Launch of the FAC in NY

Launch of the FAC Programme, at UN

June 13, 2007: Launching the U Thant Institute’s “Friendship Across Cultures” programme, president Daw Aye Aye Thant and members of the Institute were joined by programme partners and well-wishers including Mrs. Ban Soon-taek, wife of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the International Compact with Iraq and Other Political Issues; Mrs. Sylvia Howard Fuhrman, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for UNIS; Daniel Toole, Acting Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF; Hélène-Marie Gosselin, Director of the UNESCO Office in New York, ambassadors and consular officials of the foreign diplomatic corps. The colorful event in the auditorium of the UN’s Dag Hammarskjöld Library featured poetry readings and songs from students of the United Nations International School and a traditional Korean dance performed by children of the Arcola Korean Institute. Friendship Across Cultures is an intercultural initiative conceived by Aye Aye Thant and supported by UNESCO and UNICEF with the inaugural participation of the Dae-chi Middle School in Seoul, the UN International School in New York and the Abderrahmane Kahouadji School in Algiers. The programme’s goal is to create a network of students from middle schools around the world to advance peace and promote international understanding through collaborative activities in literature, politics, arts and social science. -- Samuel Garrick -- (Event photography by Nik Rocklin for Quantock)