F.H. Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC, and Susan Davis, President and CEO of BRAC USA, participated in the September 27-29th, 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit organized by the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.
The Summit was centered around dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and brought together luminaries like former Irish president and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Mary Robinson, religious scholar Karen Armstrong, First Lady of California Maria Shriver, and Nobel laureates Jody Williams, Mairead Maguire, and Betty Williams.
On the second day, Abed was asked to speak at a private retreat with the Dalai Lama on how to generate more positive action in the world. For the occasion, Abed shared his personal story and that of building BRAC.
When The Dalai Lama was being interviewed on the final day, Maria Shriver posed the question of what he had learned over the course of the Summit.
His Holiness described being extremely impressed by Abed: How the evolution of his work and the organization he started exemplified the process by which “real change must start with individuals, then family, then community.” He also expressed admiration for how the organization is now able to export decades of expertise to other countries in need.
Susan moderated the closing panel of the Summit, which focused on Women and Peace Building. This panel included His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Dr. Abed, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, Dr. Swanee Hunt of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Ela Bhatt- the founder of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Emmy awarding winning musician and co-chair of the NoVo Foundation Peter Buffett.
The discussion focused on the vital, often unrecognized role women play in advancing peace, with participants sharing unique perspectives and experiences related to the issue, and urging greater investment in girls and women. Peter Buffet, spoke for the group when he described girls as “the undervalued asset of society.” The closing panelists also urged for greater participation of women in political office, for education that integrates emotional and social learning for boys and girls, and greater visibility of stories on how women are building peace.
The Women and PeaceBuilding session opened with a moving musical performance by composer and singer Peter Buffett and cellist extraordinaire Michael Kott. One of the original songs, Set Us Free, was inspired by a visit to BRAC's program for adolescent girls. It was accompanied by a video shot and edited by Peter Buffett and can be seen on youtube as well as this blog.
Click here to see the panel discussion on Women and Peace Building.
Click here to learn more about The Dalai Lama Center.
You can read more about the Vancouver Peace Summit on Jocelyn Ling's blog and in The Vancouver Sun.
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