Award of Distinction For SIL Woman

Ms. Stella A. Attakpah, a Ghanaian lady (and member of the Ghana Home Page discussion forum SIL) has been awarded the distinction of Ambassador for Peace by The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP ) has. The IIFWP, which was founded in 1998 by Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, is a world wide active public organization, which is dedicated to "Peace Building through education programs, workshops, conferences and publications." It has been holding conferences in virtually all UN member nations to inform about the concern for such an interreligious council. For Austria the conference was held in Vienna. 150 people met on August 30th at the Holiday Inn Vienna South, to discuss the topic "The World in an Upheaval - New Ways towards Lasting Peace". Among them were Ambassadors and other professionals from the diplomatic field, religious representatives and responsible people of all fields of society. The conference offered a mixture of spiritual reflection, academic lectures and a cultural program. Dr. Bimal Kundu, leader of the first Hindu temple in Vienna, Prof. Dr. Josef Frickel, a Roman Catholic Theologian, Peter Jurkowitsch representing Budhhism, P. Avedis Sahakyan from Armenian Apostolic Church and Maher El-Attar for the Muslims opened the meeting with prayers and texts from their religious traditions. An empty chair represented all other religions that could not make to this ceremony. Profile of Ms. Stella Attakpah Currently a staff member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ms. Attakpah is the first of 4 children born to Francis and Peace Attakpah. Born and raised in Ghana She has lived in Egypt, France, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Guinea-Conakry, Togo, Senegal and Austria. Ms. Attakpah’s exposure to the rich diversity of African, Arab and European cultural traditions fuelled her fascination with other cultures. She is particularly keen in promoting the Ghanaian culture through fashion and art, in Vienna where she resides. It is her believe that only by trying to understand other cultures through cultural exchange programmes will the peoples of the world get to tolerate each other and accept to live in peace and harmony on this planet. Ms. Attakpah’s creative skills and boundless energy is often the driving force behind charity events to raise money for needy children in Africa and African refugees in Vienna. The clear focus of Ms. Attakpah’s charity work is children. She has organized among others, a collection, through the IAEA staff council, for the children of the victims of the Accra Sports Stadium disaster in Ghana. Ms. Attakpah also contributes to the inter-generational exchange of cultural traditions by offering a dance course and theatre lessons cost free to children and youth of African origin living in Vienna between the ages of 8 and 16 years. Stella's youth group the Shika Youth Cultural Group, for the 5th year running, performed on the Day of the African Child, which she organized on June 16 in Vienna. This event, which she organized and to which all children were invited irrespective of race, colour and religion, is in commemoration of the Soweto massacre of children in the 1976 riots in South Africa. It is hoped that through such African cultural activities organized in Vienna, a better understanding, tolerance and acceptance of each other’s cultures may be achieved in order to promote peace and harmony among children in schools. Also, Ms. Attakpah is currently engaged in raising funds to help girls who have been released from religious servitude known as Trokosi, in the Tongu district of the Volta Region in Ghana, to resettle and start life afresh. Trokosi is century’s’ old African religious practice, which needs to be abolished because of its harmful nature on the life of young children especially girls. As Ambassador of Peace, Ms. Attakpah hopes that this opportunity will open new doors for her to help bring peace in the hearts and minds of the children she is engaged with, who would grow into peaceful and peace loving adults who will hopefully spread the word, in order to help make a peaceful world.