlights the importance of being “fully present to the speaker.” The objective is for people to not only be present for the speaker but for themselves and how they are processing the information and how they feel or react to it. Yael wants us to identify issues within ourselves “such as prejudices, rank, fear etc…and raise our awareness of projection and ‘shadow sides’ of our personalities.” So it is important to acknowledge our feelings so that we can work on them rather than negatively displaying them onto ourselves or projecting them onto others. Takeshi Tak Furmoto shared his experience as a third generation Japanese American who was interned and released at the Tule Lake Segregation Center in the 1940s and moved back to Japan shortly after the Hiroshima atomic bombing. Having lost U.S. citizenship after moving to Japan, and later, suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on his return from serving in the U.S. military in Viet Nam, only added to his distress and trauma.  He strongly believes in healing through forgiveness and he made an example of his own life experiences. “For me Vietnam War was a duty and obligation, and I volunteered so I don’t feel resentment toward the US government.” Often times forgiveness begins with forgiving the perpetrator even before they offer there apology. He began that process for himself and not long after was finally given an apology both in 1987 along with the $20,000 restitution, following a letter from President Bill Clinton in 1993. He discussed how the governments’ remorse for what he went through helped the continuation of his healing process, in addition to the unconditional love and support of his wife. While Tak believes in forgiveness as a key part of healing from trauma, he acknowledged that there are still many Japanese people who were not ready to open up and relive the experiences, and to therefore begin the healing and forgiveness process. Acknowledgement and remorse are important in getting over traumatic experiences especially among people who have shared the trauma & humiliation. Tak has attended pilgrimages at Tule Lake Segregation camp where survivors and their descendants can come together and discuss how they are feeling regarding traumatic experiences from 1940s. This helps him tremendously by providing him a safe space where he can release his emotions. An Art Exhibition ‘Namaste Art,’ by healing artist, Joni Rose, was presented next in a slide show. “Inspired by my frequent trips to India, my spiritual practice has given me insight into two key ingredients of creativity: being present in the moment and the cultivation of quietude which allows the inner voice to speak…” She said little and wanted the audience to experience the transformation through experiencing her paintings. Allowing her beautiful, even sometimes considered medicinal, paintings speak for themselves, and she displayed a slide show of her work created on a recent volunteer mission to India to educate the children through the arts. Among the images were photographs of an orphanage she visited in India where she organized a painting workshop. She remarked how touched and inspired she was when she and the children were engaged in the artistic release and at the conclusion of the workshop, instead of keeping their work

          Speakers with a group of participants               Dr Kalayjian on left with officers and intern