WFWP Canada Interfaith Breakfast “Women, Faith & Family: Building a Prosperous Nation”
Written By: Lilly Tadin
On October 14, 2023, the Women's Federation for World Peace Canada held an interfaith breakfast meeting under the theme “Women, Faith & Family: Building a Prosperous Nation” in Toronto. Nearly 70 people attended the event.
Lilly Tadin, President of WFWP Canada welcomed women of faith from diverse religious backgrounds. Also, a good participation of some husbands or community leaders came to support WFWP’s initiatives of working together and sharing common values and principles.
The speakers shared their faith’s teachings and guiding principles and highlighted women’s role within the family and its impact on the community and nation.
Rev. Jean Henry offered the Christian perspective as a family, youth and marriage counselor and emphasized the great importance of men and women working together. She shared about her experiences coming to Canada as a foreign worker and how her supervisor who recognized her potential helped her further her education and open new doors. She is now returning this investment in her role as a family counselor in her community.
Nala Moorthy, Facilitator, Multicultural Settlement and Education, shared a Hindu perspective stating that building a prosperous, peaceful and safe future starts in our homes. A family is first and foremost a place of protection, safety and security. It’s a place that forms the values that shape the boundary for conduct and behavior. A mother is the nucleus of a family blessed with the divine instinct to protect a child in any harmful environment.
Eveline Stewart, Coordinator, and a member of the WFWP Canada Board of Directors, gave her perspective on the importance of faiths and traditions to offer guiding principles for achieving successful marriages, families and communities. The family itself is the cradle where we can acquire the emotional, psychological and social competencies to grow as good individuals, spouses, and parents going on to create a better, more harmonious society and nation. The family is the most basic unit of human relationships and this needs to be recognized and supported.
During the event, WFWP Canada presented the Global Women’s Peace Ambassador (GWPA) Award to Khalilah Megan Campbell, the President of Mississauga Monarch Lions Club who has been involved in many social groups and is poet who won the Merit and Golden Poet Awards, and the Chairman’s Leadership Award, and to Yvette Shanks from the Church of Scientology for her years of service promoting different initiatives for human rights and substance abuse.
In addition, Lilly Tadin received an award from the Monarch Lions Club and is an honorary member of the club.
MeYoung Gabriel, a 13-year-old daughter of a WFWP member, volunteered to entertain and surprised many with her lively, soulful repertoire.