The family plays a central role in building a world of peace. Healthy families foster people of character, service-minded leaders, and valuable contributors to peaceful societies. Every person is born into a family. This is where we learn the values that we will carry with us throughout our lives. Strong, thriving societies are built upon vibrant, healthy families.

With this in mind, Global Peace Foundation Brazil’s Family Festival seeks to uplift families by celebrating their achievements, providing a platform for families to inspire each other toward peace, and to create solutions for problems in the community.

“Promoting family values in today’s society is not just a requirement; it is a duty,” said GPF Brazil CEO Massimo Trombin. He described the tremendous pressure the family institution is under, where children first learn important values and build their character.

With these factors in mind, GPF Brazil took the lead in hosting a Family Festival. The first festival was held at a school in the city of Guapo. A local youth band provided music, students won prizes for their academic performance, and families enjoyed theatric plays with family-related themes organized by the students.

The series of festivals strive to bring families together with the support of local schools. In this environment, the community can come together to celebrate the achievements of young people. Additionally, GPF Brazil invites accomplished public service representatives to share inspiration with students and parents.

Several people were awarded at the festival for their contributions to the school and community, including two teachers, one student’s grandfather, and a couple that had donated to the school throughout their twenty years of marriage. The festival was a place to celebrate their financial contributions, which allowed the school to build a new classroom and obtain equipment for information technology.

GPF Brazil plans to continue hosting Family Festivals throughout the year.

The original post appears on Global Peace Foundation. Global Peace Foundation is an international non-sectarian, non-partisan, nonprofit organization, which promotes an innovative, values-based approach to peacebuilding, guided by the vision of One Family under God. GPF engages and organizes a global network of public and private-sector partners who develop community, national, and regional peacebuilding models as the foundation for ethical and cohesive societies. Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon is the founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation.