URI Stories of Impact

August 24, 2019, was the URI Youth Assembly at Karickam International Public School.

In the nearly two decades since the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, international and interfaith peacebuilding work has grown increasingly important as humanitarian groups try to create cohesion in a fractured world.

They gathered to jointly celebrate the Honoris Causa Doctorate of the UCV granted to Dr. Daisaku Ikeda.

It’s difficult to fathom the impact that this kind of grandiose propaganda had upon the generations of Russians who took these subways every day. Today, Moscow’s primarily younger generation stream past me glued to their phones.

The Rev. Victor Kazanjian, Executive Director of URI, and Ms. Audrey Kitagawa, Chair of the Board of the Parliament of the World's Religions and longtime member of URI, were elected as Honorary Presidents of Religions for Peace International. 

Victor Kazanjian and Audrey Kitagawa were elected as Honorary Presidents of Religions for Peace International, and URI celebrates the appointment of Professor Azza Karam as Secretary General of Religions for Peace.

This morning, we met with Dr. Vladimir Kozin, Chief Adviser and Head of Group of Advisers to the Director at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies of the Presidential Administration.

At this precarious moment, now is not the time to ask, "Can this kind of dramatic positive change happen," but to ask, "HOW to make it happen?"

URI Senior Consultant Sally Mahé shares thoughts from Russia, as she examines the actions of ordinary citizens meeting and building bridges of understanding together.